04-04-2021, 04:35 AMEmiko Wrote:

04-04-2021, 04:28 AMDELIRIVM Wrote: I haven't a horse in this race. I do feel for people not being drafted. I understand both sides of this situation. As a former GM, it's always hard to have a player tell you that they don't like your branding, your team, and don't want to be there. But I don't think it's wrong to be upfront about what you want as a player. Despite saying that, you have to be prepared when you make a statement like that to not be taken. I hate seeing people left out and I believe that inclusivity should be a big thing we push in this league (and I think the league does do it well in most cases). But I can say that seeing people who actively want to be involved in the league shunned or left out, it's definitely something that sucks.

Wish you and Valour the best. You can always unretire and re-enter next draft. There have been others that have overcome much more. Prove to be the change you want to see. Though I can also understand if you don't want to put in effort where you don't know there will be a payoff.

The last bit about not knowing if there's a payoff is why I decided to retire. It's not going to change anything going another season or anything like that. It will just have me wasting more time and effort for a same result potentially. That's why I don't see a reason to come back right now. I don't think I'd be as annoyed if I wasn't up till 3am nearly watching something that was pointless.

If anything this has taught me people don't actually read media's as if they did then they'd realise I said that I just wanted to open a dialogue with the teams and not many contacted me. I can't help having preferences so it's whatever that's a job of a GM to try and sell the team to you.

As a media grader, I can tell you very few people read any media unless it specifically talks about their player. As a previous GM, I will say that most of us scan media looking for our team name. But as the draft nears there is a lot to manage. Trade talks, scouting tons of people, and evaluating assets. And I was only an SMJHL GM. SHL GMs have to manage long term assets and it can get really busy. The best way to make sure GMs understand what you want is to reach out personally and tell them your intentions.

"I want to be a max earner and would love to do it with your team."

"I would be very excited to be part of your team."

"Take a chance on me and you won't regret it."

These are all great things to say to a GM. And I believe miscommunication was the big problem for this draft. I also know that reputations, tying oneself to another, and all that can really affect a teams decision. I, personally, have never interacted with you or Valour before talking to you about unfilled Pressers. But I know that, mostly Valour, had a reputation. I heard about it, and while I prefer to make my decisions on people without influence of others, I can see why people might want to avoid you two just because of reputation (honestly sucks tbh, because reputations are often over-exaggerations). 

Either way, I wish you both the best of luck. Hope you both don't give up. Fight for a spot and prove yourselves. Reinventing people's views of you takes work but it's worthwhile.