Essendon's Andrew Lovett celebrates a goal during the AFL Round 17 match between the Essendon Bombers and the Richmond Tigers at the MCG. Slattery Images
This time last year, St Kilda didn’t have it in them to take a punt on Ben Cousins. They met with him more than once, they researched thoroughly – all part of what was labelled a “five-month process” – and at the end of it decided he was too big a risk.
Fast forward twelve months and, well, hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?
After a year in which their stance on Cousins went from understandable to a tad regrettable, the club decided they didn’t want to be left wondering again and audaciously traded away their first-round draft pick to get Essendon’s Andrew Lovett.
And just like last year, despite adopting a completely different stance, their move backfired.
Unlike Cousins, the concerns over Lovett did not go away once he joined a new club. Back in 2008, Lovett was twice suspended by the Bombers for off-field indiscretions. Just six weeks after becoming a Saint, he was arrested for being drunk in a public place.
And things hardly improved from there. He was suspended indefinitely from the club shortly after rape allegations emerged and last week was sacked in the wake of charges being laid by Police.
It mightn’t have been the right move legally. It mightn’t have been the right move financially. In fact, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the club hurt in both those areas sometime in the future. But their decision was the right move for the football club – pushing the issue aside for the playing group and coaches right before the start of the season.
Having said all that, you can’t blame them for the initial decision to go after Lovett, as some have chosen to do.
The Lovett saga, coupled with Luke Ball’s controversial departure, have clearly made an easy target out of the Saints this summer.
Damian Barrett wrote in the Herald Sun well before last week’s events that “those decisions – to recruit the troubled Andrew Lovett while providing ample reason for ‘Mr Perfect’ Luke Ball to leave – are the type that can result in the unravelling of years of meaningful progress.”
To an extent, the criticism makes sense. But first of all, the Saints weren’t to know Lovett would misbehave so early into his stint at the club. In fact, like with Cousins, they’d done a fair bit of due diligence. Ross Lyon has kept referring to the ten references he’d collected before going ahead with the trade.
What should be considered above that, though, is exactly what the Saints were facing as trade week progressed.
That was the week where the Ball saga blew up. His presence at the club in 2010 was growing more and more unlikely with each day. Losing him without gaining a ready-made replacement would have been far short of ideal.
On top of that, the club was super keen to make amends for how 2009 played out.
Mainly because they fell so short of winning a premiership and wanted to add that little bit extra to their midfield, perhaps with a player with a bit of “X-factor”.
But also, maybe, because of how the Cousins situation worked out.
A year ago, the Saints performed an extraordinary amount of due diligence on a potential midfield recruit who came with a few risks. In the end they failed to pull the trigger.
When the same situation came up this year, they did the opposite.
But after they pulled the trigger, things just didn’t go to plan.
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