The great Warren Tredrea of Port Adelaide joined in with Hawthorn trainer Alastair Clarkson’s complaints about the AFL being compromised when the Hawks embarked on reconstruction.
Clarkson’s Hawks were the first team to lose to the 18th Adelaide Crows. The four-time Premiership winner had no illusions about what was in store for his club.
Clarkson, however, struggled with the 2020 draft being compromised as numerous top prospets were already club-tied due to existing academy systems, such as potential first choice in the overall standings, Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, who went to the Bulldogs.
“It’s a bug bear of mine … that talk about Queensland maybe getting the Grand Final and it wouldn’t be great for the code up there,” said Clarkson after the loss.
“Still, there are two clubs up there that reach the entire state in terms of access to young talent.
“Sydney and GWS share all of New South Wales in terms of all the talent coming through this state. And Brisbane and Gold Coast do so in the north.
“People say, ‘Oh, why don’t you just rebuild, just go to the design’.
“You can’t go to the draft, it’s so compromised.
“So you have to do it with other mechanisms, a free hand, the depths of your rookie lists.”
Clarkson was backed by Tredrea who said the master coach was on the right track despite sounding like he was apologizing.
“Alastair Clarkson is now facing the original journey, which he inherited for the first time in late 2004. He has to make a list again,” he told Wide World of Sports. Talk about the city.
“He does it on the back of older players, Gunston is a star, Shiels is a star, so is Breust, but there are also aging veterans whose careers are nearing the end.
“You have to go to draft now and go hard to draft. What he said last night may sound like an excuse, and it’s all convenient because Hawthorn is fighting, but he wasn’t shy about it, and I’m like that Clarko.
“He said if I had my time and it wasn’t for a year I’d rip the players off, but realistically he’s right, he’s going into a compromised draft.
“He can sit and give the AFL whatever he wants, but the reality is we have known that for a long time.”
