First, I'm not saying those clubs have done well only because of their advantages, I'm just acknowledging they have advantages Freo don't have. When Geelong assembled it's premiership team, getting Abblett, Hawkins and Scarlett through F/S was a huge advantage. When Abblett left for GC17, they got two first round picks (Caddy and Smelt) helped with the rebuild. As did getting Dangerfield as a free agent. Sydney has used its academy well, which means they get top 3-value picks at pick 16 in consecutive years. They used the COLA well to get Buddy. The three Footscray players you mentioned are quite handy for them.
Think of all time and money invested in 'finding that 1%', how many percent does a Gazza or Buddy being gifted to you represent? Bondy's not playing on a level playing field.
Now, we could have tried to trade up in the draft the last five years, but that meant giving up something of value, and frankly, the expansion teams had all the picks, and had no intention of getting veterans. So we went after free agents, but it hasn't been a friendly market for Freo. That's not to say we haven't kicked the tires. If Bond was outplayed by his contemporaries, we have no way of knowing how much of that is on Bond.
My guess is Bond is just very conservative, but how would any of us know? Certainly attempts at incremental improvement aren't very exciting, but they are a damn sight better than a what we've had in the past. Pav speaks highly of him, and Roly and the Steves are pretty mercenary. If they thought he was making them look bad, he'd be gone in minutes. And yet he's still there.
Also, if not Bond, then who?
