Jordon and Bedford got out of jail

  On 05/04/2025 at 10:59, ElDiablo14 said:

Mate that's where the issue is. Stop being cheap, you are in the premiership window (were).

Throw the kitchen sink to bring that coveted KPF we so desperately needed.

Of course we would have gone hard on every decent key fwd in the past 5 years

they are hard to land

We couldn’t even convince Karl Amon to play for us after winning a premiership 6 months earlier and sitting on top of the ladder in 2022, instead he opts for a team that finished 13th and was starting a re build.

  On 05/04/2025 at 10:59, ElDiablo14 said:

Mate that's where the issue is. Stop being cheap, you are in the premiership window (were).

Throw the kitchen sink to bring that coveted KPF we so desperately needed.

🤣 This completely disregards the salary cap.

  On 05/04/2025 at 11:06, Adam The God said:

🤣 This completely disregards the salary cap.

Surely there was some way to make it work?

We lost Jackson after all, then we paid like 700k for Grundy.

I don't know how it could be done but I am sure there was a way to bring someone. Maybe not a McKay or King but Tex or similar?

  On 05/04/2025 at 11:05, Greg Schneider said:

We couldn’t even convince Karl Amon to play for us after winning a premiership 6 months earlier and sitting on top of the ladder in 2022, instead he opts for a team that finished 13th and was starting a re build.

And why is that?

  On 05/04/2025 at 11:10, ElDiablo14 said:

And why is that?

Hawks were garbage in 2022 😂 Its obviously worked out well for him, but when a 27 year old picks a side that’s just starting a re build over the reigning premiers you’ve got to start asking questions

Riley Bice pick 41 in the draft last year, time for Lamb to stop trading away our second and third round picks to move up three spots in the draft to let Jason Taylor (who is out of contract this year) earn his stripes

The smart recruiters identify young talent that struggles a bit to get regular games ie Bedford, Jordon, Bobby Hill while the dumb recruiters grab 27 or 28 year old hacks who are looking for a bit of superannuation top up.

Harry Sharp is a step in the right direction.

We are in a rebuild and he fits our demographic.

It’s all about the next opportunity now. Replenishing our list. We have made a lot of trade blunders, that were forgotten about when we won a flag. That’s why we only won the one. Now back to the well, and hopefully, we learnt something.

  On 05/04/2025 at 09:06, spirit of norm smith said:

In our build up to the Premiership, the Dees recruited strongly. The recruits were players who playing AFL (not VFL) and at the standard. We were attracting players who either came home to Victoria or saw opportunities.

Hibberd

Lewis

Melksham

May

Lever

Langdon

Brown

All were players who were regulars.

But since 2021 premiership… VFL grade only

Dunstan

Hunter

Schache

Billings

McAdam

Fullarton

Sharp

Campbell

Enough evidence!!!

As we watch the Hawks rise, they followed the recruiting blueprint. Don’t bring in players who are below par. Attract the players who are at the standard and make your team better.

Memo. Cc Tim Lamb, Simon Goodwin.

Damning couple of lists

It's just too easy to look at our recent recruits and whinge. Hindsight makes the biggest geniuses look like the biggest fools and vice versa. And, yes, what were the circumstances for each dud we've got and which we've missed. Unless people want to outline the lessons moving on honestly just leave it alone.

  On 05/04/2025 at 11:24, Cranky Franky said:

The smart recruiters identify young talent that struggles a bit to get regular games ie Bedford, Jordon, Bobby Hill while the dumb recruiters grab 27 or 28 year old hacks who are looking for a bit of superannuation top up.

Jack ‘you don’t go pick 3 in the draft for no reason’ Billings according to Lamb 😂 If only there was a 10 year sample size of how he went in the AFL rather than looking back at how he went as an 18 year old. Garbage.

Edited April 5Apr 5 by Greg Schneider

  On 05/04/2025 at 10:38, Little Goffy said:

Salary cap.

Draft-first strategy to accelerate a succession and minimise bottoming out.

Also, comparisons to Hawthorn are strait up onerous. They struggled along for five season after their pair of strait-sets exits.

Agree with all that, though for Hawthorn I'd say more like 7 seasons, with 2018 as the last gasp of a dying patient. Also worth noting in the context of changing coaches, that as bad as they were for the last 2 seasons under Clarkson, they went backwards for 2 seasons under Mitchell.

Anyone defending the trading in of AFL listed players since the flag would fit in perfectly at the club atm. Bunch of excuses for a F grade effort. Can't blame salary cap as we had enough for Houston. We didn't have to give 6 year contracts out. We didn't have to throw all our $ to 1/4 of the list and end up with VFL players for depth.

Whoever is in charge of list management has to go.

Edited April 5Apr 5 by kurtneverdied

  On 05/04/2025 at 11:10, ElDiablo14 said:

And why is that?

Reasons.

Because we had arguably the best midfield in the league and he'd have to go to the back of the queue. Let's not forget that we even had Gus who had come third in the Brownlow as a midfielder but who couldn't get a run on-ball.

Amon knew that at Hawthorn he'd get regular first-team games as a mid.

  On 05/04/2025 at 11:09, ElDiablo14 said:

We lost Jackson after all, then we paid like 700k for Grundy.

No we didn't.

Typical of the BS on this thread - and across much of the board at the moment.

  On 05/04/2025 at 12:06, bing181 said:

Reasons.

Because we had arguably the best midfield in the league and he'd have to go to the back of the queue. Let's not forget that we even had Gus who had come third in the Brownlow as a midfielder but who couldn't get a run on-ball.

Amon knew that at Hawthorn he'd get regular first-team games as a mid.

He’s a wingman. We had James Jordon on one as a fill in. Hunter came in instead of Amon and played the whole following year, glaringly obvious a spot was there for him, but keep trying to find excuses

Edited April 5Apr 5 by Greg Schneider

  On 05/04/2025 at 12:17, Greg Schneider said:

He’s a wingman. We had James Jordon on one as a fill in, his bags were also already packed. Hunter came in instead of Amon and played the whole following year, glaringly obvious a spot was there for him, but keep trying to find excuses

This is the kind of stuff that does my head in. Factually incorrect, hindsight bias, etc etc. But most of all, a complete lack of context or of looking at the whole picture.

Because apart from anything else and who was playing where, Hunter was very cheap, especially in comparison to what Amon would have been asking. It doesn't even begin to be apples for apples.

Will need to break up the mids & trade one out to get picks , can’t see them losing Viney, trac …. Oliver yes

  On 05/04/2025 at 12:34, bing181 said:

This is the kind of stuff that does my head in. Factually incorrect, hindsight bias, etc etc. But most of all, a complete lack of context or of looking at the whole picture.

Because apart from anything else and who was playing where, Hunter was very cheap, especially in comparison to what Amon would have been asking. It doesn't even begin to be apples for apples.

Hunter was very cheap for a reason….

  On 05/04/2025 at 12:46, Demonsone said:

Will need to break up the mids & trade one out to get picks , can’t see them losing Viney, trac …. Oliver yes

If that happens, it's quite ironic that our current situation may look a little different if we'd just traded Clarry at the end of 2023 when he allegedly put his team mates offside.

Probably should have just traded tracc or Oliver at the end of 2024 and actually followed through.

Melbourne should have focused on young players with potential that were available later in the draft instead of thinking they could bring in guys who struggled to get a game in less talented teams and turn them into something when they were finished products.

Especially key position players who sometimes take longer to develop. For example, Josh Treacy was selected in a rookie draft Melbourne passed on.

We definitely have some very talented young players coming through, but there are glaring weaknesses in several positions and an overall lack of depth that could take some time to fix.

Edited April 5Apr 5 by burnthefushias

  On 05/04/2025 at 12:48, Sir Why You Little said:

Hunter was very cheap for a reason….

What was the reason? the off field stuff? For the money I thought he was solid enough as a player.

In his first season at the Dees in 2023 he played a full season on a wing. I thought it was a good move because he freed up Brayshaw to play in other positions of need including midfield where Gus really gave us a huge boost. Hunter ended up top 5 for the club in disposals and metres gained.

I definitely don't think Lachie was the perfect player but was complimentary enough to our stars in that first year before his body let him down and had to retire early.

God we've had rotten luck.

Edited April 5Apr 5 by Young Blood