Regrets are an inevitable part of life. They come with the territory of breathing and are a part of the unwritten deal we all sign for the right to exist.
Although some contrition can feel enormous โ such as the misery born when a relationship breaks down or after committing a far more criminal act โ others are forgotten in the blink of an eye.
In terms of the unpredictable game of football, there are a plethora of scenarios that have made or broken careers.
What if your star spearhead had kicked straight when it mattered?
What if your side picked a different player from a certain draft?
What if your side could just draft competently?
Well, for fans of every creed we have sought to answer the question that has rankled you for years and kept you up at night for far too long.
We can't promise that we won't open old wounds, as let's face it, that is the entire point of the exercise.
Fromย Adelaideย to the Bulldogs, from Fitzroy to the Bears, here are every club's biggest 'what if' moments since the dawn of theย AFLย era in 1990.
OTHER WHAT IFS:ย Adelaide,ย Brisbane Bears,ย Brisbane Lions,ย Carlton,ย Collingwood,ย Essendon,ย Fitzroy,ย Fremantle,ย Geelong, Gold Coast, GWS, Hawthornย
Heads up, Dees fans. This one gets a bit bleak.
What if Melbourne were more competent at drafting between 2007 and 2013?
From the commencement of the 2007 season until the completion of 2013,ย the Melbourne Football Club proved poor enough to produce a 34-2-118 record.
As woeful as this appears at first glance, it becomes, even more, de(e)pressing when boiled down further, with the once-proud club only able to win 22.08% of these 154 โcontests'.
As the league has rewarded weaker sides with stronger draft picks since 1986, it goes without saying that due to their inability to remain competitive โย even if they weren't actually trying to at timesย โย Melbourne was afforded several bandoliers of blue-chip selections.
Across this torturous stretch that saw the club claim two wooden spoons and never take part in the September action, the Redlegs made a total of 71 draft selections on 64 different players โ with Tom McNamara,ย Jake Spencer,ย Neville Jetta,ย Jordie McKenzie, Daniel Nicholson, Michael Evans and Mitch Clisby each selected twice.
As we are almost a decade down the track from the 2013 AFL Draft, clear hindsight allows us all the chance to fairly grade the players thatย Melbourneย plucked with their war chest of picks.
To truly get to the bottom of how bad the Demons were at identifying and developing talent across this stretch, we need to make like your high school maths teacher and assign either a passing or failing grade to these 64 names.
To do so effectively, we'll need to draw up some guidelines.
To gain a pass mark in this exercise, a player selected between 2007 and 2013 will have needed to have either played 100 games for the club, claimed an All-Australian blazer, won a club best and fairest or led the club for goals in a single season.
After running the rule over our list, the results make for horrendous reading for those whose hearts beat true for the red and the blue.
Of the 64 players that made their way toย Melbourne within this seven-season boundary, only 10 names have managed to surpass at least one of the markers we have laid down โ Jack Grimes,ย Jack Watts,ย Neville Jetta,ย Max Gawn,ย Jeremy Howe,ย Tom McDonald,ย Jack Viney,ย Christian Salem, Jayden Huntย andย James Harmes.
Boil it down further, and the Dees hit on less than 15 per cent of their draft picks.
None of this will be news to Melbourne fans of a certain vintage, but this pick-to-hit rate is beyond dismal.
Despite the fact that the club has rectified these issues since 2014, with names like Petracca, Oliver, Spargo, Fritsch, Pickett, Rivers, Bowey and van Rooyen currently working well under Simon Goodwin, the list of names that could have begun wearing red and blue guernseys is nightmare fuel for Demon diehards.
Ifย Melbourne's recruiting staff were even marginally competent within our previously outlined bounds, then any number of this seemingly never-ending list of names could have been Demons instead:
Patrick Dangerfield
Cyril Rioli
Harry Taylor
Alex Rance
Easton Wood
Ed Curnow
Jack Ziebell
Nic Naitanui
Phil Davis
Daniel Rich
Luke Shuey
Hayden Ballantyne
David Zaharakis
Dayne Beams
Dan Hannebery
Rory Sloane
Liam Shiels
Mitch Robinson
Michael Walters
Michael Hurley
Jordan Roughead
Jack Redden
Hamish Hartlett
Dustin Martin
Liam Picken
Luke Breust
Ben Cunnington
Mitch Duncan
Jack Gunston
David Astbury
Ben Stratton
Nat Fyfe
Dylan Grimes
Michael Barlow
Zach Tuohy
Isaac Smith
Jack Darling
Scott Lycett
Luke Dahlhaus
Luke Parker
Jason Johannisen
Jeremy McGovern
Lachie Neale
Jack Crisp
Mark Blicavs
Jake Stringer
Jack Macrae
Ollie Wines
Nick Vlastuin
Brodie Grundy
Lachie Hunter
Matt Taberner
Dane Rampe
Zac Williams
Dom Sheed
Patrick Cripps
Matt Crouch
Jarman Impey
Zach Merrett
Toby Nankervis
Aliir Aliir
Tom Barrass
Darcy Byrne-Jones
Charlie Cameron
Now, before you start sharpening your knives,ย Melbourneย fanatics, take a breath and remember that not all of these names could have found their way onto your list.
Also, take solace that a vast majority of them were also passed on by a plethora of other clubs.
Still, every single one of them was available to your club when your recruiting team was on the clock.
It is almost impossible to know whetherย Melbourne would have broken their premiership drought earlier had a lot of these superstars become Demons.
However, what should be taken for red is that if some of them had been Demons, there is close to no chance that Melbourne would have missed the finals season after season after season between 2007 and 2017.
Still, with Max, Jack, Christian, Clayton and co steering Melbourne from the depths of hell in 2021, we doubt this dismal stretch is keeping many up at night anymore.
