I don't get this obsession with priority picks.
The most improved teams so far in 2010 are Sydney, Freo and Melbourne.
Sydney have gone down the established players path, picking up Seaby, Mumford, McGlynn, Kennedy and Bradshaw to add to their already substantial foreign legion. They also traded strongly to actually improve their ND position, the only team to do so substantially last year. They haven’t had a Priority pick since their bad old days in the early 90s.
Freo have scoured the minor leagues for players who may be able to step up and have been rewarded by Barlow, Silvagni, Broughton, Ballantyne and Van Berlo. They have drafted very well late with Pearce, De Boer and all of their mature rookies named above. Add three good early round pickups in Hill, Morabito and Suban and you can see what a good fist they have made of all aspects of recruiting over the last two years. They haven’t hung out for Priority Picks, nor received any. The biggest factor in Freo’s rise has been the massive improvement in their recruiting team and list management practices.
Melbourne have picked up Scully and Trengove, who have walked straight into their team, and good on them for it. Look at their current 22, though. Bruce, McDonald, Jamar and Green are mature footballers, Sylvia is finally coming good after years of promising but not delivering, Warnock, Bail, Davey, Bennell, Martin, McKenzie, and Garland are all late picks/rookies. They have persisted with Jamar and Dunn while their output was underwhelming for years. They have a smattering of first and second round picks like Grimes, Jones, Bate and Petterd who were well chosen but they didn’t need priority picks to get them. Like Freo, they have concentrated on choosing well right across the board.
It is early days for Richmond, but the signs are that we may have drafted reasonably well right across the board last year. A priority pick will be useful because it helps get one more player early but it is hardly a panacea for all our woes. We would do well to concentrate on using whatever early picks we get wisely and finding a few late bonuses like Barlow, Silvagni, Nason and Jeff Garlett, rather than worry about Priority Picks. A Priority Pick will get you one good player, if you choose well, five good late picks will get you 25% of your senior team.
BTW, Carlton didn’t tank to get a Priority Pick to get a junior. They tanked to get enough resources together to get Judd. Big difference.
