Mitchell watch

[goswannies]

I often thought he was a bit slow of foot, was reluctant to kick & his hands were frequently dinky close in that put teammates under pressure.
But towards the end, he kicked more, his hands looked sharper. Still sluggish legs but made up for by clever hands and a little more evasive. Some of his silky skills at the back end of the season were sublime, a delight to watch.
I'm miffed that he's going ... especially to whorethorn ... I'm miffed at the family history of them leaving ... really miffed we didn't get 100 games out of him. But I'll miss him as a player and (prior to his traitorous, rat-bastardly defection) he seemed like a nice guy.
But I probably dislike whorethorn & the AFL more for yet another crappy trade.

[lwjoyner]

Swans SCREWED again. What happens is hawks get pick seven from Freo for Hill (or swap 14 for 7 does this mean 7 becomes ours) Why not wait until Hill deal finished and we know the outcome. Hawthorn know we are weak very disappointing news.

[DA_Swan]

Never like seeing good "footballers" leave and we have not lost many over the years especially when they improve as much TM did this year - will probably win a Brownlow at the Hawks - good luck to him except against the Swans

[goswannies]

Swans SCREWED again. What happens is hawks get pick seven from Freo for Hill (or swap 14 for 7 does this mean 7 becomes ours) Why not wait until Hill deal finished and we know the outcome. Hawthorn know we are weak very disappointing news.

It's only an in-principle agreement we reached. Nothing signed. We can back out any time we want ... like when they secure a higher pick for Hill. DO IT SWANS!! Pleeeease play the man for once!!

[goswannies]

Never like seeing good "footballers" leave and we have not lost many over the years especially when they improve as much TM did this year - will probably win a Brownlow at the Hawks - good luck to him except against the Swans

Sorry, I can't wish Tom luck. I wanted the best for Sean & Schneider. Even Membs & Biggs (as they struggled to get a game with us). Even Jolly (family first). But not Tom. He wanted out in his prime - while saying he was happy, to a club I can't stand.

[DA_Swan]

Sorry, I can't wish Tom luck. I wanted the best for Sean & Schneider. Even Membs & Biggs (as they struggled to get a game with us). Even Jolly (family first). But not Tom. He wanted out in his prime - while saying he was happy, to a club I can't stand.

He was probably happy if the club was going to pay him what he was worth in his prime - we were always going to lose a good player this year and guess the others who resigned earlier year did not want it to be them

[SCGonasunnyday]

Sad. The chances of us getting a better player from the pick are pretty low. I picked 3 drafts at random and the players taken at pick 14 were Brodie Smith, Fergus Watts and Cameron McCarthy. Make of that what you will.

[bungwahl]

The pick valuation only means anything if you banking for academy kids.
Id take Pick 9 straight up over 14 and 23

And we still have the potential to make that type of trade, but in this particular draft I'm pretty happy to keep what we have. No point upgrading 2 good picks to a single top 10 pick unless you specifically targeting someone.

[bungwahl]

Swans SCREWED again. What happens is hawks get pick seven from Freo for Hill (or swap 14 for 7 does this mean 7 becomes ours) Why not wait until Hill deal finished and we know the outcome. Hawthorn know we are weak very disappointing news.

There is zero chance of Hawks getting 7 for Hill. They'll get 23, which will likely be included in this deal - otherwise it'll be their current 2nd rounder for our 3rd rounder.

[bungwahl]

We are trading the 2nd best midfielder of our finals series.
When you lose 2 of the last 3 GF that has to be a consideration.
No point dominating the year and not turning up when it counts, TM more than did his heavy lifting this finals campaign

Can't keep a guy who wants to chase the money. He's been our 4th in line across the whole season. Yes they all need to play well in a GF, but if you don't play well across the year you don't play the GF..

[Melbournehammer]

We are all so much better at list management than Beatson.

thank the lord for sanity and levity in the same post.

[Melbournehammer]

for crying out loud - we have two players who are currently on a combined between $2m and $2.4m At some stage swans fans are going to have to realise that its simply not possible to keep getting high paid recruits and that we have to cut our cloth in different ways.

The club decided that it wasn't prepared to offer tom mitchell what he was offered in the market place.

The references to being screwed have to be read in the context of those decisions. I for one am reasonably content. We made our bed. We still have a very good midfield. We could get a good contested player and a runner for the club for next season.

Lets make our assessment in five years as to whether this was a good or bad deal but for crying out loud make it in the context of a club that is having to manage a lot of contracts with a lot of desirable players

[robamiee]

swap pick 14 and mitchell for our mitchell for a year with a view to coaching...give our yngr debutants one more year with classy mid..i would be hapopy for that

[Ludwig]

There's no point bawling about Tom Mitchell going when it should be clear by the way the move to Hawthorn unfolded that we wanted Tom to go. I personally think it was a good decision. It's all gone too smoothly and agreeably not to have been worked out so time ago, at least in principle. The Swans and Hawthorn have orchestrated the trade scenario to look good from both sides. I'm happy with pick 14 and if we do manage to get pick 23 it will be a great deal, but I'm reconciled that we are likely to get something less, perhaps an exchange of regular 2nd and 3rd round picks. The final deal may depend on both the Hill and Sam Mitchell trades.

[Billericay]

I have mixed emotions about TM going. He's clearly going for the $, but also to the most successful club of the last decade, so you can't really blame him for taking a better offer. I'm not convinced the Swans are glad he's going, but I think we will have planned for it.

And I don't really know how good he is yet, he's only 23. He may be slow but he was able to play a successful lockdown on his namesake earlier in the year (which few have managed). I think Hawthorn are a very well run club, with a fantastic coach who knows exactly what he's doing. They seem to have a great ability to turn players from other clubs into successes there. I think both the Hawks and the Swans make it easy for players to just "play their role" in the team, and play to their players strengths. I will very interested to see whether the Mitchell trade comes back to bite us or not.

Given the way Clarkson adapted the Hawks gameplan to the lack of tall targets, I'll be interested to see how they play with the loss of one Mitchell and gain of another, don't think Tom is anywhere near as good as user of the ball as Sam. Maybe that's coachable? Mind you that shimmy and handball to Parker against Geelong was extremely impressive.