The best way to get quality talls is to draft them in the top 5 and develop them. 16*, 13, 17, 17, 16, 20. That's our highest picks in the last six drafts. I think it's fair to say a talented tall was not going to be handed to us.
The options in those circumstances are to develop the best talls you can get at later selections, trade (including trading up in the draft), or try and attract a free agent.
We've explored all of those options to various degrees. Barlow didn't get a sniff of the top 10 in the Doig Medal this year, yet the thought of trading him upset people. We threw money at big name forwards, which upset people. We went after a young forward who wanted to come home, and it didn't work. I don't know if we tried trading up in the draft, but for most of those years GWS and GC had the plum selections, and at that point only cared about hoarding high picks.
It's all well and good to say Freo should have done more, but I'm not sure what more they could have done. As it stands, we have the best team defence in the league, and arguably the best midfield / ruck combination. We need a bit more outside class, which we got this trade period. We have the best small forward combination in the league. We have one of the best defensive forwards in Mayne. We just need a big lug who can take a mark and kick goals. As it turns out, that happens to be one of the rarest commodities in the league. We don't have an elite version of that player, but we potentially have two useful players in Tabs and Apeness.
Oh, and we were a Fyfe leg injury and bad umpiring away from making our second Grand Final in three years (having already butchered our chance to win one).
Perhaps Bond and his team aren't perfect, but you'd be hard-pressed to say they are doing a bad job.
