Reasons to be cheerful-Part 2 List management extaordinaire

[White Winmar]

Ever since Peter Summers declared, "We might as well win the bloody thing!", I've been looking for evidence that this is so, or if it's just another empty bunch of words designed to mollify us, the great unwashed membership. We've heard it all before. Many times, in fact. Who could forget the disaster that was Greg Wasteaway? Butterssss and GT came close, but alas, no cigar. Barney the dinosaur got us within a kick or two of heaven, but some fundamental failings in his methods saw us fall just short.

On to the new regime. Like Big Kev when he was alive, I'm excited! Is this just another false dawn, supported by a desperately optimistic Saints fan (is there any other kind at this time of the year?)? No. I'll tell you why. Our incredibly good record of drafting, list management and trading over the past four years. Coupled with the appointment of a top class coach and his raft of assistants, I believe we are in a position to emulate the filth in 2010. Remember their heartbreaking GF losses in '02-03? Especially the latter, when they were favourites as we were in '09. They rallied to win seven years after their last loss. How long has it been since our last GF loss? That's right, seven years. We have built up slowly, but surely. I want to outline this in the following paragraphs. Kudos to Ameet and the entire recruiting team. It just goes to show what full-time, professional staff can do for your business.

2013

The year we jettisoned Watters and finally found the right man in AR.
Traded in : Longer and Savage, Drafted: Billings, Dunstan & Acres. Rookied : Templeton, Holmes and WELLER. All still on the list bar Eli. All an important part of the squad going forward.

2014

Drafted: McCartin, Goddard, McKenzie (For the Stanley trade draft pick) and Lonie. Rookie elevations: WELLER (Straight into the leadership group) and Minchington the meatball. Rookie: Jack Sinclair, Schneider, Saad and Payne.

2015

Traded: Carlisle (Got 14 back) and Freeman (former pick 10)
Drafted: Gresham (absolute gun) White and Rice (FS). Elevated Sinclair, Rookied O'Kearney, Coughlin and Saunders.

2016

Traded: Steele, Nathan Brown (RFA) and Koby Stevens.
Drafted: Long, Battle and Phillips.
Elevated Rookie: Jason Holmes
Rookied: Marshall (future gun), Connellan and Joyce.
First round pick in next year's draft from Hawthorn.

Lots of space left in the TPP salary cap to snare one or even two free agents. That is smart planning in anyone's language. We can boost the list further through trade and free agency in the next three years because of what has been set up now. If we keep managing it the right way, there is no reason we can't do a Sydney or Geelong and be up there for a decade. We are in good hands. The record of "hits" compared to the misses of the previous five years is extraordinary. It is on such competence that dynasties are built. The best recruits we've had, however, in the past five years have been Summers, Bains and Finnis. As my old mate, the late and great Yabby used to say, "You don't win flags with s*** administrations, sonny." i think at long last, we may have all our ducks in a row. I'm excited!

[cwrcyn]

From what i understand, the club is very bullish on Brandon White, and Nick O'Kearney may well end up being the quiet achiever. Steele was a steal, and Koby Stevens will be better than some think. I hope you're right in your assessment on Marshall. Another competent key position player would be a huge bonus. I look forward to seeing him play.

[st.byron]

Great summary WW. The off field substance in the club indeed. And everyone seems to be very much on the same page.

Had forgotten Sinclair was a rookie pick. Could also be a quality player.

[evertonfc]

Good signs. Long, long way to go yet, especially without elite talent. Strong collective core though, and the most balanced list I can ever remember.

[White Winmar]

Good signs. Long, long way to go yet, especially without elite talent. Strong collective core though, and the most balanced list I can ever remember.

Have to agree, EFC. All we need is the cherry on the top. One of Martin, Fyffe, Kelly et al. The nucleus is there. Very smart building from Ameet. We've hardly missed with a pick in four years. One of the best records of any club, I would suggest. If only it would guarantee us a flag........

[Toy Saint]

Fantastic work by the club to build such a balanced team with depth.....our challenge will be GWS in the next era...the AFL have ensured they are loaded with the very best high end tallent available...

[BigMart]

List Mgt since 2013 has been good

[Bluthy]

Far, far too early to talk to say "extraordinaire". Depth doesn't necessarily equate to great list management if you don't also have the class. Our list looks more even with less high and lows but what is the average level it is at? We won't know until we play this year.

Even our depth can be questioned as we come from an internal, myopic, everyone-a-potential-gun viewpoint. Have any of our discards been picked up by other clubs the way Dogs, Hawks, Sydney etc do regularly? How good are Sincs, Lonie, Wright, Minch etc if they couldn't force their way in to a bottom eight team and got jumped over by a totally green small like Gresham?

Its been a good turn around of the list, but whether we have gone for pumping so games into many less-than-elite players like Weller, Savage, Delaney etc over bottoming out more to get the real top end draft talent is yet to be seen.

[Saintmatt]

From what i understand, the club is very bullish on Brandon White, and Nick O'Kearney may well end up being the quiet achiever. Steele was a steal, and Koby Stevens will be better than some think. I hope you're right in your assessment on Marshall. Another competent key position player would be a huge bonus. I look forward to seeing him play.

No one should have the slows on Koby Stevens. He was in the Dogs best 22 in the middle of last year before he was injured. He's a bull - powerful and strong and deceptively tall @ 189cm

[cwrcyn]

Even though we don't have a high number of top shelf players, if we get 7 or 8 injuries, at least our current depth can comfortably cover it. Go back to 2009, where we had a lot of high quality players. If we had more than 3 out, we'd end up playing guys like Robert Eddy or worse. Who would you prefer? Robert Eddy or Brandon White/Darrren Minchington?

[White Winmar]

Far, far too early to talk to say "extraordinaire". Depth doesn't necessarily equate to great list management if you don't also have the class. Our list looks more even with less high and lows but what is the average level it is at? We won't know until we play this year.

Even our depth can be questioned as we come from an internal, myopic, everyone-a-potential-gun viewpoint. Have any of our discards been picked up by other clubs the way Dogs, Hawks, Sydney etc do regularly? How good are Sincs, Lonie, Wright, Minch etc if they couldn't force their way in to a bottom eight team and got jumped over by a totally green small like Gresham?

Its been a good turn around of the list, but whether we have gone for pumping so games into many less-than-elite players like Weller, Savage, Delaney etc over bottoming out more to get the real top end draft talent is yet to be seen.

Well, Bluthy, a bit of hyperbole might have crept in because of all the excitement, but I think the strike rate of the past four years has been remarkable, especially when compared to the Lyon period. That extends not just to selection and trading, but development. It seems our youngsters are coming along very nicely, especially when that was not a strength in previous years. I'm biased about Gresham, but I can tell you why he leapfrogged the others. Because he's an absolute gun, who'll end up elite, or very close to it. A great selection, especially at what was effectively pick 18.

You're right of course, we won't know until the rubber hits the road, but I can honestly look at our current list and find it difficult to name anyone who represents a significant weakness. In previous years there were always a few who you thought would go at the end of the year and often we were right. Apart from Shinna and maybe Joey retiring at year's end, at this stage no one looks in danger of losing their spot. Long way to go, of course. The evenness of the list is it's strength. As I stated earlier, all we need is the cherry to go on the top. An elite midfielder or two. With two first rounders and FA, I reckon we'll get there. In Ameet we trust!

[Winmar]

Good signs. Long, long way to go yet, especially without elite talent. Strong collective core though, and the most balanced list I can ever remember.

I was thinking something similar earlier. Even in 1991-92 and 2009-10 the bottom end wasn't this good. The side doesn't have enough talent of the Winmar-Lockett-Loewe-Harvey variety yet, but the core is excellent on current evidence. Some of that is of course based on potential. We're assuming that most of Billings, Acres, McKenzie, Gresham, Goddard, McCartin et al will become very good to excellent players, because none of them are there yet.