Having read some of the thread above - some thoughts
1. We are not good enough to tank - we are last on our merits.
2. People say what is the difference between getting picks 1 & 3 and picks 2 & 4. The answer is not much - Murphy may be a Carlton superstar he may be a Brisbane superstar, he may get distracted and not live up to his potential. 1 & 3 or 2 & 4 from the youngsters is a good result for us. However we are drafting 18 year olds - it is an inexact science. Refer exhibits A - Murray Vance, Danny Roach, etc etc - how long has Tim Walsh been at the Bulldogs as pick 4??
3. The real opportunity lies with pick 1 in the psd. With room in the salary cap we walk into trade week holding 4 aces. St Kilda picked up Hamill, Gehrig and Voss while similarly armed at the end of 2000.
4. Club culture - This is important - as a kid Richmond was the team that expected success and was ruthless in attaining it. Through the 80's and 90's they lost all that. We have to leverage off our past success and our support base. It will be interesting to see if the likes of Geelong and St Kilda who traditionally have been happy with "near enough is good enough" can have success while they have been granted the playing talent or will their self limiting beliefs perpetuated over time ensure that success eludes them? Ask yourself what Essendon* or Carlton would be achieving with St Kildas list.
5. Drafting is a numbers game - lets get picks 1,3,19,35,51 and see what happens. If every club delists an average of 5 players - there are 75 players that may be better than the ones we have. It may be worth delisting 12 or 13 players in case some of the 75 are better than ours. We can use picks in the 60s and 70s to either redraft our players or get some recycleds. If we get kids at 1,3,19,35,51 we get 5 kids to add to Walker, Hartlett, Simpson, Russell, Raso, Blackwell, Fisher, Waite. There is 13 kids to pin our hopes on. Add them to (the good) Fevola, Stevens, Thornton, Livo. Lets hope Teague and Scotland can recapture 2004 form and we have a future. What if we can duplicate the Hamill, Gehrig, Voss success of St Kilda? What if the O'hAilpin boys click?
6. Have I got the plague? I know we have to finish last, I'm struggling to go to games at the moment because I know we are not good enough to win - and as JohnM pointed out - the system dictates that we cannot afford to win. I hate the gameday mindset that this produces.
7. Can we beat Hawthorn at the weekend? Only if Everitt gets injured in the first minute. With our lack of ruckmen at the moment teams get easy centre breaks and easy goals. Invariably our skill errors gift 2 or 3 each week to the opposition (I'm being conservative). The combination of easy centre breaks and skill errors means we are playing with a 6 to 7 goal handicap most weeks.
_________________ Get comfortable being uncomfortable
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