- Nov 13, 2018
- 2,716
- 9,500
- AFL Club
- Hawthorn
I'm not saying that.There's a middle ground between glazing it and downplaying it. Based on what we know about these players now? Before they've played a single AFL game? C'mon now. They've done well to maximise their draft hand knowing that so many of their peak age players wanted out, and that deal with North was gold, but it's perfectly reasonable to want to see how these kids go before proclaiming a dynasty.
With expansion clubs we've seen massive commitments in single drafts and it hasn't exactly yielded a lot of success. The problem with committing this much to one draft is that you're making a tonne of list decisions where every player is an unknown, you can't wait and see how they go and then adjust and pick differently the next year. You also don't know how badly it might affect them playing in a team that could be as abjectly bad as Richmond could.
I just think they have drafted an exceptionally good bunch.
Lalor as the forward/mid
Smilie the inside brute who could also have some versatility in defence.
Hotton - huge upside. ACL is not the end of the world, and they could afford the risk with their draft hand.
Faull, Armstrong, Trainor - yeah good. Solid, no complaints.
But the first three are very good.
It's a draft.
Just like we all had opinions before the draft, we can have opinions after the draft.
Of course it's early to proclaim assured dynasties etc
But let's not kid ourselves, they've played a blinder.
Moved on a bunch of players who did nothing to stop them from finishing at the bottom.
Harvested a top draft hand.
Executed perfectly.
Bravo.