Swans are interested in White, Kerr and Didak!

[Xie Shan]

Sure, by why go after an incident that happened last millenium and a single bloke who's doing ok with the birds? Couldn't he at least have referred to the infamous Tadhg "dacking" incident?

LOL.

I liked Phil Gould's take on things in today's Sun-Herald:

Many believe if we finally get all our footballers to be smart, educated, law-abiding, non-violent and caring individuals, we may well have no off-field dramas. However, the football won't be worth watching. I'll leave you to ponder that for a moment.

Sorry boys, the party's over

Pretty decent article IMO, even if it's league-centric.

[ugg]

Kerr-chink! The chase has started

Swans offer Daniel Kerr five-year deal | The Australian

[reigning premier]

Swans are REALLY, TRUELY, cross my heart and hope to die, in the hunt for Kerr...

Well according to the Oz they are anyway....

Kerr being wooed by Swans in order to avoid "bottoming out"l

(Thanks to Ugg for posting the link previously)

I'm in... Give them what they want... A>N>Y>T>H>I>N>G...

(I'll pay for your membership next year Annie after you tear up yours OK??)

[hammo]

Interesting comments about O'Keefe

O'Keefe, who was handling his own affairs before recently employing Stride Management as his agent, was offered a three-year contract extension by the Swans.

"I was confident on Monday, but something's happened and I'm not sure now," Roos said.

[liz]

Given we all know how ROK spent his Monday evening, sounds like someone got in his ear during the festivities and gave him something else to think about.

[Legs Akimbo]

If we give up our first round draft pick for Kerr, I will be utterly disgusted.

I hate the way the club is approaching this matter.

"We can't do for example what Hawthorn has done by spending time at the bottom end of the ladder and then regrouping on the back of favourable draft picks," Roos said.

Nice backhander to the Alister Clarkson there Paul. Don't worry, I am sure he has other things on his mind right ow than responding to your unbecoming whining.

Not suggesting tanking or bottoming out is the right strategy, but FFS, where is the substantiation of this oft bandied about clap trap that Sydney is 'special'. I find it insulting to Swans supporters. I can see parallels with the Paulson / Bernanke $800b 'recovery' package. Just delaying the inevitable for another day.

Would like to read this...

"There is no no point wasting our opportunity to refresh our list for another serious premiership tilt. Frankly, I think the fans would quickly get sick of bottom eight finishes,and early finals exits. We saw the mistakes Kevin Sheedy made at Essendon and we are determined not to repeat them. We have reviewed our list, realised we have serious deficiencies amongst our bottom aged players and with GC17 coming in, we are ready to take this important last chance to get some quality young players on the roster." Roos said

Let me be the first to openly prophesise doom because of this bizarre fixation.

[Donners]

(I'll pay for your membership next year Annie after you tear up yours OK??)

You'll be paying for mine as well?

[boroboy]

I'm getting increasingly angry at the club's obsession that we can't afford to bottom out. It's almost bordering on insulting that the Club believes it's core supporter base won't stand by them should they try to rebuild. If they're worried about attracting other supporters above that core, then I'd suggest Sydney would get behind a team of developing youngsters they can call their own as opposed to a team consisting of many players way past their peak.

It's all about marketing and perception - brand the team as 'Our Young Guns' or whatever and get people involved in what's coming as the team develops...just repackage the phase the Club is going through and chances are it'll be ultimately more successful than watching an old team with old ideas getting flogged every week.

Our team looks (and is old), our ideas are old and some renovating over the cracks is a sure recipe for further long term pain. It's like trying to repair a house that has structural problems - the short term fix will always prove more expensive in the end. If the Swans are open and honest about this, and engage the supporters in the rebuilding process, then it will ultimately prove more successful - unfortunately that's obviously not going to happen.

[NMWBloods]

What annoys me about the "bottoming out" argument is that it takes an extreme view. Sure we may not be able to spend a couple of years at the bottom winning only a couple of games, but there is no reason why we can't put in place a plan whereby we develop younger players and we spend 2-3 years outside the eight but gradually winning more games and working our way back into the eight.

[caj23]

I'm suprised nobody has mentioned the bottom paragraph of that article.

Crouch gets another season

Along with Leo Barry this is disgraceful list management. What this does mean is that there will be some younger players really under the pump

[hammo]

I'm suprised nobody has mentioned the bottom paragraph of that article.

Crouch gets another season

Along with Leo Barry this is disgraceful list management. What this does mean is that there will be some younger players really under the pump

It's probably more damning for whoever signed him up to a multi year contract a few years ago when his body was falling apart.

Given he had 1 year to run on his contract, I can't blame Crouch for playing on and the Swans had little choice but to keep him on the list or pay him out, which doesn't make much sense.

I'm not against Kerr per say but if WCE want two top 10 picks then it will be nigh on impossible for us to make that happen.

Roos has an aversion to the draft which can't be explained. As others have pointed out, recruiting and testing is so thorough now that it's become less of a lottery than it once was. It's time the Swans caught up. I'd like us to develop our own stars rather than recruiting from other clubs. I'm sure supporters would appreciate that as well.

[Captain]

Given we all know how ROK spent his Monday evening, sounds like someone got in his ear during the festivities and gave him something else to think about.

Care to explain?

[BeeEmmAre]

Care to explain?

At the Brownlow Medal, surrounded by people from other clubs.....

I think Liz is saying there was plenty of opportunity for another club to have something to say that ROK would consider worth listening to.

[THEREDV]

This is interesting news indeed.

[dimelb]

Crouch I'm not worried about. He is contracted, so either we get decent service from him (as we did when he played this year) or some youngster will improve and Crouch will do a Benny and help out with the twos.
The Kerr "deal" I'm sceptical about. The club has made an offer and Roos doesn't know? Now pull the other one; either Roos is foxing (not his style IMO) or the reporter has the bull firmly by the foot (much more likely). Anyway, given WC's demands, it's unlikely we'll be in it.
O'Keefe? Time will tell, but I very much want him to stay. The fact that his contract's expired would make me nervous, except that I think he wants to remain a Swan.