100action
Norm Smith Medallist
A small club mired in the doldrums has always been of interest to me, so I looked through North's list and noticed a dearth of experienced players that were originally drafted by North.
So I decided to look back on North's first round drafting since 2010 and it made for some shocking reading. I'll provide three categories for the drafted players: star, serviceable or bust.
2010 - Pick 17 - Shaun Atley (serviceable)
2011 - Pick 18 - Brad Mackenzie (bust)
2012 - Pick 15 - Taylor Garner (bust)
2013 - Pick 8 - Luke McDonald (serviceable - severe whipping boy though)
2014 - Pick 16 - Sam Durdin (bust)
2015 - Pick 21- Ben McKay (bust)
2016 - Pick 12 - Jy Simpkin (serviceable - also a severe whipping boy)
2017 - Pick 4 - LUD (serviceable)
2018 - Pick 8 - Tarryn Thomas (bust)
2019 - gave up pick 8 (Freo used this to select an S-tier player - Caleb Serong)
2020 - Pick 3 - Will Phillips (likely bust), Pick 13 - Tom Powell (showed some promise, probably serviceable at this stage)
2021 - Pick 1 - JFH (I have no words)
2022 - Pick 3 and 4 - Sheezel (likely star) and Wardlaw (also looking good)
2023 - Pick 4 and 20 - early days, get a pass for now
They've drafted 0 bonafide stars and have only obtained 4 serviceable players from 13 years of first round draft picks.
This has got to be the most shocking drafting and development of all time. What would make it more depressing is if this was compared to some of the middle of the road clubs (forget about contending clubs from the same period).
This thread isn't meant to be about priority picks but I don't see the point in priority picks if they are going to be squandered notwithstanding there's some bad luck thrown in the mix too. If the AFL writes them an additional yearly check say $1m for recruitment and development spending, it may be a lot more effective.
So I decided to look back on North's first round drafting since 2010 and it made for some shocking reading. I'll provide three categories for the drafted players: star, serviceable or bust.
2010 - Pick 17 - Shaun Atley (serviceable)
2011 - Pick 18 - Brad Mackenzie (bust)
2012 - Pick 15 - Taylor Garner (bust)
2013 - Pick 8 - Luke McDonald (serviceable - severe whipping boy though)
2014 - Pick 16 - Sam Durdin (bust)
2015 - Pick 21- Ben McKay (bust)
2016 - Pick 12 - Jy Simpkin (serviceable - also a severe whipping boy)
2017 - Pick 4 - LUD (serviceable)
2018 - Pick 8 - Tarryn Thomas (bust)
2019 - gave up pick 8 (Freo used this to select an S-tier player - Caleb Serong)
2020 - Pick 3 - Will Phillips (likely bust), Pick 13 - Tom Powell (showed some promise, probably serviceable at this stage)
2021 - Pick 1 - JFH (I have no words)
2022 - Pick 3 and 4 - Sheezel (likely star) and Wardlaw (also looking good)
2023 - Pick 4 and 20 - early days, get a pass for now
They've drafted 0 bonafide stars and have only obtained 4 serviceable players from 13 years of first round draft picks.
This has got to be the most shocking drafting and development of all time. What would make it more depressing is if this was compared to some of the middle of the road clubs (forget about contending clubs from the same period).
This thread isn't meant to be about priority picks but I don't see the point in priority picks if they are going to be squandered notwithstanding there's some bad luck thrown in the mix too. If the AFL writes them an additional yearly check say $1m for recruitment and development spending, it may be a lot more effective.
