You had a chance of 2 well credentialed key forwards or a mature aged mid which would you take. In my view WC made the right decision and I firmly believe they expected Kelly to be available at the next pick. Geelong took the initiative and that's OK too. Admittedly nobody know for sure what West Coasts intention were but there were many Geelong and WC posters saying at the time that Geelong had taken Kelly from under WC noses and most were of the view that the reason WC swapped the picks with GC was to get Kelly along with Ryan. Most Geelong posters were quite adamant that they had a bit of a victory by doing this, Its hardly a huge cost in assessing, developing etc and there was always a huge risk factor. So indignation is uncalled for.How was Geelong “smug”? In selecting Kelly, Geelong missed out on others who would probably have committed long term. It was a risky selection that paid dividends in 2018.
Is it actually fact that WCE was going to select Kelly at 26, or is that just a convenient argument? If WCE thought Kelly was that good why didn’t they use an earlier pick?