A lot of this is just plain old bad timing. To deal in hypotheticals a little, which is quite reasonable on this site:
If we were in a stronger postion for the last 5 years, we wouldn't be having this conversation or caring much about it
How frequently will new franchises be added to the AFL in the future? Too bad GC and GWS fell right in the middle of us being really bad and
We did in fact get TS and JT out of that draft so while it's going to be disappointing, we still have done very well. Build that bridge people.