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THE 2002-2005 national drafts were a recruiting black hole for Richmond, one from which the Tigers are still trying to extract themselves.

Hamstrung by a vastly under-resourced recruiting department during those years, Richmond wasted a succession of top-25 picks.

No Tiger fan has been allowed to forget how Richmond took Richard Tambling at pick No.4 in the 2004 national draft, one pick ahead of superstar spearhead Lance Franklin.

But Richmond had three subsequent picks in the top 20 that year – Danny Meyer (No. 12), Adam Pattison (16) and Dean Polo (20) – all of whom were gone from Punt Rd by the end of 2010, none ever more than bit players.

Then, in 2005, there was Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls at pick No. 8, who played 13 games in four seasons, and Cleve Hughes at No. 24, who was gone after 16 games in three seasons.

Before them, Alex Gilmour, pick No. 21 in 2003, failed to play a game in two seasons.

But it is the Tigers' first selection in that horror recruiting stretch who continues to haunt them.

At pick No. 12 in 2002, Richmond selected key forward Jay Schulz from Woodville-West Torrens in the SANFL.

After 71 underwhelming games from 2003-2009, few Tiger fans were sorry to see Schulz go when Richmond traded him to Port Adelaide for Mitch Farmer and pick No.71 (Ben Nason).

Oakley-Nicholls (West Coast), Meyer (Port Adelaide), Pattison and Polo (both St Kilda) all got second AFL chances too, but none did anything at their new clubs to make the Tigers second-guess the decision to move them on.

But how much would Richmond love to have Schulz prowling its forward 50 alongside Jack Riewoldt now?

The serial disappointment Tiger fans once knew has transformed himself into a one-grab dead-eye Dick at Port.

Schulz's eight-goal haul against the Western Bulldogs on Saturday equalled Warren Tredrea's club record and took him to 43 goals for the season and a five-goal lead in the Coleman Medal race.

Schulz also took 14 marks against the Bulldogs, six of them contested and 10 inside the Power's forward 50. Along with Fremantle giant Aaron Sandilands, he now leads the competition in contested marks (29), while he is third in the AFL for marks inside forward 50 (51).

WATCH: Saturday showreel - Schulz mauls the Bulldogs
In 84 games with the Power, Schulz has now kicked 198 goals at an average of 2.4 goals a game, triple his output at Richmond (0.8 goals a game).

Schulz is on course to smash his previous best season goal tally of 49 majors last year and, at 29, is at the peak of his powers.

He is also exactly the tall target the Tigers are crying out for to support Riewoldt.

Despite Richmond's bumpy season, Riewoldt has battled hard to kick 37 goals, the third-best tally in the competition.

However, the Tiger spearhead desperately needs a partner in crime, with Tyrone Vickery the Tigers' next best performed key forward this year, with 13 goals in eight games.

Vickery, 24, has shown promise in his six seasons at Punt Road, but like a lot of young key-position players struggles to deliver on a consistent basis.

Ditto Ben Griffiths, 22, who has even further to go to become a reliable AFL key forward.

Of course, we're assuming Schulz would have turned his career around if he had stayed at Punt Road.

Perhaps he wouldn't have. Perhaps the South Australian needed to return home to get the best out of himself.

Whatever the case, one thing's clear – the former Tiger is now one of the best key forwards in the competition.

On the shoulders of Giants

Greater Western Sydney has come a long way in the month since its disastrous 113-point loss to Richmond in round 10.

That loss followed a 111-point loss to West Coast in round eight and left the Giants looking a non-competitive rabble, who were well behind the pace being set by their elder sibling, Gold Coast.

But after fighting losses against Hawthorn and Essendon and last round's 45-point win over the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba, the Giants added the Blues' scalp to their collection.

It's no coincidence that the Giants' form spike has occurred since Shane Mumford's return from the injury. The big ruckman sets the physical tone for his young teammates with his bullocking work at stoppages, but the Giants' young midfield brigade of Dylan Shiel, Adam Treloar, Stephen Coniglio and Lachie Whitfield is rapidly emerging to support inspirational co-captain Callan Ward.

Sunday's was the first back-to-back win in the Giants' two-and-a-half season history - made even more meritorious by the absence of star forward Jeremy Cameron. His sidekick Jonathon Patton (two goals) shouldered much of the aerial load, as Rhys Palmer chipped in with three goals and Shiel and Will Hoskin-Elliott added two each.

The Suns had eight wins in their third season last year and, no doubt, the Giants, now 4-9 and 14th on the ladder, will be looking to get as close to that mark as possible in the home run.

WATCH: Match highlights - GWS v Carlton

There's more to Gold Coast than Gaz

Like the Giants' defeat of Carlton, Gold Coast's win over Geelong was the biggest in the club's fledgling history.

With clashes against Hawthorn (away) and Collingwood (home) to follow, and with Essendon and Adelaide breathing down their necks, the Suns had to stand up against the Cats – who they had never beaten – or risk watching their finals hopes disappear faster than the sun on a Melbourne winter's day.

Things did not look great when a Tom Hawkins goal put the visitors 17 points up at the 11-minute of the third term.

But the Suns then poured on eight goals in a row – three from man-of-the-match Harley Bennell – to give the Cats a taste of the medicine they have forced down opponents' throats so many times over the past decade.

Bennell was simply superb with six goals, seemingly finding space at will on the Suns' forward line and picking the ball up in one grab in greasy conditions where others were handling it like a cake of soap.

But perhaps the biggest accolade we can pay the young Sun is that he reduced the great Gary Ablett to a supporting role.

It was some supporting role – 33 touches and a goal – but the fact remains the Suns' reliance on Ablett is gradually fading.

WATCH: Revved-up Harley buries the Cats
With Dion Prestia one of the Suns' most consistent players this season, David Swallow enjoying a breakthrough season, Jaeger O'Meara making a mockery of the second-year blues and highly touted first-year player Jack Martin returning from injury with a positive performance against the Cats, the Suns suddenly have the midfield depth to trouble most sides. In Bennell, O'Meara and Martin in particular, they might ultimately have the edge in midfield class over GWS when the expansion siblings mature over the coming seasons.

But that's a debate for another time.

QUESTION TIME

Are the Hawks rising to back-to-back challenges?
Winning back-to-back premierships is more difficult than an inward four-and-a-half somersault tuck from the 10m platform. But it's hard to recall any defending premier having had more thrown at it than Hawthorn in recent memory. If significant injuries to key players such as Sam Mitchell, Brian Lake, Cyril Rioli, Josh Gibson and Ben Stratton weren't bad enough, the Hawks have been without senior coach Alastair Clarkson for the past month as he recovers from the rare auto-immune disease Guillain-Barre syndrome. When Brendon Bolton stepped in as caretaker coach ahead of Hawthorn's round 11 clash with GWS, the Hawks had lost consecutive games to the Sydney Swans and Port Adelaide to slip to fourth on the ladder. The Hawks were confident at the time that Bolton was up to the task and so it has proved, with the reigning premiers winning all four games to date under Clarkson's long-term assistant. The Hawks' biggest test under Bolton came against Collingwood on Saturday and they passed with flying colours, continuing their recent dominance over the Pies with a sixth straight win. The Hawks should be back to full strength by September and, luck permitting, will again give the flag one hell of a shake. The Magpies, on the other hand, look a little off the pace set by competition big boys Port Adelaide, Hawthorn, Sydney Swans and Fremantle.

Is Hayden Ballantyne the competition's best small forward?
The Fremantle little man has had an outstanding fortnight, backing up his six-goal haul against Richmond in round 13 with five majors against the Brisbane Lions on Saturday night. It leaves Ballantyne on 27 goals from 12 games, equal 12th in the competition, with Luke Breust (35 goals) and Jamie Elliott the only medium/small forwards ahead of him. Of course, Ballantyne offers Freo more than just goals, with his defensive pressure and ability to get under the opposition's skin invaluable. That said, we have Port Adelaide's Chad Wingard and Breust slightly ahead of him and, when fit, possibly even his Fremantle teammate Michael Walters. Mind you, we could be forced to reassess Ballantyne's standing if he can put this disappointing 2013 Grand Final behind him this September.

Nick Bowen: It was a very contentious weekend on the score review front, Sophie. The decision to overturn Jack Ziebell's 'goal' in the final quarter of North Melbourne's win over Melbourne was hard to fathom. It seemed the goal umpire's chief concern was whether Ziebell's kick had cleared the goal line – which it clearly did – but then the reviewing umpire found that the ball had hit the post. Now this column freely admits it can't get by without its glasses or contact lenses, but we defy anyone with 20-20 vision to say the available video footage conclusively showed that Ziebell's kick hit the post. Ziebell agreed with us when he took to Twitter after the game.Unfortunately, the goal reviewer also got it wrong when they overturned Kane Cornes' 'goal' against the Western Bulldogs on Saturday, ruling that Bulldogs' veteran Robert Murphy touched the ball off Cornes' boot. Again, there seemed plenty of doubt that should have gone Cornes' way. That said, we don't share the concern over the decision not to review Ben Howlett's boundary-line cracker in Essendon's win against Adelaide. For starters, the video evidence looked inconclusive. And to those who say Howlett's kick went so close to the post it should have been reviewed as a matter of course, the AFL says all goals are reviewed automatically before the ball is bounced to restart play. Besides, we, for one, are more than happy for goal umpires to back themselves and not fall back on technology with every other decision.


NB: Can understand your frustration, Hank. Losing to GWS has come with a stigma for the past two-and-a-half seasons, but that's fast changing as their youngsters mature, especially when you play them on their home deck. But enough about the Giants, we know you're more concerned about Carlton. And fair enough, too. The Blues have been competitive since their 0-4 start to the season, but too often have been let down by a lack of class. They'll need to make every pick a winner at the next few drafts and be aggressive at the trade/free agency table to drag themselves back up the ladder in the next few seasons.
NB: There's no doubt it's the rule that most frustrates footy fans, Ken. Our beef is that the umpires are occasionally too quick to ping a player pinned on the bottom of a pack – too often when they've called a ball-up in similar situations for most of the game – and that they call play on more often than not when a player running with the ball is tackled and the ball spills free. Surely, the player in the second scenario generally has more prior opportunity.


NB: You might remember, Tim, that Tom was very critical of the five young Lions who successfully sought trades back to their home states at the end of last year, so it would take a Matthew Mitcham-style backflip for him to follow their lead. From outside the Gabba, Rockliff appears the Lions' best young leader and someone who bleeds maroon, blue and gold. He'll know too that with the return of Daniel Rich and Matthew Leuenberger next year better times are not as far off for the Lions as they appear now.


NB: You're probably right. Now two games outside the eight, the Crows will need a minor miracle to extend their season into September. Especially when four of their nine remaining games are against top-eight teams. But we can write them off now if they can't eradicate the inconsistency that has seen them go win, loss, win, loss for the past eight rounds. With a forward line led by Taylor Walker and Eddie Betts and a midfield boasting Patrick Dangerfield, Rory Sloane and Scott Thompson, the Crows look like world-beaters at times. But they looked more beatable than the Washington Generals when Essendon piled on seven straight goals in the opening quarter on Saturday night, and can't afford any similar lapses for the rest of the year.


NB: Hi Doron, good question, but think Pies coach Nathan Buckley would be massively relieved that Cloke is back near his best. The spearhead's five-goal haul against the Hawks was his third decent bag in the past four weeks, and not the reason the Pies lost. Their inability to find a tall foil for Cloke is their biggest problem in attack at the moment. Jesse White has struggled in recent weeks after making a bright start to the season, while ruckman Jarrod Witts needed a public boundary-line spray from Buckley to spark him into action in the last quarter against the Hawks.


NB: We loved the Buddy-Rance clash on Friday night. Everyone knows what a flamboyant talent Franklin is at his best, but Rance plays with the attacking verve of former North Melbourne full-back David Dench. We're not for a minute saying Rance is in the same class as Dench, but we love the fact he's not content just to defend and takes the game on whenever he gets the chance. Although Buddy finished with a game-high four goals, Rance could hold his head high after winning the ball 16 times himself, taking six marks and rebounding the ball from defensive 50 four times.

WATCH: Friday showreel - Lance Franklin
Twitter: @afl_nick