2017 trading, drafting, list management

[RogueSwan]

I see Sam Murray has been given the number 9 at Collingwood, previously worn by Jesse White. Hmmmmm. I wonder how he feels about that?

I'm sure Jesse would be cool with it

[Dosser]

Mitchell was about money, pure and simple, no go home factor, we chose to let him go, the same way we did with Mummy, we couldn't afford what they wanted and what they quite rightly valued themselves at.

Josh Dunkley is an interesting nomination, go home without getting here! :-)

So I'll pose the question again, who was the last player we lost to homesickness/go home for family?

Didnt Tom grow up in Perth?

[wolftone57]

Sorry Ludwig, but you have been banging on about not playing Aliir but obviously Horse and the coaching staff were not totally happy with playing him. As it turned out Melican deservedly so, took his place and Aliir never earned his spot back last season. I am not an expert, leave that to Horse and co, but obviously Aliir didn't warrant his spot due to various factors, and I only speculate, being a total outsider, that this may have included attitude, team structure balance, lack of tackling, lack of pressure etc, etc. I just don't know. I hope that he recaptures the form he showed in 2016 and has a great pre-season and becomes the player we all want.

I think they were inordinately hard on Aliir. He should have played toward the end of the season as he was playing really good footy in the reserves .Some of our seniors, especially Tippett, were very poor but continued to get games. We are regenerating and Aliir is a part of that. Certainly he needed to fix some parts of his game, standing too far off his man was one.

[707]

From the Pies/AFL website, my bolding - Such is the Magpies' confidence in Murray's potential, they gave the Swans their 2018 second-round pick for his services. The former rookie will line up in the No.9, which was vacated by the recently retired White after playing 56 games between 2014 and 2017 for the Pies.

Wonder what the Pies saw that we didn't or was it just that we couldn't see a place for him in the seniors for 2018. Will be a player I'm sure we'll all be watching very closely next year. More than happy with the extra (hopefully) early second rounder. Is it too soon for a 2018 Trading, drafting, delisting thread? :-)

[wolftone57]

Tom Mitchell (had we been in Melbourne he may have been satisfied with less money) and Josh Dunkley (had we been in Melbourne he would have nominated us).

The fact Mitchell is from Perth stuffs up that theory. It was all about money. Same with his dad

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From the Pies/AFL website, my bolding - Such is the Magpies' confidence in Murray's potential, they gave the Swans their 2018 second-round pick for his services. The former rookie will line up in the No.9, which was vacated by the recently retired White after playing 56 games between 2014 and 2017 for the Pies.

Wonder what the Pies saw that we didn't or was it just that we couldn't see a place for him in the seniors for 2018. Will be a player I'm sure we'll all be watching very closely next year. More than happy with the extra (hopefully) early second rounder. Is it too soon for a 2018 Trading, drafting, delisting thread? :-)

They didn't see anything we didn't. we were going to upgrade him.

[liz]

I don't think Mitchell's departure had much to do with money at all. I believe it was mostly about opportunity - an opportunity to be the top-dog in a midfield, rather than play third or fourth fiddle to Kennedy, Parker, Hannebery et al. We saw the results - allowed to command the centre bounces (and with almost no-one else interfering), he won the Hawks' B&F by a mile and earned his first AA selection. Had he stayed, he'd have been a regular in the Swans team but would probably have remained on the periphery.

Good luck to him, I reckon. Despite the gnashing by some on here, I don't think his departure has hurt us unduly, and he now gets to make the most of his abilities in a team that needed them badly, much as we needed the abilities of Kennedy at the start of this decade.

I also believe O'Keefe's near-departure was as much about opportunity as it was money (though I think money was part of it). Both he and Roos spoke openly about how ROK had been badgering Roos to let him play in the midfield, but that Roos didn't really think that's where his talents lay. When ROK agreed to remain at the club, it was on a promise that he'd get opportunities in the midfield, and Roos was true to his word. ROK won the B&F the very next season, and also won the 2012 Norm Smith, as a key cog in the team's onball brigade.

[wolftone57]

You can see the trend for how clubs will list manage ruckmen. St Kilda have gone the way of 2 on the main list plus a rookie.

From STK website:



We might evolve to rotating 3 mobile KPPs through the ruck. For the Swans we might see something like Reid, Aliir and Toby Pink as such a trio. All are mobile and can play in the ruck and both in the forward and defensive lines. Certainly dual position players like Darcy Cameron will be part of the picture. It's another reason I like tall utilities, as it gives the team more flexibility. It's like having a built in Plan B by just rotating the tall utilities to different positions if things aren't going well during the game.

I personally think Toby could be a very exciting prospect as he develops a body and fine tunes those raw skills. Big guys take a while to develop and he was only 18 this year. He needs to develop a bit more grunt, get a bigger tank and learn how to stay in the game at all times even when the ball is not in his zone. By that last I mean think ahead a little more and be consistent. I think the last two will come with tank. He has so much raw ability/talent. Some of the things he did this year were simply amazing for a raw rookie. his ability to run off players going back, his smarts in tapping the ball on to a teammate, his evasion skills and for someone so light I loved the way he makes a contest. When he gets some more beef he will start winning more than 50% of his contests. That will be huge because he can kick goals.

[The Runner]

Mitchell was offered a contract below market value, because he was 3rd to 4th in line with the midfield. Considering Heeney, Jones and Mills were coming through, we were comfortable letting him leave to get the remuneration his skills deserve.

If you were offered 50-100% (considerate of increased sponsorship opps) more at a direct competitor to do the same job, would you take it?

What's this obsession with loyalty? We didn't birth the players. We recruited them from a pool of candidates and pay them a wage to represent us. If the relationship is healthy and both appreciate the outputs of each other, it continues.

[Ludwig]

There are a lot of similarities between Brandon Jack and Sam Murray. The biggest difference is that BJ has been given opportunities to take his game to an AFL level and has failed, while Sam has yet to be given that opportunity. Personally, I think BJ is the better player and the Pies would have been smarter if they took BJ as a DFA. I also think Aaron Mullett, who was delisted by NM, was a better bet than Sam. There were several others that Collingwood could have gotten for less. You have to wonder what's going on down there at the Holden Centre. It's like any workplace I suppose. You wonder sometimes how some people got to the positions they have.

[MattW]

Melican was named as an emergency, so I don't think he was injured.

Yeah, which makes it an odd thing for Blakey to have said.

[S.S. Bleeder]

The fact Mitchell is from Perth stuffs up that theory. It was all about money. Same with his dad
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Rubbish. All his family is in Melbourne. Perth was only a temporary home, for three years, whilst his Dad was work there. If your going to be critical GYFFR.

Mitchell played as a rover and was consistently one of the top possession getters in the league every season. After retiring from Carlton in 1996, he kept involved with the club by becoming their runner. He was promoted by the Blues to assistant coach in 2003, but left in 2007 to join Hawthorn, again as an assistant, and was part of the premiership team in 2008. He left the Hawks at the end of the premiership winning season to join Fremantle as an assistant coach. At the end of the 2011 season he left Fremantle to return to Melbourne after his son Tom Mitchell was drafted by the Sydney Swans under the father-son rule.

[S.S. Bleeder]

Mitchell was about money, pure and simple, no go home factor, we chose to let him go, the same way we did with Mummy, we couldn't afford what they wanted and what they quite rightly valued themselves at.

Josh Dunkley is an interesting nomination, go home without getting here! :-)

So I'll pose the question again, who was the last player we lost to homesickness/go home for family?

In the case of Mitchell it was probably money AND family. He's very close to his old man.

In relation to Dunkley you're missing my point (despite me stating it). He didn't was to come to us because he wanted to stay in Victoria for family reasons. Had we been a Melbourne club he would be on our list. Because we aren't in an AFL state we are handicapped, even with father/son selections because most of them live in AFL states.

[stevoswan]

I see Craig Bird has been delisted by the Bombers. Great career Birdy! Swans premiership player forever......

[Meg]

I see Craig Bird has been delisted by the Bombers. Great career Birdy! Swans premiership player forever......

+1.

I noticed Craig was one of the groomsmen at Sam Reid?s wedding (as also was Luke Parker). Nice to see the strong friendships that develop amongst players.

[longmile]

I see Craig Bird has been delisted by the Bombers. Great career Birdy! Swans premiership player forever......

lets pick him up!

One of my fave undervalued swans