NAB AFL Pre-Season/Rookie Drafts

[DST]

I have no issue with them re-drafting Playfair for another year.

If his body is right, then he provides a ready made replacement forward or back if we have a run of injuries.

DST

[hammo]

I don't understand the complaints. We have 7 rookies on the list which would be close to the highest number of any club.

Our recruiters obviously didn't rate the talent available today and we were lucky to be able to take McNeil as a NSW selection.

[DST]

Liz, it still looks like the rules preclude us using from having using any more pre-selected NSW rookies if we don't use our live picks first.

Playfair was are only live rookie pick and hence they only used one pre-selected NSW rookie.

Must be some sort of obsecure rule.

DST

[ugg]

Liz, it still looks like the rules preclude us using from having using any more pre-selected NSW rookies if we don't use our live picks first.

Playfair was are only live rookie pick and hence they only used one pre-selected NSW rookie.

Must be some sort of obsecure rule.

DST

Brisbane had 3 Qld pre-selections (Yoshiura, Beams, McCauley) but only 2 live picks (Golby, Dyson)

[Primmy]

I don't mind Hank being reissued a pass. He is obviously valued by the PTB, so that ought to be good enough for us.....though from our past record we obviously doesn't work to that tune v ery often.

[robamiee]

Why the hell didn't we take Panos, he went through to pick 48

[Jewels]

Why the hell didn't we take Panos, he went through to pick 48

Perhaps for the same reason he wasn't taken with the 47 picks prior.

[Hartijon]

Why the hell didn't we take Panos, he went through to pick 48

Two reasons; Where would you play him even if he could make the 1's.We are well served in forwards for a couple of years with Bradshaw and many more with White,plus D-L.
Secondly.there has to be a reason why he was not snapped up.Maybe attitude?

[Auntie.Gerald]

forgive me for not understanding the eligibility of players that can have a run in the Swan's reserves...........

but I am guessing that we can grab a few players to fill in when we are short on numbers but is there any stipulation from where >>??

ie can Chricton come and fill in when we need xtra's due to injuries ??

that way we can have him for free !!

[BSA5]

While I'm sure many of us, like myself, are disappointed with the lack of goodies this rookie draft, some perspective please! I'm cut because I was looking forward to seeing more new faces in Swans colours, but blaming the club? Please. I trust the coaching and recruitment staff implicitly in matters such as this. They're there for a reason. They may make mistakes occasionally, which will be revealed in time, but they're in a far better position to make calls on this than we are. Surgeons make mistakes occasionally, but you'd still choose one over the average punter to operate on you. This entire rookie draft could turn out to be duds! And anyway, we still added three new faces in the rookie draft with Gordon, McKaigue and McNeil (loving the Gaelic names much?). Just because there were no completely new names, just because the draft was a bit of an anti-climax, doesn't mean it was a bad one.

Sure, we can have our opinions, and personally I would have invested at least one more pick (of course I have no idea how our salary cap and budget is looking at the moment) but issuing a "please explain", demanding answers, is absolutely ridiculous.

Anyway, very happy with what we actually got. I've been a fan of McNeil since seeing him in the 2008 TAC Cup Grand Final, he's a genuine tough nut. While he could simply fade away into obscurity, never to play a game, he seems like the sort of player who, if he makes it, will make it big. The parallels to Kirk are definitely there: Albury boys, missed out first time around, rookie listed, tough nut inside players. Not to put too much pressure on the lad!

[robamiee]

i think he was worth the risk considering we passed what 2 or 3 picks...

[wedge.maverick]

I've seen Panos a couple of times and I can see why he went late in the rookie draft. He is purely a full forward who has nothing else in his game other than being a strong mark and an accurate kick. He is well suited to 1988 but not 2010.He lacks agility and doesn't have a lot of scope for improvement and in general a few of these types missed out today (Temel, Hartigan, Luff)in preference of older mature types(Playfair,Cloke,Podsiadly).

McNeil will be a terrific pick up and it wouldn't surprise me if he played in 2010 if we get hurt by injuries.

As for the lack of rookie picks I can understand there being financial issues as this is the start of GWS' impact. We currently have at least 7 scholarship players on the books and will add more in the future so there is some coin tied up there. I can also understand extra funds being channelled into the marketing and membership depts in preparation for GWS. We could have taken Bottin-Noonan as a rookie as well but made the decision that he wouldn't make it. As for Crichton he could quite easily play as a top up in the ressies as Gordon did last year and going back previous years Quade and Hayes.

[Robbo]

Pretty sure it's about 15k for each rookie drafted, and obviously the club didn't think it was worth paying that much for what is left.

[liz]

Pretty sure it's about 15k for each rookie drafted, and obviously the club didn't think it was worth paying that much for what is left.

I think the cost is substantially more than $15k. I'm not sure that would even cover the base salary, let alone the costs required to develop players. I think I read somewhere, once (but can't provide any source so I could be plucking this out of mid-air) that the total cost of each player drafted is around $200k over a couple of seasons once you factor in all the support and development staff required. For a rookie, I presume the initial committment is less, given that you can shed them after a year if you want. And it is not strictly a marginal cost. But for each additional high risk, likely low return 18yo you add to the list, you either have to invest more in development resources, or spread the exsiting resources more thinly.

[Nico]

I think the cost is substantially more than $15k. I'm not sure that would even cover the base salary, let alone the costs required to develop players. I think I read somewhere, once (but can't provide any source so I could be plucking this out of mid-air) that the total cost of each player drafted is around $200k over a couple of seasons once you factor in all the support and development staff required. For a rookie, I presume the initial committment is less, given that you can shed them after a year if you want. And it is not strictly a marginal cost. But for each additional high risk, likely low return 18yo you add to the list, you either have to invest more in development resources, or spread the exsiting resources more thinly.

I reckon I read somehwere last year that the cost of a rookie for salary cap purposes is about $40,000.