His form has been very patchy in the 2's, every now and then he exhibits a touch of the speed we all heard about, and his excellent leap . . . . but no he hasn't set the ressie watchers hearts aflame. First time we saw him (me and mrs R'n'R), we rechecked the number because his physical development wasn't what we'd come to expect from a 22 year old.
Loose translation from the Latin is - I am tall, so I hit out.
I'll see your Towers and raise you a Dane Rampe, Brandon Jack and Xavier Richards regarding our performance in the 2012 drafts. Even if Towers never improves (and without having seen him, there's no reason why he shouldn't? even if he merely gets back to 2012 form?because you have to go alright to make the VFL team of the year), on very very early indications the net result has been a big win for our list.
But drafting is very much a marathon not a sprint, and even more so for talls. LJ was looking increasingly assured on the park and ready to take the next step up and establish himself at AFL level, prior to his injury. White is probably in career-best form 6.5 years after he arrived at the joint; Justin Westhoff (turning our attention to our opponents this weekend) has had what must be statistically his best year by a mile, 6 years after debuting, and after looking like a plodder who wouldn't get a game in top-8 sides for many of the intervening years. There are plenty of similar examples with big guys; including one T Richards, who was hardly a discard? being traded for a first round draft pick which got the Swans plenty of criticism at the time for having overpaid? but at the age of 23 he still hadn't established himself as more than a fringe AFL selection. Plus he didn't hit his absolute best until the age of 29!
Once you do your due diligence, interviews, weigh up character, strengths & weaknesses, potential to improve etc etc, the draft still remains a crapshoot to some extent. To actually claim that a club got a selection 'wrong', you need to show that it wasn't the right call based on what was known (or realistically knowable) at the time the selection was made. To say that a particular selection in 2008 was wrong based on what is known in 2013, is about as helpful as waiting until the dice has already been rolled and then berating the losing punters with 'you shoulda bet on 3? it was obviously always going to be 3!'
1. Lockyer was taken at pick 43 and looked a steal that late in the draft as he was expected to go much higher. We should remember that Lamb didn't start showing something until the back half of his second year.
2. Towers was in the Swans sights for some time. He seems to have the skills and athleticism, but not the consistency at this point. I think we took him because we felt he had a lot of development left in him. Although he's 23, he's had a delayed start to his career and we should think of him more as a 19 year old. Way too soon to pass judgment on him.
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