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I was fortunate enough to have a chat to Tom Harley this morning at Swans training. I have posted at greater length in the pre-season thread but I'll repeat a couple of points more relevant to this thread here:
* trade period is overrated; the idea of 'winning' a trade period is nonsensical; the most 'successful' and active teams tend to be those who haven't been very successful on the field recently and who have salary cap space (I assume St Kilda is an example of this). Conversely the most successful teams don't get up to too much: e.g. Richmond, Collingwood, Geelong. While we were panned in the media as having been trade period 'losers' this is not the club's view and they more think we just lost 'the PR battle'.
* Tom Harley is a little removed from our approach to the draft (and, I infer, recruiting generally). He has a fair awareness of what we are doing and who we are interested in but not too much about the detail.
* We do feel we are going to get a good player at pick 5 and that they will be significantly better than a player we might select at pick 9.
* We will bid on Tom Green if he's still available at our pick. We expect GWS to match the bid.
* We recruited the players we did both because they are good players and because they are relatively seasoned and add some experience to our group.
* The recruitment of Gray spelled the end for Menzel. We decided that Gray had better exposed form over the past few years than Menzel.
* We decided not to trade Papley unless we got Daniher (as has already been reporeted in the media - but confirmed by Harley). We were never going to offer pick 5 because we really want to pick up a great young player who will be a part of the nucleus of our side in a few years' time and because, as noted already, we consider pick 5 will give us a significantly better player than pick 9 (contrary to what some media outlets have been reporting).
* We intend to draft two great Academy players (Gulden and Campbell I assume) next year. We expect them both to be around the first round.
* We hope that in the not too distant future 6 out of our 10 best players will have come from NSW and this will hopefully help to reduce any 'go home' factor.
* We are still recovering from the removal of COLA.
* Gray and Taylor were not recruited specifically to build depth to cover Papley's position. [I didn't ask and Tom didn't comment over whether we will continue to hold on to Papley for the duration of his contract. Likewise, I didn't ask, and Tom didn't comment, about whether we will chase Joe Daniher again next year.] Papley will be expected to deal with his disappointment about not being traded and get on with it.
* trade period is overrated; the idea of 'winning' a trade period is nonsensical; the most 'successful' and active teams tend to be those who haven't been very successful on the field recently and who have salary cap space (I assume St Kilda is an example of this). Conversely the most successful teams don't get up to too much: e.g. Richmond, Collingwood, Geelong. While we were panned in the media as having been trade period 'losers' this is not the club's view and they more think we just lost 'the PR battle'.
* Tom Harley is a little removed from our approach to the draft (and, I infer, recruiting generally). He has a fair awareness of what we are doing and who we are interested in but not too much about the detail.
* We do feel we are going to get a good player at pick 5 and that they will be significantly better than a player we might select at pick 9.
* We will bid on Tom Green if he's still available at our pick. We expect GWS to match the bid.
* We recruited the players we did both because they are good players and because they are relatively seasoned and add some experience to our group.
* The recruitment of Gray spelled the end for Menzel. We decided that Gray had better exposed form over the past few years than Menzel.
* We decided not to trade Papley unless we got Daniher (as has already been reporeted in the media - but confirmed by Harley). We were never going to offer pick 5 because we really want to pick up a great young player who will be a part of the nucleus of our side in a few years' time and because, as noted already, we consider pick 5 will give us a significantly better player than pick 9 (contrary to what some media outlets have been reporting).
* We intend to draft two great Academy players (Gulden and Campbell I assume) next year. We expect them both to be around the first round.
* We hope that in the not too distant future 6 out of our 10 best players will have come from NSW and this will hopefully help to reduce any 'go home' factor.
* We are still recovering from the removal of COLA.
* Gray and Taylor were not recruited specifically to build depth to cover Papley's position. [I didn't ask and Tom didn't comment over whether we will continue to hold on to Papley for the duration of his contract. Likewise, I didn't ask, and Tom didn't comment, about whether we will chase Joe Daniher again next year.] Papley will be expected to deal with his disappointment about not being traded and get on with it.
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