- Mar 1, 2010
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- AFL Club
- Richmond
i take it you are saying with the above you would be open to useing a first rnd pick on a 20 22 yr old as long as he was of sufficient quality.
good to hear it.
its a little different but i keep coming back to harry taylor. drafted at 21 by geelong with pick 17 from the wafl. hes become very much a long term player for them.
the key point being made is its not where you get them from wafl sanfl vfl or the nd but their age.
like you i believe your early picks are primarily for your long term quality future but it does not matter where players come from as long as you attend to that detail.
if trengove turns out to be a player of quality the process we go thru is looking after the long term future.
we dont have to build just thru the nd magic when the opportunities arise to get young talent thru other means we should take those opportunities.
For mine it is all about player quality. I don't rate Taylor as highly as some and he coexists in a very strong team which helps him.
Having said that I do rate Barlow and when first saw him , playing AFL, he was a instant top 50 player. It just highlighted to me a lot of people clearly do not know what they are talking about for him not to be drafted earlier.
Likewise with Pod in Geelong. How he was not given a chance before given the lack of quality forwards in recent years is utterly beyond me.
Having said this the benefits of the draft and youth is still underplayed by most IMO.
The other thing is excluding trade value, you need players that fit within your premiership window. EG. There is no point in us chasing Cam Bruce for next year!!