Trade Whispers / Rumours and Confirmations

[Ludwig]

Mitchell is a brilliant athlete and has a whole preseason to work with Ruck Coach Legend Taubert. Pyke played seniors 6-7 games in to his first season.
I'm just saying don't be surprised.

I didn't realise that about Pyke. I've been quietly hopeful about Patrick. He looked a very likely prospect from the brief videos. It was mentioned that he could even become a KPD. One thing I like about him is that he's the same height as LeBron James.

[aardvark]

I didn't realise that about Pyke. I've been quietly hopeful about Patrick. He looked a very likely prospect from the brief videos. It was mentioned that he could even become a KPD. One thing I like about him is that he's the same height as LeBron James.

Just for further reference.....enjoy!

Pyke made an impressive debut in the NAB Cup match against Port Adelaide Power. His performance rucking against premiership ruckmen Dean Brogan and Brendon Lade earned him early favouritism to take the secondary ruckman role, supporting premiership ruckman Darren Jolly and make his AFL premiership season debut in the Swans' opening match against St Kilda.[10]
Despite solid performance in his debut, Pyke's conversion was criticised by some AFL commentators, most notably Brian Taylor, who described the experiment as a "joke" and described him as the worst player in the AFL.[11]
He was elevated to the senior list shortly before the first round, leading to speculation he would indeed be chosen, but he was announced on the emergency list for the squad, with Jesse White taking the second ruck spot. In the following rounds Pyke played for the Swans' reserves side in the AFL Canberra league. After a 20 possession strong performance with the reserves including some strong contested marks and goals, the club raised the possibility that Pyke's debut would take place in the coming weeks.
Pyke finally got his opportunity with the Swans when selected to play in round 6 of the AFL premiership competition against the Richmond Tigers. In 50 minutes of game time, he accumulated 4 handballs, 1 mark, 1 tackle and 11 hit-outs. While his debut wasn't sensational, he showed enough confident passages of play to be considered as a back-up ruckman for the Swans.[12]

[Meg]

Ah yes I remember well when Pyke ran on for that first senior match. We got very excited in my patch of members in the Brewongle. And we've loved him ever since!

Do you recall that his mother had been visiting him from Canada for a few weeks but had just gone home. She had asked Roos to let her know if/when Mike was likely to get promoted which Roos duly did. So she had to get straight back on a plane and come back again!

Great success story for the Swans.

[Auntie.Gerald]

Given depth is still a worry for some of our supporters lets look at an example

ie using Ludwigs list of players as an example........no matter if we have slight differences around possies or players ie top 25 could be argued till the cows come home lets look at 6 key players being out of Ludwigs top 30 (below) due to injury

FB_ Johnson T.Richards Rampe
HB_ Malceski Grundy Smith
CTR Parker McVeigh Hannebery
CT2 Bird ROK Mitchell
RCK Kennedy Pyke K.Jack
HF_ Goodes Franklin Reid
FF_ Rohan Tippett Jetta
EMG Shaw B.Jack LRT
EM2 Towers McGlynn Membrey
EM3 Cunningham Biggs Lloyd


2014 team below with the following players injured AJ, Goodes, K.Jack, Shaw, Buddy, LRT

FB - Smithy, Ted, Rampe
HB - Macca, Grundy, Mal
CTR - Jetta, Parker, Hannes
Ruck - Kennedy, Pyke, Birdy
HF - Mitchell, Reid, ROK
FF - McGlynn, Tip, Rohan

Bench: BJ, Cunningham, Biggs, Towers or Lloyd

That is a fair line up still in my eyes and another pre season into Towers, BJ, Rohan, Reid, Parker etc etc is massive

No Bolton, White, Mattner, Dre, Lamb, Morton, Armstrong etc but i am more then happy with that line up except against our fellow top 4 teams we might be a bit behind but not much off the pace !!!

[aardvark]

If everyone stays fit we'll win it. If they don't we wouldn't have won it anyway. Players not good enough for our best 22 are hardly going to make a difference in finals. Depth is overrated in my opinion. Keeping our best 22 fit is the trick!

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Fox Sports have given us an A+ for the trading period.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-premiership/afl-trade-month-report-card-every-club-rated/story-e6frf3e3-1226746883952

[spiffy-dude]

If everyone stays fit we'll win it. If they don't we wouldn't have won it anyway. Players not good enough for our best 22 are hardly going to make a difference in finals. Depth is overrated in my opinion. Keeping our best 22 fit is the trick!

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Fox Sports have given us an A+ for the trading period.

Page Not Found | Fox Sports News, Live Sport, Sports | Fox Sports

Agree. In AFL to win the flag you have to have a really good injury free season. 2012 perfect example and even the great geelong side couldnt go back to back due to injuries.

Brisbane were another story as they managed their threepeat well and i guess we based our slow start to the season on them.

Who was the last side to win a flag with a huge chunk of their first 22 out injured?

[Auntie.Gerald]

not the Pies !!!!!!!!

ha ha ha !!!

[Plugger46]

Maybe not the best but a pretty handy player and probably the biggest name in the game atm.

Spot on and this is what everyone needs to think about when talking trades.

Yep, agree on both points.

[spiffy-dude]

Gee after reading that article and seeing who we gave and who we gained, we rock. I am not at all sad the players that left...i mean look at our forward line..look at it.

Just having tips and Lance there makes me salivate..and then hopefully a firing goodes..and then Reid who will finally be able to play to his ability without having to worry about getting the best defender on him plus 1. I think personally i am just as excited to finally watch Reid more than anything. I know what Tips can do and certainly know what Lance can do and well we have been teased with Sam. Big year for Reid if he holds out.

Would love to be a fly on the wall while horse and co are devising a game plan based on these three. Sadly i am sure the slingshot style is over..no need for it no more.

[Mug Punter]

A few additional thoughts on the trade period:

1. We might be contemplating offering Armstrong a contract, but probably not a big one. This can go either way. Armstrong is the achetypical depth player, for those who can't get enough depth. May be a choice between Tony and using pick 53.

2. I wonder what effect the fallout from the trade period will have on the COLA beyond the impact of the Franklin deal. GWS used a their big stash of cash to wrench 2 good players from us for just pick 39. We could argue that if the league takes away our COLA but leaves GWS with theirs, they will continue to raid our playing list. Perhaps this is why we let Lamb go to the PSD, to make this point. Furthermore, the devastating effect the loss of COLA to Brisbane has seen one of the greatest AFL teams ever, playing in an important market, fall apart at the seams. But this may be attributed to poor management.

3. I would not be surprised if our list management team is already making a list of targets on GWS's list, and might be talking to their managers before Christmas. We may want to make a statement in next year's trade period. Hopefully GSW don't finish last next year as well, so lose their prime position in the PSD.

4. It seems that we have cleared enough cap space to accommodate Buddy and put us back in the game to attract additional players next year. Beside GWS players, it will be interesting to see what happens with Ben Reid, if he signs or decides to become a free agent. I'm sure we have spoken to his manager as well.

5. The current atmosphere of easier player movements has made list management a very tricky balancing act. If you see your veritable senior playing list growing to 26 or 27 players, it's probably time to trade a couple out and get the best value possible before they leave for lack of opportunity. You need to maintain a quality list of 2nd and 3rd year players to fill your depth requirements. And it's important to have your club perceived as a great place to play footy, especially for quality players. In this respect, landing Buddy was great publicity for top talent looking for a good club to play footy.

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It's not clear if we will use pick 53. It may depend on what happens with Armstrong. I feel that even if we lose Armstrong we may wait and see who's available at 53 at the time. We might even be looking to use this pick for washed up backup ruckman (Jolly, Seaby). Even without Armstrong we could take 4 ND picks and do 4 rookie upgrades, perhaps adding 2 of Biggs, Xav, or Lloyd.

It's hard to say what our ruckman strategy will be; how many we plan to draft, if any, and what part of the draft we see making ruckman selections. It's nearly certain that their will be a number of reasonable ruck prospects available at pick 53.

A bit hard to be looking ahead but here goes.

Buddy is on $700,000 a year for 2014 and 2015 rising to $1.2M in years 3-5.

One would imagine that we have shaved about $1.8M off our wages bill from this year with Mattner ($300K) Morton ($200K) Dre ($200K) Jesse ($300K) Mummy ($300K) and Jude ($500K) (clearly guestimates). This easily absorbs the $700K for Buddy and allows $1M for salary increases and new players, who knows we may even have some change to top up some re-signings.

The year after Buddy takes an additional $500K but we have Goodesy ($600K), LRT ($300K) ROK ($500K) and Shaw ($300K) coming off so we potentially have another $1M net coming in. You'd think that we would have enough in the pot to make serious play for another free agent (Reid would be great)

The following year (2016) will be tight as hell but the year after KT probably leaves freeing up $1M in cap space, not taking into account an estimated increase in the cap of $500K per season. Fear this may be the season we may lose a player or two due to Buddy and KT's salaries but we have golden chance for a flag in the next two years.

It must be a fine balancing act but we are leading the way with this Franchise concept supported by a great development process.

The Hawks are another team in a really strong position. They will be virtually unchanged next year except for Buddy and will be thereabouts again. The $1M they had set aside for Buddy will be used to lock in the likes of Gunston on long term front ended deals. They will have massive capacity to land a couple of big big free agents next year.

Free agency really does favour the strong clubs as players will accept unders to go from a weak side and win a flag. I would have like to have seen each club limited to making one free agency signing a year but I would imagine the AFLPA would have an issue with us.

All in all a reasonable trade period. With the exception of Mummy who needs replacing we have shed non-core players and created space in our cap and should be able to get some reasonable quality with four picks in the top 44

Would not be surprised to see us draft two ruckman, one a long term prospect and one a mature bodied player ready to go. Think having a serviceable ruckman (not a star) to back up Pyke will be a big factor in how we go next year

[Auntie.Gerald]

Naismith is very talented

dexterous very much so

if he can build up a little in the upper body the next couple of years the kid will be knocking on the door !

Mitchell is a strong selection also and on the back of Mike Pyke was a worthy addition

im just a little over excited at the moment !!!!

bring on 2014 i can not wait to see the TIP, Buddy, Reid and Goodes on the field !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I also cant wait to see our old mate LRT back on the SCG...........bring it on !!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!

[barry]

If the club really wanted to keep dre, lamb and mummy because of cap pressure, they could easily have penchanded off goodes and lrt to make space.

All in all weve reduced some journeymen for 30-something picks which might unearth a gem or two.

[ernie koala]

I agree with the general sentiment that the Swans list, even without ...Mummy, Everitt, Lamb and White, looks very strong on paper...Next few years should be fun to watch no doubt.

But we have one glaring hole....No ready made back up ruckman. It would be foolish to assume Pyke will play every game next year.

IMO our trading position was not as weak as some suggest...

GWS wanted both Mummy and Lamb but only would of sercured one of them in the PSD.

Collingwood wanted White and needed to trade to get him.

Carlton wanted Everitt and needed to trade to get him.

I'm disappointed that, it seems, we were outmanoeuvred by GWS, Re :Mummy and Lamb going and we only get pick 35 .

Surely if we had told them .."If you want both, then you need to offer a reasonable trade.....ie pick 14 or at least pick 21 or 22....NOT 35.

Then on the Everitt deal,we could of offered pick 44 with Everitt for pick 32... NOT 39...It's only a little loss for Carlton, if they wanted Everitt they would of done that deal you'd think.

Let's face it if that deal fell through it wouldn't hurt us much but would Carlton.

It's easy in hindsight I know, but these guys are doing this stuff full time and are paid handsomely for it.

IMO they didn't go hard enough, and rolled over too quickly on the Mummy deal.

[lwjoyner]

the herald sun's Sam Edmund rated us and gws A+, I would not have given us an A+ but perhaps an A or A- because of us being duded by that minnow across town with the Mummy and Lamb deals where we should have got at least the 21 or 22 pick from them not what we eventually got which really was 32 for them plus Everitt with the 39 for Mummy going to the Blues in the Everitt trade and nothing for Lamb. But let us now concentrate on the draft and having used Ludwicks comments above, the AFL.com write up on some 130 draftees and Big footys phantom drafts but I can say what a waste of time for all the phantom drafters with so many positional changes in the draft that I fail to see why Big footy (by the way I am not registered with it only a casual reader) should not wait until the draft positions are finalised and their comments would be much better value/reading. My draft comments will follow on in the draft strategy thread. So loing for the whispers area and concentration on the trading period unless some one can give us some insider trading on draft picks.

[Jewels]

the herald sun's Sam Edmund rated us and gws A+, I would not have given us an A+ but perhaps an A or A- because of us being duded by that minnow across town with the Mummy and Lamb deals where we should have got at least the 21 or 22 pick from them not what we eventually got which really was 32 for them plus Everitt with the 39 for Mummy going to the Blues in the Everitt trade and nothing for Lamb. But let us now concentrate on the draft and having used Ludwicks comments above, the AFL.com write up on some 130 draftees and Big footys phantom drafts but I can say what a waste of time for all the phantom drafters with so many positional changes in the draft that I fail to see why Big footy (by the way I am not registered with it only a casual reader) should not wait until the draft positions are finalised and their comments would be much better value/reading. My draft comments will follow on in the draft strategy thread. So loing for the whispers area and concentration on the trading period unless some one can give us some insider trading on draft picks.

I really don't believe we were dudded by GWS over Mummy, yes it was a low pick but we did the right thing by the player who always did the right thing by us, he got to go on his holidays not having to worry about phone calls from agents or what awaits him on his return and is that really such a bad thing? And we never ended up doing a deal for Lamb, a win for us (psychologically anyway) as it forces GWS to use a PSD pick that they may have planned to use elsewhere and forces the player who wasn't quite so loyal into unknown territory.
Maybe look at it like we exchanged Mummy for Buddy and perhaps it will look different.