It is a combination of both luck and patience.
Generally, when a club trades for a player they have a reasonably good idea of what they are going to receive. Although their performance may vary considerably to what they were at their previous club, their overall game style would have been witnessed in the games they had played at AFL level (provided they played some).
On the other hand young draftees have only played against players their own age or senior players at a lower level. Their ability overall is less well known and they are still in a physically developing stage of their life and could undergo a number of changes before they reach their physical peak.
So what are the risk?
The first risk is you pay too much in a trade and the player performs below or around the same level as at their previous club, or they do not fit into your team chemistry and struggle to have an impact. They also have less time left in their career so the benefit you gain is reduced overall.
The positive is you still have a good idea about what to expect from them.
The risk with young draftees if they can best bust as an early pick or become stars from late picks. However, if they do become stars the benefit will be over 10 years for the club (if they keep them) and therefore is much more valuable than a trade.
In my opinion there isn't much difference provided you assess the value of the both the draft and existing footballers successfully to ensure that you don't waste picks either way. Often it pays to be frugal on the trade table as it results in better value overall for the club.
No comments:
Post a Comment