List Mgmt. Matthew Clarke Drafting Record at Richmond...

[Meteoric Rise]

Yes, Lynch is a massive issue.
Walking out AA/elite small forwards like Wombat and Butler was the other massive one.
Can't blame drafters for that. Higgins left us of course. Stengle-Butler-Higgins rotating around Lynch would have been formidable.

But trying to find your Lefau types is the heart of the problem, and your pick 77 Reece McKenzies etc. though that's going back further. Take it back to 2004 draft if you like. Alway the mid or HBF, never the KPF.

We are obsessed with diamond in the rough KPF, when it has never happened for us!

We paid for Jack Riewoldt, and it was transformational, just can't think of another time we spent real draft value on a KPF?

Vickery pick 8
Mcbean pick 33
Post? pick 26
Griffiths pick 19
Elton Pick 26
Coleman-Jones pick 20
Balta? pick 25
Fawcett pick 43

The club has had loads of cracks at it with picks in the first 2 rounds, that is up to 8 in the last 16 drafts I think. The only other top 10 picks in that period were spent on:

Cotchin, Martin, Conca, Vlastuin, Gibcus.

You can't criticise the club for not trying. And for a long time they just were not going to target KPF's with high picks because they had 4-5-6 rd 1 & 2 KPF's on the list through a longish period.

 

[PetterdHoisted]

Vickery pick 8
Mcbean pick 33
Post? pick 26
Griffiths pick 19
Elton Pick 26
Coleman-Jones pick 20
Balta? pick 25
Fawcett pick 43

The club has had loads of cracks at it with picks in the first 2 rounds, that is up to 8 in the last 16 drafts I think. The only other top 10 picks in that period were spent on:

Cotchin, Martin, Conca, Vlastuin, Gibcus.

You can't criticise the club for not trying. And for a long time they just were not going to target KPF's with high picks because they had 4-5-6 rd 1 & 2 KPF's on the list through a longish period.

CCJ and Vickery were rucks I believe?
Balta I thought was well and truly considered a KPD
Elton Ruck/FWD?

Ben Griffiths for sure a genuine KPF. Astbury was a lead-up forward too.

Astbury is the model, pick the KPF, if it goes wrong, make them a 3x premiership defender!

 

[tigs2010]

Forget the other clubs as it's easy to overrate ours and underrate others.

I'd be interested to see how he stacks up with FJ

 

[Moppey]

Isnt List Management Blair Hartleys domain.
Mathew Clarke was head of recruiting which mostly entails looking at junior recruits.
Juniors come from mainly two areas Rookie drafts and the nd.

I think people are confusing the roles.

I have had this debate many a time and im not going to get embroiled again. My time is too valuable to get caught up in the nonsense.

But my opinion for what it is worth is Clarke's record is poor.

That is taking into consideration of where our picks have been.
Simply ask how many, a very good , b good , and c average grade players did he bring to the club.

Even the 2021 crop is a tad early to judge but so far i would only pencil Gibcus in as a potential a grade player and Brown as being confident of him being a afl player the rest can still go either way.

He must have been involved in 60 odd picks in his time. Imo he found just 1 A grade player in Bolton way back in 2016.

As for the lack of talls being taken and that goes for mids as well was it his call or the list manager.
Personally i think its a bit of both.

As for talls look at the list at the end of 2016. We had 16 talls. We cut 4 Chaplin Vickery, McBean, and McKenzie. and bought in one pick 72 Ryan Garthwaite. We did trade for Nankervis.

2018 we had just 13 on the list, 2019 we had 13 again having taken Lynch in free agency.
2020 just 13 still.
Given where we taking most talls it was poor management. We were not even using rookie picks instead delisting talls and then using the rookie list to keep em around. By now our good talls were getting old.
2021 still only 13 on the list.
2022 it actually dropped to 12
2023 it rose to 14 kpps on the list mainly because of 6 rookies and recruiting old man Tarrant.
2024 we finally got it back to 2016 level with 16. But the make up of talls was mostly rookie and late nd picks what are the odds. It had nearly everyone calling for talls with good picks this off season despite the adequate numbers. Everyone could see we needed to try to get our hands on better quality.

Is Clarke responsible for this neglect or does blame lie elsewhere or should it be a shared blame.

How do you even fit the above into a conversation about draft picks good or bad. long odds or short odds.

Given we had so few talls the ones we had needed to be taken with good picks.we did not do this
Given where most talls were taken we needed to really load up on them. we did neither.

At the very least a combination of both ways to do it.

i can say one thing in Clarke's time we sure took our share of smalls and it was to the detriment of talls imo.
We did this imo because it is actually easier to find smalls who will give something back even if its only borderline afl level something back . Talls well you have to be all in and be prepared for the total busts that are going to come.Thats a balancing act in itself.

 

[Barnzy]

Picks in the first 3 rounds of the NAB AFL Draft spent on defenders who are not key defenders during Clarke's period in charge of recruiting(from 21 picks overall):

2016 Nil
2017 Nil
2018 Nil
2019 Nil
2020 Nil
2021 17 Brown
2022 49 Smith
2023 Nil

Who are all the half back flankers he wasted picks on?


Picks in first 3 rounds broken down by player type:

Key Forward 43 Fawcett
Key Defender 25 Balta, 54 Nyuon, 9 Gibcus,
Ruck 40 Ryan,
Ruck Forward 20 Coleman-Jones
Inside Mid 20 Collier-Dawkins, 21 Dow, 44 Martyn, 40 McAuliffe
Wing 34 Naish, 43 Ross, 46 Ralphsmith, 29 Banks,
Medium Forward 53 Graham, 17 Higgins, 43 Cumberland, 52 Rioli Jnr, 30 Clarke, 55 Green
Medium Defender 17 Brown, 49 Smith
Mid-Forward 29 Bolton, 28 Sonsie

Looking back that I wonder if Clarke had much of say in Bo Allen. I reckon he loves him.

Another athletic traits midfielder that didn't find the ball enough in the juniors for such an early selection. Rings a bell.

Oh well. Not our problem now.