James Frawley

[Auntie.Gerald]

i dont mind reading the possibilities

[Auntie.Gerald]

Key signatures: Who your club can't afford to lose - AFL.com.au

personally leading into 2014 I always thought Birdy was the player that Melb, GWS or the Dogs etc would chase..........

given that Tom Mitchell could play Birdys role and given Hannes has been playing alot more inside work with this season with Parker and Kennedy........and we have Issac Heeney in 2015 followed most likely by Mills in 2016 it appeared like a play that a few clubs would want to achieve a strong inside player like Birdy by offering $450k pa min

Birdy is 25yrs of age and playing very very very good football

It all comes down to what is he comfortable in excepting to stay at the Swans a I am sure we would want to keep Birdy

[Auntie.Gerald]

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[Matt80]

I don't always agree with Matt80 but there's nothing wrong with having different points of view, keep up playing devils advocate

Thanks Dam. Red and White is about debating the possibilities of player movements at all times. It's about strategising, debating and coming to a position. It's just like the share-market. You can't just wait for every press conference or twitter post to come to a position.

We have been fortunate that Grundy and Richards have not missed any games for years. The Hawks and Port have lost their two best key defenders and are struggling to contain opposition attacks. We need one more senior tall defender from somewhere. Reid would be good, but he is developing into the AFL most flexible tall player and that development should continue.

We have two of the best ever NSW midfield prospects coming into the club in late 2014 and 2015. A handy father/son midfielder also looms in 2015. People will say that Heeney is unproven, but every recruiter to a tee sees him as a great top 5 prospect. I don't think these guys are Josh Will obey. They have been trained in the Swans system for years. They know the importance of doing your job, creating defensive pressure and getting your 5 plus tackles a game.

Don't worry if we lose a good midfielder, we have two guns coming. We need one more good key defender.

[liz]

Didn't they just announced Bird re-signing a few days ago?

[CJK]

Why would that stop the pointless speculation?

[mcs]

Thanks Dam. Red and White is about debating the possibilities of player movements at all times. It's about strategising, debating and coming to a position. It's just like the share-market. You can't just wait for every press conference or twitter post to come to a position.

We have been fortunate that Grundy and Richards have not missed any games for years. The Hawks and Port have lost their two best key defenders and are struggling to contain opposition attacks. We need one more senior tall defender from somewhere. Reid would be good, but he is developing into the AFL most flexible tall player and that development should continue.

We have two of the best ever NSW midfield prospects coming into the club in late 2014 and 2015. A handy father/son midfielder also looms in 2015. People will say that Heeney is unproven, but every recruiter to a tee sees him as a great top 5 prospect. I don't think these guys are Josh Will obey. They have been trained in the Swans system for years. They know the importance of doing your job, creating defensive pressure and getting your 5 plus tackles a game.

Don't worry if we lose a good midfielder, we have two guns coming. We need one more good key defender.

Why do we need to come to a position in the end? Its about debate yes, but not some sort of having to come to some sort of consensus.

We might have two potentially great midfielders, but there is significant risk putting all your eggs into the basket of unproven players. For every superstar that has come from a highly rated draft pick, there is probably 3 times as many spuds. I'm not doubting that Heeney or Mills don't have superb potential, but to trade midfielders on the basis of 'she'll be right, we have these ones coming through' is foolish at best, and potentially a disaster. Of course the recruiters see them as great prospects - but at this stage, that is all they are - prospects.

Hence the great reluctance of most on here to embrace your 'I think, following a though from deep within my mind, that Mitchell wants out - so lets try and trade him' views!

No doubt we probably need another good key defender, but at the $$$$ tag being bandied around, Frawley is not the option in my book. Plus, I think he is overrated anyway.

[barry]

To get frawley youd have to retire richards. And I think ted has got another year at least. You wouldnt play frawley, grundy, richards in same backline.

We be far better aiming to poach out of GWS over the next 3 to 4 years. They will have good young players off contract looking for sucess.

[Matt80]

Why do we need to come to a position in the end? Its about debate yes, but not some sort of having to come to some sort of consensus.

We might have two potentially great midfielders, but there is significant risk putting all your eggs into the basket of unproven players. For every superstar that has come from a highly rated draft pick, there is probably 3 times as many spuds. I'm not doubting that Heeney or Mills don't have superb potential, but to trade midfielders on the basis of 'she'll be right, we have these ones coming through' is foolish at best, and potentially a disaster. Of course the recruiters see them as great prospects - but at this stage, that is all they are - prospects.

Hence the great reluctance of most on here to embrace your 'I think, following a though from deep within my mind, that Mitchell wants out - so lets try and trade him' views!

No doubt we probably need another good key defender, but at the $$$$ tag being bandied around, Frawley is not the option in my book. Plus, I think he is overrated anyway.

Alex Ferguson of Man United would let go of a good player if he knew that there was some talent coming through in the youth team. That's how players like Beckam, Scholes, and the Neville brothers got first team football.

The Swans academy is like the Man United youth team. The progress of Heeney and Mills has been charted for over 4 years. The club knows more about the abilities of these two players than any other draftee in the market. These two players also understand more about what is required at the Swans than other draftees.

It's a good bet without serious injury that they are going to be very good players.

[Dosser]

Personally, I wouldnt be at all surprised if we tried to trade with WCE or Freo at the end of the year as I get the feeling that Jetts may want to move back sooner rather than later. Do either of those teams have a key defender we would want?

[Flying South]

Good idea. Any speculation at the moment is purely guess work so why drag it up? At the moment a player might have an idea of what they want to do but chances are that only his parents, partner and manager would know what they're thinking. Those on the inner sanctum of the club may have a gut feeling but that would be about it.

As the thread is about idea of Frawley coming to the Swans, obviously some trading would be required. If you don't like to speculate on trading. Don't read the thread.
Trading just doesn't occur at the end of the year. Our list management team would already be thinking about these things. And you can be absolutely certain that other clubs would have already approached some of our players managers. Players like Mitchell, Robinson, Membrey, etc will be targeted. Clubs will be lining up to take us down. Especially Collingwood. We are successful because we set the standard for these sort of things. Trading is an emotional and ugly business. But it is a necessary evil. And I love talking about it. But talk is all it is, because we don't make these decisions for the club.

[Matt80]

Personally, I wouldnt be at all surprised if we tried to trade with WCE or Freo at the end of the year as I get the feeling that Jetts may want to move back sooner rather than later. Do either of those teams have a key defender we would want?

This is one of the other trades I think may occur at the end of this year or next year. Fremantle and West Coast need key defenders more than we do. The 1st round pick would be handy depending on how much the WA teams want Jetta.

We could use the first round to engineer a swap with Essendon for one of their better key backs like Carslie ( depending on ASADA).

If Mitchell and Jetta leave we may have the cap room for Frawley. We could then use another two first round picks in the draft to go with Heeney.

These are all hypotheticals and there is still a lot of water to go under the bridge. Losing Jetta will hurt more in the short term than Mitchell.

Please don't everyone get hysterical over Jetta.

[Melb Blood Bro]

This is one of the other trades I think may occur at the end of this year or next year. Fremantle and West Coast need key defenders more than we do. The 1st round pick would be handy depending on how much the WA teams want Jetta.

We could use the first round to engineer a swap with Essendon for one of their better key backs like Carslie ( depending on ASADA).

If Mitchell and Jetta leave we may have the cap room for Frawley. We could then use another two first round picks in the draft to go with Heeney.

These are all hypotheticals and there is still a lot of water to go under the bridge. Losing Jetta will hurt more in the short term than Mitchell.

Please don't everyone get hysterical over Jetta.

If we traded for a first round draft pick wouldn't we have to use that on Abe Davis?

[MightyBloods]

As the thread is about idea of Frawley coming to the Swans, obviously some trading would be required. If you don't like to speculate on trading. Don't read the thread.
Trading just doesn't occur at the end of the year. Our list management team would already be thinking about these things. And you can be absolutely certain that other clubs would have already approached some of our players managers. Players like Mitchell, Robinson, Membrey, etc will be targeted. Clubs will be lining up to take us down. Especially Collingwood. We are successful because we set the standard for these sort of things. Trading is an emotional and ugly business. But it is a necessary evil. And I love talking about it. But talk is all it is, because we don't make these decisions for the club.

Clubs don't need to trade for Frawley. He's an unrestricted free agent. In regards to Swans, we would just need to find room in the salary cap. Only way doing that would be for player contact expirations to take cuts and/or trade player/s out. Personally, I'd be surprised if we went for him.

[Melb Blood Bro]

During trade period last year there was a lot of talk about Nick Smith wanting to go home. There was even talk of swap for Varcoe. Personally that makes no sense to me because good backmen is what we need not small forwards. Anyone have any info on this rumour?