10 years ago, this time of year.

[bulldogtragic]

How good are we, we landed this blonde haired freak this year. He will win a brownlow, and everyone says Ray is like a young Robbie Flower. And we are trading geniuses, Koops, Rawlings and Street all for top picks. Nathan Brown is Judas.

This 2004 draft we get this freak Griffen, we rate him best in draft. And this Williams guy is nearly 200cm and runs really well, he's played some footy. And Jesse Wells is an athletic freak. Steve Tiller goes top 10 next year, so pick 54 is a bargain.

New coach sacked after 3 seasons.

....

My point is three fold. One, one days dreams can turn into another days nightmares. 7 top draft picks in 2 years, 4 within the top 6 picks. The draft age in its prime still (see Griffen, Mundy etc).
Two, scary how history repeats!!!! 10 years and we find ourselves back almost in the same spot. What have we learned?
Three, Judas 1 netted us a gift we threw away. Must learn with J2. Must go to the draft. Granted we contended 3 prelims, we didn't draft non-project talls early, is this a footy life lesson or matter of circumstance?

I think if one looks at this time, we went from basket case to contender in 4 years. Mistakes at draft and trading for established players for short time may have cost us. The snap shot is earily similar with coach, player discontent, best player walking out, high draft picks. The club that doesn't learn from its past mistakes is condemned to repeat them. What's the lessons from this time 10 years ago to turn a pretty good rebuild into a premiership winning one?

[bulldogtragic]

Now on the other side of sleep. The rebuild mentioned had a 4 year timeline to prelims, does new rebuild have the same expectation?

[ratsmac]

I don't want to wait another bloody 4 years (whilst stamping my feet). Wow the similarities are uncanny aren't they. The two recruits that we were most excited about are part of the group that have been causing the unrest at the club (obviously the coach has played his part as well). Hopefully we get our trades right this time and instead of bringing in the Tillers, Streets and Rawlings we bring the Franklins, Hodges and Selwood types. And instead of prelims they are premierships.

[Scorlibo]

That list was a bit further along than the one we have now. We had Johnno and Westy in their prime, the '99 crop just on the brink of maturity and the young, electrifying Cooney and Griffen.

[bulldogtragic]

That list was a bit further along than the one we have now. We had Johnno and Westy in their prime, the '99 crop just on the brink of maturity and the young, electrifying Cooney and Griffen.
Not identical for sure. But the position of many high draft picks as a result of things not going well is. Assuming the while we need ready make book ends is still around then what does the trading for short term game 10 years teach us, is more the question. Then looking at we didn't draft, key talls with high picks, left us without a KPF during 08-10 prelims. Does that factor in to learning any lessons?

[Scorlibo]

Not identical for sure. But the position of many high draft picks as a result of things not going well is. Assuming the while we need ready make book ends is still around then what does the trading for short term game 10 years teach us, is more the question. Then looking at we didn't draft, key talls with high picks, left us without a KPF during 08-10 prelims. Does that factor in to learning any lessons?

Yes well now is the time to snare a couple of promising key position players - at both ends. I feel like if we were 4 years away then, we're 5 years away now. But that doesn't mean we can't play finals sooner rather than later. We came very close in 2005 to making finals, before winning a final in 2006. I think we can play finals in 2016, but that we may linger around the bottom half of the top eight for a couple of years, adjusting for the retirements of Minson, Boyd, Morris and Murphy.