Destination Club: We now are.

[inxs88]

If we are true to ourselves vs believing the hubris, the Magpies have never been a bona fide destination club. Comparing ourselves to Carlton, Hawthorn, Richmond and Sydney in particular over 40 years, we have been dwarfed in this critical area. To illustrate:

* Carlton: Kernahan, Bradley, Motley, Naley, Diesel, Judd, G Wells, Bosustow, Hunter, J Madden, Rhys-Jones, Saad, Cerra.

* Hawthorn: Buckenara, Platten, Hall, D Jarman, Salmon, Rehn, Spider Everitt, Gibson, S Burgoyne, Hale, Gunston, Lake, B McEvoy, J Frawley, T Mitchell, J O'Meara, J Scrimshaw, Wingard.

* Richmond: D Gaspar, N Brown, K Johnson, Nankervis, Caddy, Prestia, T Lynch, Taranto, Hopper.

* Sydney: G Healy, Neagle, Toohey, Kappler, R Osborne, P Roos, Maxfield, Schwass, Lockett, Hall, D Kickett, P Williams, N Davis, Jolly, P Everitt, S Mumford, Tippett, Buddy Franklin.

Sure we have had some successes over this period with:

* N Buckley
* A Rocca
* P Licuria
* Howe
* D Cloke
* S Morwood
* Luke Ball
* Darren Jolly
* B Taylor

Yes we have turned some solid players selections such as Crisp, Clement and Wakelin into great players but the premise here is the targeting and recruitment of top players succeeding with their prior club.

So hopefully with Craig Kelly, Jeff Browne and Craig Macrae, the recent attraction of T Mitchell, McStay and B Hill is a sign of things to come.

[BazBoy]

I sense that we will become a more desired place for talented players to come to

[David]

Not sure I understand the parameters here. The vast majority of successful players at second (or third, or fourth) clubs weren't stars at their first clubs, which is often the reason why they become available to begin with. Hence, I don't see why Licuria and even Rocca (hardly big names when they were at the Swans) are in our list but not Clement or Crisp, and the same goes for many of the other players you've listed like Cerra, Prestia, Gunston, Mumford and so on.

And, on the flipside, we have landed a number of big names like Shane Woewodin and Daniel Wells who ended up being disappointments for various reasons. Does that mean we're not a destination club when that happens? If anything, I would think it's a sign that playing for Collingwood does have prestige. What happens after is more about whether we did due diligence or allowed our excitement about adding a marquee name to the list to get the better of us.

For me, a lot of the talk over the years bemoaning our inability to land big-name recruits is an unnecessary distraction. Of course you take champions who fit current needs when they're available – as we did with Ball and Jolly, who I notice aren't on your list! – but too much focus on big names can end up prioritising past achievements over future potential. Another issue is that paying overs for a genuine star like Chris Judd (Carlton), Dayne Beams (Brisbane) or even Lance Franklin (Sydney) may not actually be a good strategy if there's not enough time and money spent on building a successful team framework around them.

Smart recruiting is more about recognising the potential of a player like Jack Crisp than picking the low-hanging fruit of a former Brownlow Medallist in the late stage of their career. I guess time will tell whether Tom Mitchell is more of a Chris Judd than a Shane Woewodin; hopefully, we'll have cause to look back on this recruiting period as a game-changer in the same way our pick-ups late in 2000 and 2009 were.

[BazBoy]

The recruiting for 2023 adressed some conceived deficiencies.

Although Ginnivan & Elliott were very good forwards as was Checkers we lacked a strong tall forward. Enter McStay & extra small goal kicker Hill



Clearance from contest was a low point. Enter Tich

Backs were our strength but to have an experienced replacement. Enter Marcov

A lock to the future got young Steene

And some promising youth to boot

[Pies2016]

If you want to be destination club, then a good start is plenty of salary cap space. Throw in by a better than 50% winning ratio for the last year or two and you’re well on the way.

[LaurieHolden]

You are my density

[RudeBoy]

For a few decades, I suspect we have over-paid many of our players, perhaps because of the hype our fans create about them. This has resulted in very little salary-cap space to use to attract stars from other clubs. Hopefully, this record of poor list management is now just an historic artefact, with Wright now in charge. That's why some very hard and difficult decisions have been made the last couple of years in letting Treloar and Grundy go.

I am hoping we will now be in a position to make a play for a genuine A Grade full forward at the end of 2023.

[WhyPhilWhy?]

I wonder too whether playing under Fly and the culture he is building is attractive to some players.

There was a class of players who wanted to play under Bucks, but I suspect there was also a class that really didn't want to as well.

[Rd10.1998_11.1#36]

[BazBoy]

BazBoy meant Frampton
Sorry

[David]

[stui magpie]

The original post is a dogs breakfast as it includes players recruited from the WAFL and SANFL prior to the draft.

We've had our share of those players, Kelly, Christian, Russell and Francis were all 1990 Premiership players

Yeah, we haven't had a lot of lack attracting big fish, but we have been smart in recruiting role players like Roughy. We got Lipinski out of the Dogs, Cameron from Sydney, now Frampton. We got McStay to sign who is hardly Jeremy Cameron but Brisbane still wanted him to stay but he chose to come.

[Dave The Man]

[inxs88]

[23 YIPPEE!!!]

Who thinks the depth is still an issue at Collingwood i do.

Just dont think we have the depth to become really successfull.

Still alot depends on injuries.