Swans 2013 Draft Strategy

[Mug Punter]

Happy with the draft picks.

Good to see us pick up a good ruck prospect, we now have two good young development rucks in Nankervis and Naismith. Guess Aliir Aliir must be seen as a project type player. Think it's fair to say we won't be drafting rucks in 2014.

Other picks seem fair enough. Ricky Petterd a little out of left field

Well done Swans

[Ludwig]

Ricky Pettard is an error. It should have been shown as a Richmond rookie upgrade.

[Legs Akimbo]

Zak Jones is a safe choice. We had a few others like Acres, Taylor and Dumont, so if our list managers felt he's the one, I'm fine with that pick.
George Hewitt is a steal at 32. This kid is going to be a star. Makes the draft a winner in my eyes.
Not a big fan of picking ruckmen this early, but if you were going to get one, Nankervis is a good choice.
But Aliir-Aliir at 44 seems a bit mad unless we're looking for a seat at the UN. I think taking Nankervis forced us out of the defender game for Giles and Kolodjasnij and we didn't rate Matt Sully much. Well, we must see something in him. In the Champs, he was repeatedly well beaten in defence.

The fact we drafted Aliir x 2 before Marsh is unfathomable. I've watched his vids and he looks like a complete hack. I was hoping for the Zac Merett, Marsh and some a key defender of note.

I am struggling to see how we are going to be placed in 1-2 years for key defenders. We don't have any depth there at all and most of our backline over 190cm is aged 29 +. Surely Sam Reid is a monty for CHB now if he was not before.

But of course, I trust our list managers...

[dimelb]

I get the impression that people would rather have picked Tippett the Younger instead of Alliir Alliir. I guess we'll see.

[MightyBloods]

Zak Jones is a safe choice. We had a few others like Acres, Taylor and Dumont, so if our list managers felt he's the one, I'm fine with that pick.
George Hewitt is a steal at 32. This kid is going to be a star. Makes the draft a winner in my eyes.
Not a big fan of picking ruckmen this early, but if you were going to get one, Nankervis is a good choice.
But Aliir-Aliir at 44 seems a bit mad unless we're looking for a seat at the UN. I think taking Nankervis forced us out of the defender game for Giles and Kolodjasnij and we didn't rate Matt Sully much. Well, we must see something in him. In the Champs, he was repeatedly well beaten in defence.

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Zak Jones is a safe choice. We had a few others like Acres, Taylor and Dumont, so if our list managers felt he's the one, I'm fine with that pick.
George Hewitt is a steal at 32. This kid is going to be a star. Makes the draft a winner in my eyes.
Not a big fan of picking ruckmen this early, but if you were going to get one, Nankervis is a good choice.
But Aliir-Aliir at 44 seems a bit mad unless we're looking for a seat at the UN. I think taking Nankervis forced us out of the defender game for Giles and Kolodjasnij and we didn't rate Matt Sully much. Well, we must see something in him. In the Champs, he was repeatedly well beaten in defence.

I like Jones & Hewett very much. Good kids with great attitude, tough and with great skills. Nankervis appears to be a good young ruckman who learnt from not being drafted last year to putting his head down this year. Improved greatly this year and in the Swans system who knows what his level good be. Aliir Aliir, well has project written all over him. I guess our guys see only upside and are prepared to roll the dice at this pick.

The word is that next years draft is stacked with KPP talent so midfielders, developing ruck priorities this year and probably KPP for our first pick next year. Unless, we make a move for Ben Reid as an restricted free agent......

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Zak Jones is a safe choice. We had a few others like Acres, Taylor and Dumont, so if our list managers felt he's the one, I'm fine with that pick.
George Hewitt is a steal at 32. This kid is going to be a star. Makes the draft a winner in my eyes.
Not a big fan of picking ruckmen this early, but if you were going to get one, Nankervis is a good choice.
But Aliir-Aliir at 44 seems a bit mad unless we're looking for a seat at the UN. I think taking Nankervis forced us out of the defender game for Giles and Kolodjasnij and we didn't rate Matt Sully much. Well, we must see something in him. In the Champs, he was repeatedly well beaten in defence.

- - - Updated - - -

Zak Jones is a safe choice. We had a few others like Acres, Taylor and Dumont, so if our list managers felt he's the one, I'm fine with that pick.
George Hewitt is a steal at 32. This kid is going to be a star. Makes the draft a winner in my eyes.
Not a big fan of picking ruckmen this early, but if you were going to get one, Nankervis is a good choice.
But Aliir-Aliir at 44 seems a bit mad unless we're looking for a seat at the UN. I think taking Nankervis forced us out of the defender game for Giles and Kolodjasnij and we didn't rate Matt Sully much. Well, we must see something in him. In the Champs, he was repeatedly well beaten in defence.

I like Jones & Hewett very much. Good kids with great attitude, tough and with great skills. Nankervis appears to be a good young ruckman who learnt from not being drafted last year to putting his head down this year. Improved greatly this year and in the Swans system who knows what his level good be. Aliir Aliir, well has project written all over him. I guess our guys see only upside and are prepared to roll the dice at this pick.

The word is that next years draft is stacked with KPP talent so midfielders, developing ruck priorities this year and probably KPP for our first pick next year. Unless, we make a move for Ben Reid as an restricted free agent......

[Jeffers1984]

Great article from Emma Quayle on Aliir Aliir

http://m.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/teamwork-finds-aliir-a-family-20130515-2jmur.html

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Great article from Emma Quayle on Aliir Aliir

http://m.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/teamwork-finds-aliir-a-family-20130515-2jmur.html

[BillyRayCypress]

Aliir Aliir!!!! Tall defender from WA Sudanese born.

The talking heads on SEN said that they didn't expect him to get picked in the rookie draft.

Played ruck for QLD and tall defender for WA. Moved to WA after finding out that he had family there.

I thought he looked OK in the preview vid.

Could be strategic move by the Swans to white ant GWS Sudanese supporter base out Blacktown way.

[ScottH]

Aliir Aliir seriously Who????

Coolest name in the league!!

[Ludwig]

A few comments on the draft

A few surprising picks from our competitors:

Why in the world would GWS pick Cameron McCarthy at pick 14 except it they thought we wanted him and they would spoil the show? Now their tall forward line will be Jeremy Cameron, Patton, Boyd, Tomlinson and McCarthy.

GC pick 20 of ruckman Jack Leslie is a shocker as he probably could have been picked anywhere in the draft. He must be something special if they passed on Rory Lobb for him. And picking Lemmens at 27 was another surprise.

Some of the surprise picks gave us a few good options at picks 32 and 35. I don't know if we were considering Cutler and took a chance he wouldn't be picked by Brisbane, but in any case, George Hewitt is great pickup at 32 for us. He's so young that it's hard to know how much upside there is to him. He will likely grow to close to 190cm as well as he is already 185, so there's another big bodied midfielder for us. I feel very strongly that when this draft is looked at a few years from now, he will be in the top 10. A Hanners or Dane Beams type pickup.

I'm surprised we took Nankervis at pick 35. I think we should have realised that he was likely to be available at 44 as well and we could have used pick 35 for either Cameron Giles or Jake Kolodjasnij. Perhaps were didn't rate them all that highly. We'll never know. Otherwise, a selection that puts all the fears to rest about our long term ruck situation.

GWS will be spewing talls next year. We are probably on the phone to their managers at this very moment. So not too worried about the lack of key defenders. There really weren't great choices this year. We've got few raw ones in the hopper in X, Mitchell, A-A, and Lockyer, so hopefully something will materialise from this group. Otherwise, next draft is supposedly better for KPPs and there should be a few on the trade table.

As things turned out, we got our AA young ruckman and took Tom Derickx as well. I would have preferred to use our pick 53 for Jono Marsh.

A few surprise non-picks: Battersby, Hourigan, Isaiah Miller and Nick Bourke. So there will be a few reasonable players in the rookie draft, although I doubt we will be taking any more players this year.

[Auntie.Gerald]

so in summary by not using pick 53

what will our recruitment look like from here at the rookie draft etc?

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so in summary by not using pick 53

what will our recruitment look like from here at the rookie draft etc?

[Chookbilly]

so in summary by not using pick 53

what will our recruitment look like from here at the rookie draft etc?

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We won't have any live picks in the rookie draft, only Lloyd Perris & Patrick Mitchell. Which goes someway to explaining the Aliir Aliir pick, although it's still strange considering we see him as a defender & Tippett was available and ready to roll.

[Melbourne_Blood]

Don't know much about George, Zak Jones seems a good type and Nankervis also. A bit disappointed we missed a chance to nab Acres, Taylor and Kennedy - Harris though. They all seem like very likely types.

[GordonS]

quite surprised with who we drafted. looking forward to seeing em all progress in the coming years! and awesome to pick up aliir aliir. i was talking to a mate the other day about how cool it would be to have that bloke on the team (mainly just for his name haha) and was shocked to see it actually happen. one hell of a name

[Ludwig]

Patrick Mitchell, Pyke, Walsh and now Aliir Aliir. We're going to have to draft a translator.

Except for AA, who's a bit of a wild card, it was a pretty solid draft. I think our first 3 picks all look good long term prospects with fairly low risk. As for Zak Jones, all you can say is that we could have taken Acres, Taylor, Merrett or Cutler, but we passed them all up for Jones, so we must rate him very highly. He's a hard nut, and we love that sort of player.

Just pissed off by how well Collingwood did. Expected they would get 2 excellent prospects with 2 top 10 picks, but those last 2 picks of Langdon and Marsh were great at the end of the draft. They should be a force to contend with in the coming years.

[ugg]

Have heard Nankervis' game being described as similar to Mummy's ie becomes an extra mid when the ball hits the ground. Have to note though he is 19 and hence one year older than most of the kids that played on him this year