HBK619
Brownlow Medallist
- Dec 5, 2006
- 21,762
- 5,034
- AFL Club
- Richmond
- Other Teams
- Melbourne Victory, Storm and United
Well let's just put it this way, if Chris Judd is, then Ben Cousins is.Let's not get carried away now. An elite player at his peak, but one of the best of this generation? I don't think so.
Actually he is 30 and 8 months, so WRONG!The issue is what sort of quality will you get from his last 1-2 years. It's not going to be great, the guy is 31 years old now.
He isn't really taking the spot of a young developing midfielder, we were going to pick up Robin Nahas with that PSD pick, instead we got him in the Rookie Draft, we also managed to pick up another 4 rookies, 1 more than we had last year, so no, I wouldn't say it is taking up a spot.And he's taking the spot of a young developing midfielder potentially, in your senior team. Is it worth it? 15 other clubs said it wasn't.
There are still 21 other spots in the senior team, and if that 'young developing midfielder' can't make it in front of at least half them, then why would they be better off in front of Cousins?
Because we NEEDED A RUCKMAN! Drafting another midfielder to add to the already blue-chip midfield and midfield depth we have would have been a stupid move, we just drafted Cotchin last year and have drafted YOUNG midfielders of the likes of Deledio, Tambling, Connors, Edwards, Polo in the last few years, and we also traded for the YOUNG tough nut inside midfielder of Adam Thomson and we took a punt on the previously highly rated and YOUNG Tom Hislop to add to our miriad of other up and comers, sure Ziebell has been good so far in the NAB cup, but that is no sign of what he will do once the big thing starts, we needed a young Ruckman, and we got the best one available(Bar Natanui).How about drafting a young midfielder like Ziebell instead and playing him round 1 instead of another 30+ year old. You need to think beyond round 1. Cousin's is only at the Tiges because he had no other choice. It was Richmond or nothing.
We needed a ruckman who will come through in the next few years and eventually take over Simmonds, Vickery will play senior football this year, and if you want to read The Age tomorrow you will see we are thinking of blooding a YOUNG 18yo 205cm, 104kg ruckman Andrew Browne to play against your mob.