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July 07, 2007
The Luck of the Draft.
There’s a saying that says the harder you work , the luckier you get. Maybe its true but sometimes things happen , totally out of ones control and it just falls into place. Look at our current playing list. Our recruiting dept. has done a top job assembling our current list , there has been hundred of hours spent in it assembly , no doubt but I think we have also benefited by some luck.
Think on a trade we tried to pull. We tried to get Rawlings to solve our forward problems but he didn’t want us. If we had got him , would we have chased Ottens? We got Ottens as a forward and he is now our prominent ruckman meanwhile Rawlings has retired. Very Lucky.
Our most obvious area of luck would be our Father Sons. Others look enviously at our list and say we have big number of genetic draftees and even more noticeable is that so many of them are elite players. Think on the crucial positions in a footy side and we have been blessed by the reproductive powers of our previous champions. A ruckman , an All Australian Full back , a mid that’s up there with the best in the league and a couple of Tall forwards , one of which probably would have been a top ten pick. We can say that not all our FS drafted players have been successful but really its not only the success rate but the quality of players we have gained and there is no doubting the significance of the Father Sons on our list. To get direct access to such talented kids is luck. Plenty of Father Sons never get on an AFL list , let alone become champs in their own right. All StKilda champs seem to produce is daughters yet our champs have produced champs. Got be some luck in that.
Probably a less obvious example of luck would be our results from the draft. We have gained some very good players from excellent drafting. Guys like Ling and Chapman are B&F winners for us and were picks in the 30’s , Matty Stokes , David Johnson and Mathew Egan were all very late picks . Top notch drafting but sometimes picks seem to have fallen our way.
Bartel was no surprise pick he played well with the Falcons but the smart judges had him as good footballer but had questions over his pace and athletic ability. So they went past him and we jumped. Picked at 8 in the 2001 super draft , there was plenty of talent ahead and behind Bartel but he has probably now shown that he should have been picked before Polak , Clarke , Sampi and Hale.
Look what happened at last years draft , absolutely pumped with the type of talent clubs crave , especially if your were after tall talent. We had identified a lack of speed as being one of our deficiencies , so we pencilled in a local speedy kid called Boak. On draft day , Carlton who had had won the so called Bryce Gibbs cup by finishing last , picked him, Essendon, Roos, Brisbane went tall with Gumbelton, Hansen, Leuenberger. It was here however that our plans went out the window when Port jumped on Boak before we could get to him. Hawks then added another tall to their already talented list of tall players with the Tasmanian Thorpe and it was then our pick.
The one obvious name that hadn’t been called was that of Joel Selwood. Just like Bartel he was no secret. He had been a star as a junior and would have been drafted in 05 except he had been too young. Then he had a problem with a knee and didn’t play much in 06. Not super quick or exceptionally tall and perhaps a suspicion that his knee was less than perfect , all reasons he may not have been picked. Welles didn’t know why others had passed on him but what he did know was the Selwood was an exceptional young footballer with fantastic leadership qualities , he was simply too good to go past.
Now , watching Selwood this year has been amazing. Watching him come to a club with it fair share of small , tough nuts and him still finding a way to demand selection. Watching him get dropped when he probably didn’t deserve to be and yet again claiming a spot in a side that was performing extremely well. His performance against Essendon on Friday night was probably his best yet. The Dons were up , it was a big game for them with Hird’s 250th and Rama coming back from his illness. We were coming off a tough game with the Swans and we looked to have a couple a guys sore , Bartel for instance looked like he should have stayed home in the first half. The core of our side just looked a bit off and with Ess taking it right up to us , we need someone to step up , and he did.
The stuff Joel has shown this year has him pegged as a future , big time player. He has shown he is someone who can be relied on when the chips are down and the heats on. He’s no downhill skier this boy, he’s a kid that leads from the front. When the blows are coming in as thick as flies at the Rubbish Tip , he will be in there as hard as a Diamond Drill soaking up the punishment, getting the job done.
The other kids that were picked before Joel will most likely all become good players for their clubs. Good luck to them. The clubs could only study their data , trust their judgement, weigh their needs and pick who ever was their best guess. And that’s where we were again lucky , if they’d picked him he would be theirs , and not ours but he ours now and too bad for them. He’s the closest thing Geelong has had to a kid that could win the “Rising Star” award but win it or not there is no doubt that this kid IS a rising star and he’s our rising star.
Luck goes a long way in footy. Luck of the bounce , the luck of the weather , luck of no injuries , luck of an umpires decision but maybe the draft day lottery is the most important luck of all.
Posted by Turbocat at July 7, 2007 08:58 PM
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