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If those types made up the majority of their best 22 they’ll finish last with a very poor percentage. Without the high picks that situation stays exactly the same for quite a few years after and it takes them longer then GWS to come good.

Those types are the types that made up the majority of Freo’s 1995 list tbh and look where that got us. Port Adelaide got lucky with some better South Australian talent but did recruit slightly better - one or two players from Fitzroy’s demise helped too.

Gold Coast and GWS were set up with increased list sizes but all but about ten players under the age of 20. Around 10-15 of those 18 year olds were a complete waste of time.

The reality is the best model is somewhere in between and something the AFL has not perfected.

It’s a different landscape in 2025-2027. There’s so much that’s been brought in by the AFL list management wise. Things like the Mid Season Draft, SSP, free agency and trading of future picks did not exist when the AFL brought in Gold Coast and GWS. There’s also been the opportunity to learn from concession packages given to North Melbourne and Gold Coast in that time.

What I think we’ll see is compromised drafts over a 2-3 year period but Tasmania given incentives to not just go down the almost all youth model Gold Coast and GWS did. Honestly think the amount of draft picks given to Gold Coast and GWS was about right but there was a lot of other unnecessary concessions which compromised the draft further and discouraged them from adding fringe AFL players and state league talents to their list.