Like fellow expansion club Gold Coast, Greater Western Sydney have spent their initial existence being inundated with talent from the best young players in Australia.
The league’s offering to GWS was around draft picks and with other teams unwilling to part with proven players, GWS have become an example of what can happen when you have too many top picks.
It has been a rough few seasons for the venture in Sydney’s west as the club has battled relevance and more importantly battled to keep young talent from leaving. GWS have been hit by the go-home factor more than any other club over the past five years.
The irony of this revolving door of players means that top draft picks keep coming back in. Good young players go out, top draft picks come in and as 2014 showed, sometimes you can have too many top picks.
GWS had five live selections at the draft, all in the top 25. The interest in the GWS draft is what they did with those last two selections though.
At 23 they took Patrick McKenna, a young player who has only just decided on football after looking set to follow cricket as a preferred career path. And at 24 they took Jack Steele, a player who is joining a rare group as AFL footballers to hail from Canberra. Both these picks should be considered shock picks considering where they went.
However GWS had no other choice but to take these two here. Realistically they could have got both McKenna and Steele passed 50 in the draft, but GWS had no list availability after 24. While the expanded list was handy initially, it has had a negative effect at this draft where they simply could not get a best available and know that McKenna and Steele could be late selections. For the Giants, 23 and 24 were late.
It was a tough spot for GWS because it appears they choose who they liked over best available. It will be a footy hypothetical for years to come, but it is worth noting that GWS passed over Dan Nielsen, Touk Miller, Harrison Wigg, Tom Lamb and Ed Vickers-Willis in the second round. Most draft experts would be higher on that group then the way GWS went.
Still, GWS had little choice. Teams were reluctant to trade with GWS and when they did try and engage GWS could not get the value they desired. By having three top 10 picks they were able to continue to grow the list and in Jarrod Pickett, Caleb Marchbank and Paul Ahern the club have growth.
It is an intriguing trio because of how different they are as individuals. Pickett has enormous talent and has proven himself to revel in the big stage. Marchbank is a key position player who the Giants will have hopes to be a long term fiddle to defensive leader Phil Davis.
Ahern, meanwhile, is a prototypical modern midfielder with excellent endurance, good speed and good foot skills. This trio in terms of skill set seem to complement each other well and add some finishing touches to a list that has rapidly transitioned over the past two off-seasons.
GWS have always seemed to have a big picture in mind with the draft and list management. They always seemed to have a plan of where and how they would get to success. Pieces seem to be in place and this is a club that now no longer needs the top picks, they need on-field results.
2015 may be that year.
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