Anyway the question I was answering was how do the Cats manage to have so many talented young players, not attempting to make a detailed analyses of the cost benefit of Ablett leaving. As such it was a superficial answer but I think it would be pretty easy to argue my side of that argument. If ever a side could cover losing the best player in the game that side was Geelong. And your astute drafting ensures you were never going to burn the picks.
We have started to get some pay off from the players that walked on us over our period at the top.
Ablett (Smedts & Caddy), Mumford (Duncan), Prismall (Motlop), Laidler (Horlin-Smith). Those guys are all 3rd/4th year now and starting to bear some fruit. Along with retaining all our own picks during that period (save for the 2nd rounder we traded for McIntosh last year) we have a big pool of top 40-ish draft picks. Just a pity that Menzel and Vardy have been cut down by injury.