thompsoc wrote:1 That Hine has not given us a proven A grader since Beams in 2008.
Which no one has put up any evidence to the contrary.
I'll assume you're talking about the draft, rather than trades, since he pulled in Ball and Jolly (2 A graders) in 2009 via trades for our first and second round, and in 2010 he traded in Krakouer and Tarrant.
Unless you're expecting A graders to be drafted in the late 3rd round, which is incredibly rare, let's start in 2011. Our first round pick was used as a trade, but let's class it as a draft pick since it was used to secure a pre-listed GWS player in Elliott, with Marty Clarke as steak knives, in a compromised draft.
Now you say Elliott is not A grade. Fair enough. There are many that would disagree with you, many who think he is on the cusp. Since we are using Beams as the yardstick here though, let's take in to account that Beams didn't become regarded as A grade until mid-late 2012 after many consistent performances in his breakout season. By that measure, Elliott should be given at least until mid-late this season for that judgement to be made on him.
If you look at Sidebottom's form late last year and in the Brisbane game, it could be argued that he's on the verge of becoming A grade. It's taken him nearly 7 years to reach that point.
The point being, every player develops differently, and it's way too early to make the call that no A graders have been recruited since 2008. You say nobody has provided any evidence to the contrary, yet at the same time, you have no evidence that Elliott, Grundy, Broomhead, Langdon, Scharenberg, Freeman, DeGoey or Moore will not reach those lofty heights.
The most that can be accurately said is that no A graders were drafted in 2009/10, due to only having late picks available. Anything beyond that is speculative bullshit, both from those who say we've recruited no A graders, and those who say we've recruited several. We won't know how any A graders have been recruited over the past few years for several years.
This has been made clear to you in several threads yet you just seem to ignore it. Just as I suspect you'll do again now. I don't know why I even bothered writing this tbh...