That's all true, but we most likely didn't need to trade up from pick 6 to get Oliver. That trade up came at a cost.

What I've heard from Essendon supporters is they would've taken Oliver if we took Parish. What I'm not hearing is who they would've picked if they had the choice between the two of them, or if they would've taken both and not Francis. Given Watson was a bit of a pioneer in the big bodied midfielder type and is now the wrong side of 30 (as is Goddard) I wouldn't at all be surprised if they wanted Oliver more.

Either way. Maybe the more important question is had we have taken Oliver this year at pick 6 could we get a player better than Weideman with our first pick next year? I doubt it.

Unless the answer is a confident yes then we've done well to bring both kids in now and can get a head start on development.

I am sure Roos is on record as saying the club thought get the draft picks and the rest looks after itself.

Its clearly a mixture of picking the right player and providing the right environment for development.

From 07 through to 10 we had 10 top 20 picks (plus Maric at 21) and we have not hit the jackpot with any of them.

If a player does not work out you can’t just point the finger at the recruiter.

I can’t be convinced we got the selection wrong 11 times.

we haven't, we've got way too many things wrong, way before the recruiters were even hired to the job.

its a common historic theme of this club; & its time we as the club, woke up to this fact.

the recruiting team has done a pretty good job. There is always going to be arguments over did we pay overs for melksham, I feel that we paid what we believed he was worth. As for Howe we got what we could for a guy whole most fans felt a little betrayed by. All of the trading and recruiting has given us players that we need and hopefully a couple of smokies. Just goes to show that these guys and gals have been following some of these players for years and have not just based their decisions on the last 6 months of football alone.

Bring on the new footy year...