Robbie Ando?s 2003 Official Unofficial RWO Phantom Draft

[bigswan]

Robbieandso's phantom draft

Gees Anne you're a hard taskmaster.
Barham's chosen Goodes, Bolton and Fosdike, Craig Bolton, in 2001 chose Mark Powell at 28 and Adam Schneider at 60. As well Jarrad Sundquist and stephen Doyle. Not too bad. There have been a few burst balloons between though. It's a tough job. James Meiklejohn wasn't a bad pickup either. Great job robbieando on the phantom draft.

[Xie Shan]

Great job on the Phahtom Draft Robbie Ando - but I'm going to disagree with your selection of a tall defender first and inside midfielder second.

Thinking back to this year, defence was one of our main strengths with Leo and Tadhg doing a tremendous job rebounding from defence. Schauble did pretty well on the big forwards like Lynch, Craig Bolton surprised all with his jobs and all this with Saddo not doing much! With the prospect of Saddo and/or James being able to boost our defence next year, plus the retirement of Cresswell leaving the midfield without his experience, I think inside midfielder is the priority, to help out J.Bolton and the Captain in the middle.

It's a bit of a gamble because both positions are desired, but judging by your Phantom Draft there seemed to be more defenders and tallish players between picks 16 and 29 than midfielders.

Going for a midfielder in the 1st round might get us Beau Waters who sounds like the inside midfielder type (West Adelaide, picked to go at no25).

If we go for a tall defender in the 2nd round, assuming Michael Johnson goes to one of the WA clubs with one of their 2nd round picks instead, like one of the other WA tall backs in Pettigrew or Spencer, or even Spanderman as a ruckman.

This is only going by the midfielders in between picks 16 and 29 in Robbie's phantom draft, by the way - I'll admit I don't know much about the guys in the draft.

[robbieando]

Look if the Swans are going to pick a midfielder in the first round I think they will take Trotter, now I believe he will last until our 2nd pick and therefore I feel we should go after the best available tall defender in the draft with that pick and I think that is Johnson.

Its easy to say that our defence did well last season, but you have to remember that Kennelly, Barry, Bolton and the like might not live to the standard they set this year and in any case it was as clear as day that we needed another tall down back and that Saddington and Bolton weren't the answers to that problem.

I believe that the standard of tall defenders that will be available with our 2nd pick, won't be as good as Johnson is at our first pick.

[liz]

We're drafting for the longer term future - not for next season. If we have deficiencies in our top 25 or so, these have to be lived with or covered by improvement from players already on the list (unless we draft a recycled player), especially those drafted two or three years ago. If a club is lucky a first year player might have an immediate impact but this is more likely to happen with a midfielder than with a tall. And the further you go down the draft pool, the more you have to balance the ability to step up quickly but with limited long term potential with the potential to become a good player but in a longer time frame. For example, Collingwood found Lokan late in last year's draft and he didn't miss a game all season, but I suspect he's never going to be more than a workmanlike player.

To work out what we need we should be looking at the balance of players one to three years into their careers and see where there are gaps, rather than looking at the established players.

Our current lack of depth in the midfield is exacerbated by the fact we don't really have much in the pipeline. McVeigh could become a skillful 'outside' player, and Schneider might develop into a genuine ball winner in the midfield, but the rest of the developing players (like Dempster, Powell, Malceski, Sunny, Thewlis, LRT) all look to be tallish, athletic types who may become KPPs or - in most cases - valuable flanker types. Add the fact that Williams and Maxfield will be gone within two or three years and we are in serious need of long term bolstering in the middle.

I've no idea about Michael Johnson, but he sounds like the kind of player we already have lots of coming through. Not all will make it at AFL level, so maybe having another potential makes sense, but not when we have such a gaping need elsewhere.

If we're going to go for a "tall" early on I'd rather we went for a genuine forward because I reckon they're harder to find. We don't need one now particularly, but again, we're drafting for a few years' time, not for the next season or so. Morrison is one such player who could realistically be available when we get our first pick.

I'd like to caveat any comments on particular players with the fact that I've never seen any of them play and wouldn't know how to spot potential in a 17yo even if I had. My comments are more on the types of player we should be looking at, rather than the individuals concerned.

[Bear]

Originally posted by footyhead
Thanks for that Robbie.
Hey, why do some crrent/delisted players like morrison and snapper (according to your phantom) go in the national draft, and other current/delisted players like nick stevens and R. hall go in the preseason draft ???
Also how many players who nominated for the National draft do not get picked up each year (average), and do many of them get picked up on the rookie list draft, where else do players come from for the rookie list draft ? Is it possible to hide players we want to put on the rookie list ??
Thanks again.

Wow.. a lot of time went into this phantom draft - well done.


Now to @@@@*head. These are your comments to me re my suggestion that Schneider should get #14, as if you are some kind of expert on football...

"The lack of eduction of the average Swans fan, when it comes to understanding the finer points of football, obviously still leaves a lot to be desired."

... and then you go and ask these relatively basic questions!!!!!

[Newbie]

Originally posted by robbieando
Look if the Swans are going to pick a midfielder in the first round I think they will take Trotter, now I believe he will last until our 2nd pick and therefore I feel we should go after the best available tall defender in the draft with that pick and I think that is Johnson.

I am not so sure about this Robbie. Trotter is to be drafted by pick 20th and would likely be gone by our second pick. It is quite likely that we will pick Trotter with our first pick. I understood that Colin Wisbey mentioned something along the line that along with Cooney, Trotter is the surest bet you could have from this draft. Obviously not as good as Cooney but he will be an AFL player. He is versatile, nice size, considered "inside player" and seems quite level-headed so I would be happy to have him with our first pick.

We should use our first pick on a tall only if any of the Billy Morison, Watts, Gayer and Chaplin slip through the net to our pick. Some of the next tier of talls: Johnson, Stewart, Mundy, etc... should last until our pick. There are about 5-6 of them and there are only 12 spots from our first to second pick.

By the way, whatever tall we pick up will NOT immediately address our current concern. We should be looking for the solution from our current rank. If James stands up, Schauble+Saddington and James could form quite a complete defensive unit. Likewise, if Powell is progressing likely, Schauble+ Saddo + Powell could work too.
Even the setup of Powell+James + Schauble/Saddo is not too light either. Getting a Trotter seems to be better option to me.

[sharpie]

I completely agree with Lizz regarding the drafting of a tall player. We only need more tall defenders if someone gets injured next season, and the replacement won't come from the new guys drafted this year. It will have to come from the likes of James, LRT & Powell. As seen with almost every tall young guy drafted, he needs perhaps more than 2 years in the reserves before being able to establish himself in the seniors. This may not be true of the best talls in the draft each year, but since we have a late first round pick, we are very unlikely to pick one up who will be ready. Most tall young guys may be around 195cm, but tend to weigh about 80-85kg, since they have not had time for their bodies to fully develop.

[Dpw]

I will disagree with you Robbie as I saw him play aganist the sharks a few times this year and Iam not sure if hes good enough most WAFL watchers were surprised when he pulled out some great results at the draft camp, Pettigrew would most likely go before he did and from what the papers, 6PR and footy.com are saying that they would be surprised if he went first round and Pettigrew would be lucky too, most likely to the Dockers

IMO a inside midfielder should be our fist pick if ones there.

[chammond]

Originally posted by lizz
I'd like to caveat any comments on particular players with the fact that I've never seen any of them play and wouldn't know how to spot potential in a 17yo even if I had.

I wouldn't worry about that too much, Liz.

I do watch some of the under-18 matches, and I used to keep notes about who the better players are. But I soon found that, almost without exception, the players I liked the look of never got drafted, and rarely even got into the best 6 players in the press.

So, from my point of view at least, watching them play at under-18 level reveals very little . . . . unless you watch particular players week in and week out, I guess.

Just underlines to me how hard the recruiter's job really is, and how lucky we are to have someone like Barham who invariably comes up trumps.

[Ajn]

If trotter is available the Swans will pounce, the direction taken from last year was to build a solid foundation of local based talent. I agree that our defence is solid, we merely need someone like Powell/Saddo to build up a bit to take on a stronger opponent.

Michael Johnson is a strange selection as a number one, I didn't notice to much of him in the carnival. Trotter starred until injured, exactly what the Swans usually draft, the sick, the lame, the injured and hope they recover to become a star.

[anne]

Originally posted by Ajn
.

Michael Johnson is a strange selection as a number one, I didn't notice to much of him in the carnival. Trotter starred until injured, exactly what the Swans usually draft, the sick, the lame, the injured and hope they recover to become a star.

Johnson wasn't mentioned in the top 50 in the AFL's phantom draft. Also Trotter's hamstring and marking ability are a bit suspect - so I guess Sydney will definitely take him.

[robbieando]

Sometime tonight I will update my phantom draft, to fix up late braking news and stuff that has happened since I posted it on Sunday, plus in my draft there was 88 picks, tomorrow there will only be 83, so I have to update it anyhow.