26/11/2009 10:58 PM
One thing is patently clear now that the national draft is over and that is Collingwood and the Brisbane Lions believe they are now genuine premiership contenders next season.
Whether that indeed turns out to be the case remains to be seen but after the Pies got their wish and secured former St Kilda captain Luke Ball in Thursday night's draft and the Lions continued their extraordinary off-season recruiting spree by giving another Saint in Matt Maguire a second chance - it is obvious both clubs are focused on the here and now rather than long-term planning for the future.
The Lions and Pies have clearly sacrificed youth in this year's draft in favour of adding experience to teams they clearly believe are now not far off dethroning Geelong and St Kilda as the AFL's best teams.
Of course the Lions are coming off a first finals campaign in five years in reaching the semi-finals this year while the Magpies are just coming off their fourth finals campaign in a row and their second preliminary final appearance in three years.
The Pies secured 25-year-old Ball with their second round pick on Thursday night at pick 30 after having already given away their first and third round picks during trade week to secure 28-year-old Sydney ruckman Darren Jolly.
And the Lions not only picked up controversial Carlton spearhead and dual Coleman Medalist Brendan Fevola during trade week but a host of other recycled players from rival clubs in Richmond's Andrew Raines, West Coast's Brent Staker, St Kilda's Xavier Clarke and Sydney's Amon Buchanan.
As a result the Magpies and Lions will now field two of the most experienced teams in the AFL next season and will be more than confident they can match the Cats and the
Saints for experience and mental and physical toughness next season, if not skill.
For the Lions in particular, it’s a bold gamble coming in just Voss' second season in charge but makes sense at a time when the few remaining members of their all-conquering team from 2001-04 in champion midfielders Simon Black and Luke Power and to a lesser extent inspirational skipper Jonathan Brown are nearing the end of their careers.
But as Voss explained to Sportal immediately after Thursday night's draft - experience does not necessarily guarantee a club premiership success although it's hard to win one without it.
"I would like to think we could have a real crack at it (the flag next year) but unfortunately one thing doesn't mean another in this industry," he said when asked if the Lions stockpiling of experienced players for next year was a sign of their premiership intentions.
"The moment you think that, that is the moment you end up getting bitten on the butt."
Voss said the challenge for his new-look team would be to now gel quickly next year.
"Historically it's said that to be a premiership team you have got to be together for a while and now we have added a few new players to our group it’s about them being able to gel quickly."
"So that is the challenge we are going to have over four to six months and we need total commitment if we are going to have that chance but I think we can put a program around them and hopefully we can go full throttle from there."
If the Lions bold recruiting strategy works next year then Voss - having already captained three Brisbane premiership teams - will have the same reputation as a coach that he enjoyed as a player but if it goes wrong and the Lions go backwards at least it will be his own mess to clean up.
But that is not the case at Collingwood where the Pies' bid to top up their list next season and ignore youth in what is the last draft before the addition of the new Gold Coast and West Sydney clubs will harm the coaching prospects of coach-in-waiting Nathan Buckley if it backfires.
After the announcement of this year's much-hyped coaching transition with veteran coach Mick Malthouse to hand the reins reluctantly to his protégé Buckley at the end of the 2011 season, it's obvious Malthouse's recruiting strategy has been all about the present with little regard for the future list that Buckley will inherit.
In powerful big man Jolly and hard-working midfielder Ball, Malthouse is hoping those two players will finally deliver the premiership he has been craving for since joining Collingwood in 2000.
Again if it works Malthouse's career - which already includes two flags at West Coast - will be complete but if it backfires and the Magpies fall away in his last two years in charge then as a result it will take Buckley that much longer to re-build the Pies' playing list in future seasons having passed up the chance to get more youth into the club this year by using their first three draft picks on Ball and Jolly.