2009 Rate a season: #Swans recruiters

[Donners]

Key back is the only real concern (unless they plan to send Bradshaw down there), but otherwise I think they have done about as well as we could have hoped.

[Plugger46]

Key back is the only real concern (unless they plan to send Bradshaw down there), but otherwise I think they have done about as well as we could have hoped.

Recruited one for the future in Reid though.

[Cardinal]

i hope you stirring otherwise you are complete tosser

Of course it's a wind up (except the Cuz bit). The real question is why after a year's worth of sustained ranting, whining, whinging, bitching, the team is beyond repair, we have to bottom out, sack the coaching staff type posts, everyone seem happy after only one off season's worth of recruiting and we may get Bradshaw to top it off.

At least a troll has to think somewhat before they post.

[reigning premier]

10.

Exciting blend of youth and experience. After years of miserable performances, they've finally come good.

[Bleed Red Blood]

Recruited one for the future in Reid though.

Only one though.
Rookie draft still to go obviously, but I don't think that's enough.

[Bloody Hell]

I'm with you Primmy.

I have every faith in our recruting team that they would have completly addressed this issue, there is just a slight nagging doubt in the back of my mind.

I say look at young Micky O.

[Bloody Hell]

Of course it's a wind up (except the Cuz bit). The real question is why after a year's worth of sustained ranting, whining, whinging, bitching, the team is beyond repair, we have to bottom out, sack the coaching staff type posts, everyone seem happy after only one off season's worth of recruiting and we may get Bradshaw to top it off.

At least a troll has to think somewhat before they post.

Name and shame moron.

[Jeffers1984]

8.5/10 - Bradshaw being official (pretty much is) will boost it to 9.5

last .5 is for guys like Panos, Dare Grimes in the rookie draft.

If that all happens...10/10.

[Nico]

Have we recruited to a new game plan that John Longmire wants to introduce? Is it part of the coaching transition?

White, Johnston and Bradshaw up front. A multi pronged attack with a mature goal sneak added to the mix. A change from relying on one power forward and one silky skilled one.

Did we have anyone who kicked more than 30 goals in 2009? You don't win games if you don't kick goals. If Bradshaw kicks 50 plus which should not be out of the question, and the others get their share, then we will have a very different game plan to produce that result. It appears to be fire power up forward is the aim.

Kennelly is back and that adds pace and we go for 2 quicker players with our first 2 picks in the draft, one of who could play round one.

[laughingnome]

All this pace that we seem to be getting from recruits and pre-season training makes me think of Essendon's game plan last year - run hard straight up the corridor and damn the risk.

[ShockOfHair]

I reckon we'll update our existing game plan. We're still going to apply heavy defensive pressure but now we have the outside runners to break the lines. We haven't had that in the last couple of years.

[dimelb]

All this pace that we seem to be getting from recruits and pre-season training makes me think of Essendon's game plan last year - run hard straight up the corridor and damn the risk.

Add that to our traditional grunt and we start to look like Geelong.

[DeadlyAkkuret]

Did we have anyone who kicked more than 30 goals in 2009?

Barry Hall.

[SimonH]

The thing I really like is the spread of ages, as well.

The problem with having Crouch, Fosdike, BBBH, MOL, Leo Barry and ultimately Jolly, Buchanan, Schmidt, Playfair & Ablett going all in one hit, is that you can't add 9 18-year-olds to your squad in the one year. Apart from the fact that you'll probably scrape the bottom of the talent pool, it deprives your list of balance and leaves you exposed at the bottom end if there are injuries.

What we've done to this point, through a combination of trades and drafting, is bring in a 25 year old (Seaby), 24 (McGlynn), 23 (Mumford), two 21 year olds (Kennedy, Dennis-Lane), a 20 year old (Jetta) and then 3 18 year olds. And that's leaving aside rookies (where we still have a 25yo on our rookie list, and maybe a 26yo to come!), Bradshaw and the return of Kennelly at the upper end of the age range; plus there's the promotion of 21yo 'rookie' Kristin Thornton.

Now that Reid's on board, and if McKaigue is remotely serious about staying here and making a career of it, we're not even understrength for talls (for the first time in living memory!). It's a seriously well-balanced looking squad.

[Primmy]

There are a lot of postings about how brilliantly we have done, and how much better we have "bought" in the quick stakes. The thing is we finished out of the eight this year, and therefore got into the early melting pot of availability for a change, plus a very very worthwhile trade for Jolls (as it turned out, we were pretty dismissive of it at the time). By the time we got to our picks in the past, the high end obvious talent and quicks had been taken up. That's the difference.

All we needed was one nearly crappy year and a fair bit of intelligent thought process. It can't be Just Roosy, or Just Horse. Its come from the Swans team as a whole. So I think we have (perhaps just at present) a pretty good collective "brain" behind the brawns. Seasoned with a pinch of good planet alignment.