Matthew Clarke

[seven]

The one that destroys me is the Higgins selection.
I can't find it but check my comments on the day we picked him.
We were still pissed from the GF. That could be the only reason.

They called Higgins “The Professor “
I thought he got the nickname due to his footy smarts.
Then I heard him give an interview and realised it was a pisstake.

 

[CarnTheTiges]

They called Higgins “The Professor “
I thought he got the nickname due to his footy smarts.
Then I heard him give an interview and realised it was a pisstake.

I think it may have stemmed from his namesake the jockey Roy Higgins being called ‘The Professor’.

 

[fastin bulbous]

Why is it ok for the dees to to have modest successes and a hard/settled line up to break into but during our premiership years it’s all wrong. A lot of double standards.

 

[Dyer'ere]

Clarke has made bigger mistakes than drafting Jack Higgins.

I'm something of a h8r, Bryan. But I'm ok with the bungle. Mistakes are overrated. And I could live with a Jack Higgins on the list.

I'm going to go through each ND pick in the Clarke era. Jack Higgins was the first. We're going to find a few mistakes. Mistakes are overrated.

With no due deference Mr DE and no dothed caps et al, I fear that you're concentrating too deeply on the single picks and not the trends.
A classic case of seeing trees and woods, or miss universes and beauty queens.

A bungle or not, Higgins was picked.
But what does the trend tell us?
Higgins. Baker. Coulthard.
There are others.


We know the club values attributes differently to rabbles and clubs of disrepute (the whole lot of them except us).
Conventional wisdom has it that players of short stature dont make it in the game.
No matter how good, how fast, how football smart. Short guys aint no good.
Its very wise in my opinion, anyone under 190cm is evolutionary backward and probably useless. But lets not digress.

Richmond has a different algorithm.
Look at the trend. We pick runts who can play footy.
A moneyball move, these are players who have higher attributes that would see them picked higher if they were in fact higher. Baker QED.
Higgins (as Dear Leysy points out) was targeted to be a mid / forward. High value. That he might be a bungle isnt the problem, because we were aiming high.

I'm doing em one at a time, td. I'm talking about RFC's recruiting. I'm looking at Clarke's. RFC's recruiting was good in the Frank era. (And Frank's bungles are amazing.) The trend of the Clarke era will emerge.

FWIW I don't think we were aiming high with the pick. Glamour skills? Nup. Star athlete? No. The opposite.

Now we're up to -

 

[Dyer'ere]

2017 ND. Pick 20. Callum Coleman-Jones.

What do you make of the second pick of the Clarke era?

2​	20​	Callum Coleman-Jones​	Richmond​	Sturt​
2​	21​	Oscar Allen​	West Coast​	West Perth​
2​	22​	Lachie Fogarty​	Geelong​	Western Jets​
2​	23​	Will Walker​	North Melbourne​	Sandringham Dragons​
2​	24​	Tim Kelly​	Geelong​	South Fremantle​
2​	25​	Noah Balta​	Richmond​	Calder Cannons​
2​	26​	Liam Ryan​	West Coast​	Subiaco​
2​	27​	Brent Daniels​	Greater Western Sydney​	Bendigo Pioneers​
2​	28​	Sam Taylor​	Greater Western Sydney​	Swan Districts​
2​	29​	Charlie Spargo​	Melbourne​	Murray Bushrangers​
2​	30​	Tom De Koning​	Carlton​	Dandenong Stingrays​
2​	31​	Bayley Fritsch​	Melbourne​	Casey​
2​	32​	Brayden Ainsworth​	West Coast​	Subiaco​
2​	33​	Tom McCartin​	Sydney​	Geelong Falcons​
2​	34​	Patrick Naish​	Richmond​	Northern Knights​
2​	35​	Oscar Clavarino​	St Kilda​	Dandenong Stingrays​
2​	36​	Charlie Constable​	Geelong​	Sandringham Dragons​
2​	37​	Harrison Petty​	Melbourne​	Norwood​
3​	38​	Jack Petruccelle​	West Coast​	Northern Knights​
3​	39​	Nathan Murphy​	Collingwood​	Sandringham Dragons​

 

[Daigoro]

On the selection of Jack Higgins at 17 in the 2017 ND I think it's clear that it was best available. It's inconceivable that RFC instructed Clarke to select a small full forward with the pick.

There are two schools on the success of the selection-

A/ Higgins is a 13 touch, 1.72 goal a game forward pocket and that makes him a good player.
B/ Higgins is a Cody Weightman (1.82 goal a game) type, not worth two bob.

For the record, I'm not unsympathetic to School B.

What is not subjective is that he is no longer at RFC. School B says that's good.

I count the selection as a total bungle. (I'm ok with bungles - mistakes are overrated.) In what National Draft ever is a marking small forward the best available player? The 2017 ND?

I leave it to you to decide -

1​	17​	Jack Higgins​	Richmond​	Oakleigh Chargers​
1​	18​	Brandon Starcevich​	Brisbane Lions​	East Perth​
1​	19​	Wil Powell​	Gold Coast​	Claremont​
2​	20​	Callum Coleman-Jones​	Richmond​	Sturt​
2​	21​	Oscar Allen​	West Coast​	West Perth​
2​	22​	Lachie Fogarty​	Geelong​	Western Jets​
2​	23​	Will Walker​	North Melbourne​	Sandringham Dragons​
2​	24​	Tim Kelly​	Geelong​	South Fremantle​
2​	25​	Noah Balta​	Richmond​	Calder Cannons​
2​	26​	Liam Ryan​	West Coast​	Subiaco​
2​	27​	Brent Daniels​	Greater Western Sydney​	Bendigo Pioneers​
2​	28​	Sam Taylor​	Greater Western Sydney​	Swan Districts​
2​	29​	Charlie Spargo​	Melbourne​	Murray Bushrangers​
2​	30​	Tom De Koning​	Carlton​	Dandenong Stingrays​
2​	31​	Bayley Fritsch​	Melbourne​	Casey​
2​	32​	Brayden Ainsworth​	West Coast​	Subiaco​
2​	33​	Tom McCartin​	Sydney​	Geelong Falcons​
2​	34​	Patrick Naish​	Richmond​	Northern Knights​

Slow small forward. No defence. Can’t kick. Terrible pick IMO despite the games played. Lots of proper footballer taken right afterwards. Even in 2018 I thought his presence in the side lost our edge

 

[TigerMasochist]

The blowtorch should be shone on Blair on why we got duded in that trade deal.

Higlet was still trying to re-establish himself coming back from his brain surgeries. On top of that, he was only ever going to his beloved St Kiddenme. Blair wasn't so much dudded on the deal but shafted by the lack of possibilities n options the Higlet left us with.

 

[Dont Argue]

2017 ND. Pick 20. Callum Coleman-Jones.

What do you make of the second pick of the Clarke era?

2​	20​	Callum Coleman-Jones​	Richmond​	Sturt​
2​	21​	Oscar Allen​	West Coast​	West Perth​
2​	22​	Lachie Fogarty​	Geelong​	Western Jets​
2​	23​	Will Walker​	North Melbourne​	Sandringham Dragons​
2​	24​	Tim Kelly​	Geelong​	South Fremantle​
2​	25​	Noah Balta​	Richmond​	Calder Cannons​
2​	26​	Liam Ryan​	West Coast​	Subiaco​
2​	27​	Brent Daniels​	Greater Western Sydney​	Bendigo Pioneers​
2​	28​	Sam Taylor​	Greater Western Sydney​	Swan Districts​
2​	29​	Charlie Spargo​	Melbourne​	Murray Bushrangers​
2​	30​	Tom De Koning​	Carlton​	Dandenong Stingrays​
2​	31​	Bayley Fritsch​	Melbourne​	Casey​
2​	32​	Brayden Ainsworth​	West Coast​	Subiaco​
2​	33​	Tom McCartin​	Sydney​	Geelong Falcons​
2​	34​	Patrick Naish​	Richmond​	Northern Knights​
2​	35​	Oscar Clavarino​	St Kilda​	Dandenong Stingrays​
2​	36​	Charlie Constable​	Geelong​	Sandringham Dragons​
2​	37​	Harrison Petty​	Melbourne​	Norwood​
3​	38​	Jack Petruccelle​	West Coast​	Northern Knights​
3​	39​	Nathan Murphy​	Collingwood​	Sandringham Dragons​

History will show CCJ an ordinary choice based on available players.
20 picks available with 14 legitimate AFL first choice players and we pick CCJ. Unfortunate but at least he was a tall and we received very fair compensation for him.
But if you swap that pick with Allen or Taylor, he’s a genius.
The Naish pick fair enough due to family history but there’s a couple of handy tall players picked after him too.

 

[momentai]

State leagues are your bread and butter at the deep end, as are small forwards, Clarke knows the drill and executes well. It's actually the opposite to Jackson who struggled a bit with late selections very early on in the piece. I think Clarke can turn things around with some Frank conservatism, it's actually a very minor tweak and things can turn around very quickly as we've seen with Melbourne. This year is no-mans land for a top end mid or tall, if there's a desire to nail one this year we'll need a late teens pick. If not then there needs to be heavy investment in next year's draft, similar to 2021, things can happen rapidly and a Butters/Rozee type combo always on the cards. The other recent trend of key forwards sliding out to the 6-15 bracket should also be reason for optimism, but this needs to be addressed ASAP as even the best need a 3 year apprenticeship.

See 1011.

 

[tigerdell]

2017 ND. Pick 20. Callum Coleman-Jones.

What do you make of the second pick of the Clarke era?

2​	20​	Callum Coleman-Jones​	Richmond​	Sturt​
2​	21​	Oscar Allen​	West Coast​	West Perth​
2​	22​	Lachie Fogarty​	Geelong​	Western Jets​
2​	23​	Will Walker​	North Melbourne​	Sandringham Dragons​
2​	24​	Tim Kelly​	Geelong​	South Fremantle​
2​	25​	Noah Balta​	Richmond​	Calder Cannons​
2​	26​	Liam Ryan​	West Coast​	Subiaco​
2​	27​	Brent Daniels​	Greater Western Sydney​	Bendigo Pioneers​
2​	28​	Sam Taylor​	Greater Western Sydney​	Swan Districts​
2​	29​	Charlie Spargo​	Melbourne​	Murray Bushrangers​
2​	30​	Tom De Koning​	Carlton​	Dandenong Stingrays​
2​	31​	Bayley Fritsch​	Melbourne​	Casey​
2​	32​	Brayden Ainsworth​	West Coast​	Subiaco​
2​	33​	Tom McCartin​	Sydney​	Geelong Falcons​
2​	34​	Patrick Naish​	Richmond​	Northern Knights​
2​	35​	Oscar Clavarino​	St Kilda​	Dandenong Stingrays​
2​	36​	Charlie Constable​	Geelong​	Sandringham Dragons​
2​	37​	Harrison Petty​	Melbourne​	Norwood​
3​	38​	Jack Petruccelle​	West Coast​	Northern Knights​
3​	39​	Nathan Murphy​	Collingwood​	Sandringham Dragons​

How good at North?
Nearly the only pick worse than CCJ and then they double down by trading for CCJ..
I woudnt be surprosed if they trade for Slowfeet Constable

 

[Dyer'ere]

These are National Draft selections from McKenzie of Hawthorn since 2017-

2017
45 James Worpel
67 Dylan Moore
71 Jackson Ross

2018
52 Jacob Koschitzke
63 Matthew Walker

2019
13 Will Day
29 Finn McGuinness
57 Josh Morris

2020
6 Denver Grainger-Barras
29 Seamus Mitchell
35 Connor Downie
46 Tyler Brockman

2021
7 Josh Ward
23 Sam Butler
26 Connor McDonald
53 Jai Serong

2022
7 Cameron McKenzie
18 Josh Weddle
37 Henry Hustwaite
46 Jack O'Sullivan
51 Bailey MacDonald

Some big bungles. Lot of average bungles. A few late picks of genius. After the first round the bloke has done pretty well. NB the success in drafts that Hawthorn traded OUT of.

This is how the rookie drafts worked out-

2017 Rookie
David Mirra
Harry Jones
Dallas Willsmore

2018 Rookie
Damon Greaves
Will Golds
Tom Mohr
Will Langford

2019 Rookie
Emerson Jeka

2020 Rookie
Jack Saunders

2021 Rookie
Ned Long
Jai Newcombe MID
Jackson Callow MID

2022 Rookie
Seamus Mitchell (relisted)
Max Ramsden MID
James Blanck MID

All those busts. Grist for the mill. Mistakes are overrated. They got Jai Newcombe.

 

[Tigers of Old]

I think overall he's done a pretty decent job the past few seasons but he's going to earn his money tonight in this part of the draft. Just hope they've done the work..

 

[Smoking Aces]

I think overall he's done a pretty decent job the past few seasons but he's going to earn his money tonight in this part of the draft. Just hope they've done the work..

This is where the elite recruiters shine. Anyone can pick a decent player in the top 10. But finding a diamond in the rough is where reputations are made.

 

[WesternTiger]

Has a nice bundle of picks for 2024 (unless Hartley trades them).

Our own 1st.
Our own 2nd.
Freo's 2nd.
Our own 3rd.
Eagles' 3rd.
Freo's 3rd.
Our own 4th.
Essendon's 4th.
Port's 4th.

 

[KenM]

We just needed another 4th rounder, then we’d have one 1st, two 2nds, three 3rds and four 4ths.

 

[craig]

Tigers are definately going to throw a big rtade hand in for Cadman or King, and or a top tier midfielder.

 

[Little Ziggyadee]

Considering what he had to work with he did choose a genuine midfielder with aggression.
And the foward is a bonus.
I'm wrapt no smurfs and no butterfly midfielders.

 

[BrisTiger24]

We just needed another 4th rounder, then we’d have one 1st, two 2nds, three 3rds and four 4ths.

Don't speak too soon. Extra 4th rounder could be FA compo for Dusty

 

[Streak]

Rightly or wrongly, we were very consistent throughout the year in our approach to this draft.

That is it was relatively weak depth wise.

I don't think anyone expected our 1st pick traded to GWS for Hopper would end up being so high, but based on our overall assessment of the draft, it seems the only mistake we made.

I don't know much about the kids we drafted but McAuliffe looks alright from his highlights, and I must admit Fawcett shows a bit to work with as well.

 

[Ghost of 29]

Tigers are definately going to throw a big rtade hand in for Cadman or King, and or a top tier midfielder.

I think they want to get in on the northern academy boondoggle by being the go to club with an abundance of late draft picks that are needed to cover the points for the academy kids. We could end up with another two 2nd Rd picks if we do it right