2015 academy discussion thread (with some FS thrown in for good measure)

[dimelb]

I don't see another club's early bid for Mills as vexatious: if he's in the top three prospects, that's a natural choice. If it happens, I think we should match it.

On the other hand, if another club picks Dunkley at No. 1 or 2, that would be vexatious, or downright foolish. They can have him.

[707]

Mills is no longer top three due to the outstanding form of KP players at the championships and KP players are worth a lot more than ubiquitous midfielders.

Pick 4 is where he'll be bid on, probably by Melbourne :-)

[Mug Punter]

I don't see another club's early bid for Mills as vexatious: if he's in the top three prospects, that's a natural choice. If it happens, I think we should match it.

On the other hand, if another club picks Dunkley at No. 1 or 2, that would be vexatious, or downright foolish. They can have him.

Spot on!!!

[707]

Another thought about the new bidding system. Every pick is worth points right out to pick 72. Now we typically don't use picks out that far but often trade frnge players to their club of choice for picks we don't use.

From now, those picks we don't use become valuable. Trade out a couple of non required players like Biggs, Membrey etc, and we can accumulate valuable points that may stop next years first pick being downgraded.

Just so many nuances with the new system, draft day and trading week/fortnight/month will be so interesting this year with picks worth points.

[Pmcc2911]

Any names we should be keeping an eye out for?

The ones I have heard the most about are Baron-Hay, Hebron, Veale and Fyffe.
There are probably one or two more for the North Coast who I haven't seen.

[WauchopeAnalyst]

Mills hasn't even played a game this year has he? Is their any chance of him playing any games in the carnival for NSW/ACT and showing his stuff this year? I for one hope he does to see if he's improved on his excellent form last year plus I want to see him play without the focus of Heeney being in the side with him and how he handles being 'the man' so to speak.

Mills will not play U18 Championships. Will play some Swans reserves and NSWACT Rams U18s TAC Cup games later in the year.

[Dosser]

Having grown up in and played all my football in Sydney and now living in Melbourne I can say that to rely on the 'go home' factor for a Sydney boy to return may be petty foolish. If you think that letting Mills go to a Melbourne club for 2 years because you believe he will want to return to Sydney means you really have no idea what is waiting for him down here.
Understand this. Davis was an exception to the rule. Mills will find the fame and fortune down here to be almost irresistible and you seem to think that whichever club they go to won't be pulling out all the stops to ensure that he wants to stay.
You can forget this as a strategy as it is naive and myopic.

[Pmcc2911]

Mills will not play U18 Championships. Will play some Swans reserves and NSWACT Rams U18s TAC Cup games later in the year.

No disrespect but are you speaking as an a source close to Mills or are you speculating ?

[Ludwig]

Having grown up in and played all my football in Sydney and now living in Melbourne I can say that to rely on the 'go home' factor for a Sydney boy to return may be petty foolish. If you think that letting Mills go to a Melbourne club for 2 years because you believe he will want to return to Sydney means you really have no idea what is waiting for him down here.
Understand this. Davis was an exception to the rule. Mills will find the fame and fortune down here to be almost irresistible and you seem to think that whichever club they go to won't be pulling out all the stops to ensure that he wants to stay.
You can forget this as a strategy as it is naive and myopic.

My memory fails me. How many Sydney boys are playing for Melbourne clubs at the moment?

[Dosser]

My memory fails me. How many Sydney boys are playing for Melbourne clubs at the moment?

How many came back to the swans?

[Auntie.Gerald]

My understanding was that if we don't offer higher then carltons offer for mills and Carlton do not trade him then mills only possibility after 2 years at Carlton is via the PSD which is a very slim chance to get to the swans

Ie if he is good enough we have to take him at the draft !

[Conor_Dillon]

I think the 'go-home' factor is massively overstated these days. Most just use that as an excuse to sign a contract on much more money or play for a club in a premiership window.

[Ludwig]

I've been playing a bit of a devil's advocate here mainly because of my annoyance at the changes in the bidding system aimed at costing us as much as possible to draft Mills and Dunkley.

I am very much in favour of taking them both and think we will probably pay up even if Mills is bid at pick 1. But I also believe it is quite dangerous giving up so many draft picks to get one player.

To give one example. In 2009 Fremantle took the highly touted Anthony Morabito at pick 4. Some called him the next Adam Goodes. But as luck will have it, his career may well be over due to injury. Luckily Freo had their next pick at 20 and selected Nat Fyfe, who slipped down the draft order due to questionable kicking skills at the time. It will be a lot of eggs going into one basket under the new bidding system.

If we draft Mills (and even more so if we draft Dunks as well), we should be prepared to lose a few top midfielders, simply because there's no room for them all. Hopefully we can get some good compensation at the trade table, but nonetheless some loved stars or top prospects will be out the door.

We have the following midfielders not playing in the seniors this week that I would rate as first class talent all capable of playing regularly at AFL level: McGlynn, Bird, Hewett, Jones and Heeney. We also have a few that could well develop into very good players, but not making any predictions on these: Brandon Jack, Hiscox, Perris and Rose. If we bring Mills and Dunkley to the club, we are sure to lose a few. Right now, I can't see Bird playing much as long as the JPK, Parker and Mitchell remain fit. I would hate to lose Hewett because I think he's already showing his talent in the reserves and would almost certainly be playing at most AFL clubs now.

I find the draft situation this year incredibly complex with so many nuances. I wasn't going to comment of this until October, but sadly couldn't help myself from throwing my 2 cents in.

[WauchopeAnalyst]

Unfortunately due to the new process the 'usual suspects' from previous drafts will try to be tricky or smart and some clubs will pay way 'overs', maybe us, and some will suffer deluxe, before it will settle down. If anything, the Swans know what they are doing in Drafts, except some first picks, so I can see one of our mids leaving and maybe some lower level players. Swans generally don't lose players they want to keep.

[Mug Punter]

If we draft Mills (and even more so if we draft Dunks as well), we should be prepared to lose a few top midfielders, simply because there's no room for them all. Hopefully we can get some good compensation at the trade table, but nonetheless some loved stars or top prospects will be out the door.

We have the following midfielders not playing in the seniors this week that I would rate as first class talent all capable of playing regularly at AFL level: McGlynn, Bird, Hewett, Jones and Heeney. We also have a few that could well develop into very good players, but not making any predictions on these: Brandon Jack, Hiscox, Perris and Rose. If we bring Mills and Dunkley to the club, we are sure to lose a few. Right now, I can't see Bird playing much as long as the JPK, Parker and Mitchell remain fit. I would hate to lose Hewett because I think he's already showing his talent in the reserves and would almost certainly be playing at most AFL clubs now.

I find the draft situation this year incredibly complex with so many nuances. I wasn't going to comment of this until October, but sadly couldn't help myself from throwing my 2 cents in.

Our depth is good but perhaps a little exaggerated due to our lack of injuries. If we lost Ted or heaven forbid Ted and Reg we'd soon know about our lack of defensive cover...

If we bring in two gun young mids with Heeney plus want to provide decent opportunities for Jones and Hewett it stands to reason we'll probably free up some space on the list. Bird would seem an obvious choice to let go as would Towers and maybe even a player like Harry. The unknown with our transfer activity of course will be the future of Jetta.

I'd really like to see 3-4 of Jones, Hewett, Rose etc to get a taste of senior footy this year