ferret wrote:mr fuller, you criticise the Eagles for recruiting/poaching players from other clubs, then you criticise the club again for trying to develop juniors what in bloody hells name do want the club to do, go dig up a few from a spud patch!!!!!! I don't think the Eagles went about poaching in the case of Wundke, he let it be well known he didn't want to stay at south, the club would have been negligent if they hadn't approached him. Just get the chip of your shoulder and have faith in the club.
Incorrect
I have no problem with them backing juniors. But as I mentioned earlier, it is a low percentage option because very few go on to be decent footy players. If they did, a club like Glenelg would be dominating right now given the excellent performances of their reserves in recent years. It just needs to be balanced with recruiting ready made players from outside the club.
As far as poaching from other clubs, I do criticise the way we go about it. Why? Because it shows laziness on behalf of the recruiters. Yes we might get a Wundke from South but is there a better option interstate? Would we even know? Of course, it can be harder to convince a player to move here and requires more work of officials. But the payoffs can be great. North, Norwood, Sturt etc have all done this to good effect in recent years bringing in quality players. Our own efforts have been dismal but maybe we don't have the right people involved. The other thing this practice does is to give the club a general bad reputation. Whether or not it is warranted the club gets tarnished as being sneaky or underhand etc.