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.
SportsFanGC
Roar Guru
2015 is a massive season for the Giants to gain some credibility, respect and get themselves noticed. Some commentators believe that their list is better than the Suns and this will show over the course of time. I am not convinced as I think the Suns list has just as much talent, if not more than the Giants, along with the fact that they have been able to learn from G Ablett Jr during their formative years, a luxury that the Giants have not had. Marketing is still the biggest problem for this club from an off-field perspective. The name is ridiculous (drop the Greater already) and the overly close affiliation with Canberra when they have not even come close to getting people in West Sydney interested in them.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Every big club in Melbourne would have been chasing him in a year's time.
MC
Guest
Seems like the writer was unaware that Steele taken at pick 24 was actually an academy selection and during the academy bidding process the roos actually made a bid of there first round pick on Steele forcing GWS to use a second round pick on him. And was widely viewed as a first round selection so to say that he was some kind of reach is way off base. Also on list size they could of selected 2 more players if they choose as they had an extended list up to 48 players but went with 46.
mds1970
Roar Guru
If the deal hadn't been done, GWS would have had a disgruntled second-year player on a rookie contract; but the Bulldogs would have had a disgruntled captain on top dollar. The consequences of no deal being done would have hurt the Bulldogs more than the Giants. In the end, the Bulldogs blinked first.
Aransan
Guest
They could have offered Boyd up to $1,250k in a years time which would highly unlikely have been matched by another club, of course Boyd might have chosen to go elsewhere for less but you can get a guaranteed champion for that money.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
That's pretty much it. The dogs management knew that to wait another year, he is gobbled up by a big club. The Griffin deal allowed them to get him now (at a price). If all goes well (still a bit of a risk) the dogs end up with a player who under normal circumstances they would not have a hope in hell of getting.
alicesprings
Guest
I wouldn't be surprised if GWS continues to have a couple top10 picks for the next few years as the odd elite prospect decides to move on. In many ways the draft for them has become quite predictable. No doubt next year they again will have a couple in the top10, a player from canberra & a player from the Riverina.
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
I think they were a little nervous of what the waiting game might do and probably felt they had to do something, given their captain was defecting. My reckoning is that the level of investment in Boyd is a gamble beyond his current worth and emotions probably played no small part. I wonder if they had an experienced football manager in place whether they would've done that deal.
Aransan
Guest
I still have trouble understanding that Tom Boyd deal. The Bulldogs effectively gave up picks 4 and 6, and are subsidising Griffen to the tune of $250k p.a. to get Boyd for a million a year. If the Bulldogs had waited a year they would have had picks 4 and 6 this year and could have paid Boyd up to $1,250k p.a. to get him a year later for no extra cost. Well done GWS!
mds1970
Roar Guru
The Giants had those early picks this time round more by accident than design. The plan all along was to trade pick 4 for Ryan Griffen; and if the Bulldogs wanted more to throw in pick 7 for some Bulldog steak knives. But then along came the Tom Boyd deal; and with less than 24 hours to go, the Giants found themselves not only with Griffen and still having picks 4 & 7, but had pick 6 as well. That trade went better for the Giants than they possibly could have imagined. There's stories floating around about how the Giants, with far more early picks than they had budgetted for, threw around some offers to other clubs for star players during the final hours of the trade period; but they came too late for any deals to be done.
Jackyboy
Guest
Swing and a miss. Steele was an academy member and bid on by north at pick 15 - how would he have been available at 50?