Vogon Poetry

What's Hunt? Blond and a gun as well.

I disagree entirely. If your assertion is that people look to blame others for their failures and that everything is in their own hands what the point of having a decent development and coaching staff? Gysberts had the misfortune to be drafted by the most dysfunctional AFL football club this century and didn't cope. How on earth can you lay all the blame on him? Gysberts was a very talented footballer and you only have to look at his early games to see this. He had clear weaknesses that Neeld and his development team failed to eradicate. I'd go further and say they were a terrible impact on him. Gysberts was an introvert and was crushed by the hostile atmosphere generated by Neeld and his philosophy. This has been confirmed to me by both players and staff who were there at the time. A good leader inspires and makes his players want to follow. Neeld did exactly the opposite. I don't know if Gysberts had fixable faults but he certainly had talent. Are you writing off Petracca and Oliver now because they struggle in the running drills? Neeld snuffed out any chance the kid had and by the time he got to NM he was shot. He didn't want to play AFL footy. Again, confirmed by those that know him. Neeld was a disaster. He alienated the senior players, he failed to develop the younger players and he left us in a significantly worse place when he left than when he arrived. Gysberts wasn't the only one significantly effected.

Yes, that's right. It's like saying in the Frost deal we ended up with ANB and Oscar. I really don't consider that part of the "real" deal. Picks past 40 are just steak knives really and don't form a key part of the deal. But I take your point. As I said I think we were big winners. One of the benefits of Tyson is that he was a known quantity compared to any draft pick. For a struggling club that degree of certainty was very valuable (together with the years of development he'd already had).

My understanding/recollection is we weren't all that keen on Kelly and I remember Roos saying Bont was a speculative pick at 4. I think we would have taken Scharenberg at 2 and if he had repeated his injury history it would have been a disaster. Not that Salem has been a lot better but if he's overcome his thyroid issue he probably sits better than Scharenberg. I doubt we would have picked up Cripps because we'd have picked him up at 9 if we thought he was better than Salem. There was talk of Lewis Taylor wasn't there so we might have ended up with Scharenberg and Taylor or Salem (at 2) and Taylor. All in all I'm very happy with where we are as I think Stretch will offer a lot of what Kelly does. Kelly is really an Isaac Smith isn't he? Dom is a terrific player anyway, had a year or two under his belt and Salem is as much an unknown as Kelly in some ways. Would I go back (even including pick 20 in the deal. No, unless I knew we'd pick the Bont and Zac Merritt! But I don't think we would have so I'll sit were we are. All in all it was a win win. It's a little like the debate on Oliver v Parish. I'm happy where we are but Parish will be a very good player and clearly had a better first year than Oliver. Oliver just did things. His clearance work, out marking Ward in his first game, getting up and dominating the second quarter after being flattened against Hawks and that one handed pick up against the Hawks in the last quarter were indications that Oliver could be elite. Please god, give him a tank of an acceptable level and I'll be a very happy man.

But the deal was more complicated than that because it involved us losing pick 20 (from memory). Having said that I think two very good players are more valuable than a great player. I'm surprised that so many prefer Kelly to Fyfe. Fyfe is a champion, Brownlow medalist and can play on ball and forward and probably anywhere else, is a dangerous mark and contested ball winning beast who finds it all the time. Kelly has done little yet. He's another Scully IMO who is a slightly better kick. Kelly may be very good, but Fyfe is great.

Except someone might trump us for Hibberd.

Because he has value and is probably surplus to needs. Nobody dislikes him.

You won't get anywhere with an approach like that!