The saddest part about all of this tanking crap that half you guys go on about is that you actually believe this is true. I often wonder how much of this is a result of impressionable, feeble minds reading crappy opinions on internet forums and treating it as fact. Will any of you Rocket Scientists please explain where flogging Richmond last Sunday fits into Clarkson's grand plan of dogging it for high draft picks ? Or maybe Wallace has decided mid-season that Clarkson is right, that this is definitely the way to go and he also wants a piece of the Bryce Gibbs action this November.
Also, if Hawthorn was laying down and deliberately losing games, will someone please explain why we beat you guys in round 21, 2004 and handed you the wooden spoon (and Brett Deledio) That doesn't add up. There have been numerous clubs recieve priority picks, yet it only seems to be Hawthorn that gets singled out for "tanking". Did it ever occur to any of you that we deserved to finish in the bottom four these last two years ? I reckon all this talk is utter garbage, but if you WERE to point the finger why not accuse Collingwood last year. They finished 15th and look at 'em go this year. What about the Bulldogs ? Priority picks two years running in 2003 and 2004 with players like West, Johnson, Smith, Giansiracusa, Eagleton, etc. We'd kill to have experienced talent like that. They've been killing it for the past 18 months - it makes their draft assistance look very generous. Also Melbourne. Finals one year. 1st pick in the draft the next year. They then made it to a Preliminary Final the next year. Up and down they went. 3rd last in 2003 (received Sylvia and McLean in the top 5 picks). Back in the finals the following season. They are probably the main reason the rules were changed.
How do these clubs escape the vitriol that Hawthorn cops ? I've watched most of our games over the past 2 seasons and believe me, we have been CRAP. We "deserved" those high draft picks (if you can use that term). I mean they are the rules - high picks to the worst sides - we've done nothing dodgy.
It's also a MYTH that we've traded away all of our good players in order to decimate our side and "bottom out". Think about that for a second - why in God's name would we do that ? Nathan Thompson wanted to leave - he was overpaid and underperformed - both he and club felt that parting was in both parties' interests. Win-Win. Jonathan Hay was a joke - he deserved to be delisted. As it was we received picks 14 and 18 for both he and Nathan Lonie. What a fantastic trade for us! Apart from them, who else ?
Anyway, I've had a good laugh reading this thread, especially the line about Hawthorn being the most deluded club in the league. The hero worship for Terry Wallace is also entertaining stuff. If you look at it, he's achieved basically the same results as Clarkson for 5 times the wage. Here's hoping we can both get up there for some September glory sometime in the next 5 years. Go Hawks! Go Tiges!
Spot on. He knows exactly what he's doing. Will get his last batch of high draft picks in this upcoming draft (which just happens to be the 'superdraft'). All of a sudden next year they will start winning games which will be a shock to the average football follower and reactive media. I can read Clarkson like a book. They are cheats. They're not playing to win. They are the king of tanking, and it's been in Clarkson's 'rebuilding' theme from the start. It's one of the reasons why Terry came up with the suggestion of rewarding teams monetary-wise for winning and stop clubs being rewarded so heavily for crap performances/tanking. Reality is he'll get away with building a great list without doing everything in his power to win games; a thing which every coach should do, and which every supporter would expect of a coach.
