It’s not a great sales pitch if you’re Geelong. “Look, uh, whatsyourname, we haven’t played you the last couple of years because we’ve been quite good and we didn’t think you could help us win a flag, but we shape to be terrible for years to come, so there’s a good chance you’ll crack the seniors soon.”
Getting Clark on the cheap would be great, but I don’t think it’s a priority and I don’t think Geelong would let him go for what we should be offering. .
The choice is a little artificial, but I think Freo needs to decide whether it’s star-hunting or filling out a squad.
If you look at this year’s Grand Finalists as an example, I reckon you need 4 or 5 elite players or game breakers, and then you need to put the complementary players around them.
So, for Melbourne you’ve got guys like Oliver, Petracca, Gawn and May, then some very good players across every part of the ground. Footscray have Bont, Macrae, Smith and Naughton, then very good depth around them. With the exception of Gawn and May (who was a zone selection), all of those players were top 10 picks.
Fast forward a couple of years, and Freo’s best 5 players currently listed are likely to include Brayshaw, Darcy and Young, but I’m not sure who else will be joining them. I’m not sure that’s enough top-end talent to challenge for a Premiership.
Losing Cerra hurts because you’re losing a top 5 player and you don’t get many swings at them. The ‘get Clark and change’ model makes more sense if you you’ve got the bedrock of enough top-end talent, but I just don’t think we do yet.
I’ll defer to Bizkit on the picks, but I reckon we should focus on getting/keeping two top 10 picks to take Erasmus and Amiss, and hope you have enough draft capital in the late first round / early second to grab some of the other young WA guys.
Anything other than a second round pick for Clark and I reckon Freo would be better off taking a swing on a draft pick.