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No 'hamburgers with lot' for Swans
21 November 2003 Herald Sun
Tim Morrissey
PAUL Roos will target midfielders and a tall defender in tomorrow's 2003 AFL national draft.
But the Sydney Swans coach admits it's going to be a lucky dip without the luxury of a high pick.
The Swans have the 16th pick in the first round after their stellar year, which, against all expectations, carried them all the way to a preliminary final against Brisbane.
After that it becomes a real lottery, with Sydney having picks 29, 45, 47 and 59 in a draft Roos doesn't rate as one of the strongest he's seen in recent years.
"You have a bit of an idea. but you're sitting back really watching how the first 15 players fall," Roos said.
"You're probably targeting 10 players for your first pick because you just don't really know what's going to happen. We certainly need a midfielder with Daryn Cresswell retiring this year, and we also need another tall defender."
Although the Swans failed to pick up any new players in the recent trading period, Roos is more than happy to avoid any quick fixes and stick with his youth policy to rebuild Sydney into a championship-winning team.
"We would've liked to have hit a home run during the trade period, but we knew that was unlikely," Roos said.
"If you compare it to the best draft, which was probably about two or three years ago, it's not as good as that.
"But I suspect there's a reasonable amount of talent from what I've seen, but probably not the real stars, the hamburgers with the lot.
"So we are just going to continue down the development path with the players we've got in the draft last year -- Jarrad McVeigh, Nick Malceski, Josh Thewlis and Sean Dempster.
"What we are really doing is staying with the blueprint we started 12 months ago."
Apart from the retirement of Cresswell and veteran midfielder Daniel McPherson, plus trading defender Scott Stevens to Adelaide for two late draft picks, the Swans have been remarkably quiet in the off-season.
21 November 2003 Herald Sun
Tim Morrissey
PAUL Roos will target midfielders and a tall defender in tomorrow's 2003 AFL national draft.
But the Sydney Swans coach admits it's going to be a lucky dip without the luxury of a high pick.
The Swans have the 16th pick in the first round after their stellar year, which, against all expectations, carried them all the way to a preliminary final against Brisbane.
After that it becomes a real lottery, with Sydney having picks 29, 45, 47 and 59 in a draft Roos doesn't rate as one of the strongest he's seen in recent years.
"You have a bit of an idea. but you're sitting back really watching how the first 15 players fall," Roos said.
"You're probably targeting 10 players for your first pick because you just don't really know what's going to happen. We certainly need a midfielder with Daryn Cresswell retiring this year, and we also need another tall defender."
Although the Swans failed to pick up any new players in the recent trading period, Roos is more than happy to avoid any quick fixes and stick with his youth policy to rebuild Sydney into a championship-winning team.
"We would've liked to have hit a home run during the trade period, but we knew that was unlikely," Roos said.
"If you compare it to the best draft, which was probably about two or three years ago, it's not as good as that.
"But I suspect there's a reasonable amount of talent from what I've seen, but probably not the real stars, the hamburgers with the lot.
"So we are just going to continue down the development path with the players we've got in the draft last year -- Jarrad McVeigh, Nick Malceski, Josh Thewlis and Sean Dempster.
"What we are really doing is staying with the blueprint we started 12 months ago."
Apart from the retirement of Cresswell and veteran midfielder Daniel McPherson, plus trading defender Scott Stevens to Adelaide for two late draft picks, the Swans have been remarkably quiet in the off-season.
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