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So much happened in 2013 that I think we will be talking about this year for a very long time. It's too difficult to say how much will be good and how much bad.
It started with the loss of Alex Johnson with an ACL injury.
A couple of months later there was the Indigenous Round incident with Adam Goodes, which has carried on till now and likely to go beyond.
Then, of course, there is the signing of Buddy Franklin and everything that comes with that, from the loss of Mummy and a few other players, and setting in motion several punitive measures by the AFL that might bite hard for many years to come.
With the benefit of hindsight, a few less evident matters are becoming clearer.
Despite having acquired Tippett in the previous year and Mike Pyke having a banner year in 2013, the club went into a mini panic with the loss of Mummy that may also have long lasting repercussions. Part of this is a result of 2013 looking to be an excellent draft year, with very few duds popping up even as we look into picks in the 40s and few genuine stars are sure to come out of this draft.
Before the ND began we already committed 2 spots to ruckmen with questionable credentials. Tom Derickx was a panic move and really unnecessary. The other was the American Pat Mitchell. They turned out to be poor choices, but mistakes are made and so be it. Why we signed Tom for another 2 years is beyond me.
But the real focus is on the 2013 National Draft. It would seem that we wanted Zak Jones and I can see why we liked him. He's a real competitor and has a lot of talent as well. It must have been hard to judge who would be available at pick 32, but with Hewett available, he had to be taken. I would suspect that we would have liked a KPD at that spot, and perhaps had our eye on McStay, who was snatched up by Brisbane at pick 25.
It's that next pick #35 when we took Toby Nankervis that baffles me. Here we have a ruckman who has years of development ahead of him. There are only 8 picks to be taken before our next pick at #44, and only one club, the WB, who might be interested in a ruckman. And there is still Ben Brown available, who eventually went to NM at pick 47. Aliir was not even rated as a rookie prospect, so would have easily been available at our first rookie slot, which we passed on for lack of space. He should have been taken at that selection instead of signing Pat Mitchell.
Between picks 35 and 44 we see the following key defenders get drafted:
Alex Pearce, who is looking good at Freo after 10 games.
Cameron Giles, who was picked by Carlton, but has not played due to injury, but is a good prospect nonetheless.
Jake Kolodjashnij, who has pushed Jared Rivers out of the Geelong backline and played well against us on Saturday.
Tom Barrass, who also played well against us in the Eagles game.
I was hoping we would take Kolodjashnij at the time, but we took Nankervis instead. As it turned out the WB took mature ager Mathew Fuller, so both Nankervis and Brown would have almost certainly been available at pick 44 anyway.
Given that we already knew that AJ had surgery complications, it would have been nice to have picked up one of those KPDs in the 2013 draft, especially given that we won't have the opportunity to get any this year due to the need to use most of our draft picks on Mills and the trade restrictions and salary cap reduction.
Perhaps if we had won the 2014 GF the club management would have been hailed as geniuses. But history is what it is and now we seem to be in a malaise and left wondering where it went all went wrong. Something wasn't right about how we played that 2nd half at Geelong, but I don't know what it is. We haven't looked right all year.
It started with the loss of Alex Johnson with an ACL injury.
A couple of months later there was the Indigenous Round incident with Adam Goodes, which has carried on till now and likely to go beyond.
Then, of course, there is the signing of Buddy Franklin and everything that comes with that, from the loss of Mummy and a few other players, and setting in motion several punitive measures by the AFL that might bite hard for many years to come.
With the benefit of hindsight, a few less evident matters are becoming clearer.
Despite having acquired Tippett in the previous year and Mike Pyke having a banner year in 2013, the club went into a mini panic with the loss of Mummy that may also have long lasting repercussions. Part of this is a result of 2013 looking to be an excellent draft year, with very few duds popping up even as we look into picks in the 40s and few genuine stars are sure to come out of this draft.
Before the ND began we already committed 2 spots to ruckmen with questionable credentials. Tom Derickx was a panic move and really unnecessary. The other was the American Pat Mitchell. They turned out to be poor choices, but mistakes are made and so be it. Why we signed Tom for another 2 years is beyond me.
But the real focus is on the 2013 National Draft. It would seem that we wanted Zak Jones and I can see why we liked him. He's a real competitor and has a lot of talent as well. It must have been hard to judge who would be available at pick 32, but with Hewett available, he had to be taken. I would suspect that we would have liked a KPD at that spot, and perhaps had our eye on McStay, who was snatched up by Brisbane at pick 25.
It's that next pick #35 when we took Toby Nankervis that baffles me. Here we have a ruckman who has years of development ahead of him. There are only 8 picks to be taken before our next pick at #44, and only one club, the WB, who might be interested in a ruckman. And there is still Ben Brown available, who eventually went to NM at pick 47. Aliir was not even rated as a rookie prospect, so would have easily been available at our first rookie slot, which we passed on for lack of space. He should have been taken at that selection instead of signing Pat Mitchell.
Between picks 35 and 44 we see the following key defenders get drafted:
Alex Pearce, who is looking good at Freo after 10 games.
Cameron Giles, who was picked by Carlton, but has not played due to injury, but is a good prospect nonetheless.
Jake Kolodjashnij, who has pushed Jared Rivers out of the Geelong backline and played well against us on Saturday.
Tom Barrass, who also played well against us in the Eagles game.
I was hoping we would take Kolodjashnij at the time, but we took Nankervis instead. As it turned out the WB took mature ager Mathew Fuller, so both Nankervis and Brown would have almost certainly been available at pick 44 anyway.
Given that we already knew that AJ had surgery complications, it would have been nice to have picked up one of those KPDs in the 2013 draft, especially given that we won't have the opportunity to get any this year due to the need to use most of our draft picks on Mills and the trade restrictions and salary cap reduction.
Perhaps if we had won the 2014 GF the club management would have been hailed as geniuses. But history is what it is and now we seem to be in a malaise and left wondering where it went all went wrong. Something wasn't right about how we played that 2nd half at Geelong, but I don't know what it is. We haven't looked right all year.
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