Swans recruiting concerns

[goswannie14]

Good question. I believe they should visit every club in Sydney region (there aren't that many) on an organised team coaches and managers meeting night and tell them we are all on the same team. Then, act like they mean it. They don't understand the enormous groundswell of goodwill there is for the Swans among junior AFL in Sydney. If they do understand it, they don't place any value on it. They have to be part of the fabric of footy in this town. I know that sounds odd given they are the national face of the game here, but the fact is they aren't. We often refer to them as the Gorillas in the Mist. They are there, we know they are there cos we've seen them on tele and at SCG/Telstra. But they are rarely sighted elsewhere. And when they are they often leave a bad impression. I don't mean player appearances at shopping centres, autographs etc. I mean the club as a whole being a part of the game in this town and everything that goes with it.

Do you expect the same from other sporting teams in Sydney? If so, do they deliver? If not, then you are expecting too much of the Swans..

[originalswan]

I think that the general point being missed is that these young do not seem to feel any affiliation with the Swans. Is this the case or have I got it wrong? (remembering I am in Melbourne and perhaps have the wrong perception).

My question is as long as we have the priority choices in the rookie draft for NSW, and a vested interest in the success of AFL in NSW, should we not put more effort into these juniors? Especially since the Hawthorn's of this world are ready to pounce on young talent.

How feasible would it be for say 4 Rookies on our list and some reserves players to give half a day a week to visit junior clubs? Furthermore, how expensive would it be to have say two full time recruiting officers solely concentrate on NSW (or is this not warranted - because of a lack of talent base).

[liz]

I think that the general point being missed is that these young do not seem to feel any affiliation with the Swans. Is this the case or have I got it wrong? (remembering I am in Melbourne and perhaps have the wrong perception).

My question is as long as we have the priority choices in the rookie draft for NSW, and a vested interest in the success of AFL in NSW, should we not put more effort into these juniors? Especially since the Hawthorn's of this world are ready to pounce on young talent.

How feasible would it be for say 4 Rookies on our list and some reserves players to give half a day a week to visit junior clubs? Furthermore, how expensive would it be to have say two full time recruiting officers solely concentrate on NSW (or is this not warranted - because of a lack of talent base).

I think there are a few different aspects under discussion within the thread. I'm not sure that there is overwhelming evidence being provided that most local boys don't feel affiliation with the Swans, though it would also be naive to assume all local boys do barrack for Sydney. The article that started this discussion makes a point of stating that a picture with Paul Williams was a prized possession of the boy in question. It was also reported when Scott Reed signed up with Collingwood that he did so despite being an avid Swans fan.

But regardless of the favourite club of these kids, it is an impossibility for them all to sign up with the Swans, even if they wanted to. Each club must take at least one apprentice each year, and there is a maximum of two per year per club. So regardless of what the Swans do, a minimum of 15 boys will be signed each year by clubs other than the Swans and each time we are going to read a press release dressed up as a news article telling us how thrilled that club is to sign the cream of the talent and how a number of other clubs were chasing this particular boy. No-one is going to come out and say "We felt sorry for this kid because he was left on his own in the corner and no-one else seemed to want him so we signed him up"!!

This doesn't mean, of course, that the Swans didn't want this particular lad or that they conducted themselves in the best way to achieve this. We don't really know either way. The father's comments about how two of the older brother's friends have developed so much more than his own son since being apprenticed by Hawthorn provides some clue that maybe his mind was made up way before any of the clubs actually came knocking. It is possible that the Swans made a very reasonable offer but were up against it because of this individual perception / experience. After all, there is no way the father is in a position to assess how the Hyphenator Mark II has progressed since being apprenticed by Sydney last year, while Craig Bird isn't a valid comparison given his age and year's experience already with the Rams.

In terms of what the club can be doing or should be doing more broadly in the region, most of us are in a position of not really knowing

a) what they already do; and
b) what they can reasonably be expected to do compared to other elite sports clubs locally and to other AFL clubs nationally.

Two people in this thread clearly do have their own personal experiences of what the club does or does not do. But without knowing the full picture of the Swans activities, it is impossible to know how common those experiences are, and whether there are others who have very different experiences of their interactions with the club or expectations of what the club should be doing.

It is very easy to say that half a dozen of them should spend half a day a week doing development activities but do we know if they already do? And how would this fit in alongside other activities like Team Swans, which focuses more on community work rather than direct game development.

A couple of years ago there was a report that about half a dozen players had been appointed in coaching roles and were permitted to be paid for these activities in addition to what they earned under the salary cap. I think Kennelly and Willo were two of the initial players involved - can't recall the others.

Does anyone know if this still happens, or what kind of coaching activities the players in question undertook. If they were being paid anything extra, the way the salary cap is policed means that they would have to have been doing something substantially in addition to what is normally expected from AFL players in terms of game development.

[Boodnutz]

Do you expect the same from other sporting teams in Sydney? If so, do they deliver? If not, then you are expecting too much of the Swans..

The specific point I'm making is the Swans approach and methods in this process in this region as compared to other clubs (ie Collingwood as earlier identified in this thread). I'm betting the Hawthorn recruiting people didn't wear thongs when they met this family. And I'm betting they said more than "do want to play for the Hawks or not?"

[hammo]

Realistically, how much attention would a youngster playing at u16 level in one of the TAC club teams attract from a Melbourne AFL club, apart from the normal posse of scouts watching under age football?

I suppose the scholarship system represents a potentially free draft pick for the clubs. If their scholarship winner does make it, then they get a potential gun at a very low pick. That's not possible any other way in the system except maybe father-son but the rules there are changing also.

[hammo]

RWO setting the agenda again

http://sydneyswans.com.au/Season2007/News/NewsArticle/tabid/7106/Default.aspx?newsId=42901

[giant]

RWO setting the agenda again

http://sydneyswans.com.au/Season2007...x?newsId=42901

"D.O.B. 1992"!!!