2019 trading, drafting and list management: players and personnel

[Markwebbos]

Think this article about Kizza is on the money

Category: | Herald Sun

Sydney Swans great Kieren Jack faces an uphill battle to finish his career in the AFL, following the impressive rise of the next generation.

Coach John Longmire praised the selfless mentoring role Jack is currently playing for the Swans reserves team, but conceded form and not his fitness is what’s keeping him out of the top grade. The line hasn’t been put through Jack, but it’s clear a changing of the guard has taken place.

“It’s just a matter of, he’s played two games now (in the NEAFL). He’s like any player. We want him to come in and impact,” said Longmire. “We don’t want him to just come in, tick the box and say ‘I’m playing.’ He needs to come in, play well, impact. And we want to give him the best possible chance of that as well.

“Kieren’s got a bit more footy under his belt but we’re happy with what (Ben) Ronke did on the weekend. James Rowbottom has played a couple of games at AFL level and showed some real potential. Rowbottom spoke about it during the week to me, how good it was having Kieren involved in the reserves. Having him there and talking to him during the game. Then he’s able to come up to senior footy and hold his own."

[Auntie.Gerald]

So how do we distinguish :

whether our team is better for keeping Jones or finding another player that makes our team better for 2020 season ?

[KTigers]

My original comment re Jones was his constant ability to give away dumb free kicks -eg running in the protected zone. A couple of times you can excuse but he doesn't seem to learn

Sure, running across the mark is not a good idea, but it's possible that Zac is just as confused about the "protected zone",
how big it is, and when & where it's going to be enforced as the rest of us. I know he gets caught running with the ball a
bit, but then so does Buddy. Maybe both of them aren't as quick as they think they are.

[707]

So how do we distinguish :

whether our team is better for keeping Jones or finding another player that makes our team better for 2020 season ?

What will be, will be. I trust the club to make to correct decision. If Jones wants to leave then get best deal possible. If he wants to stay then we re-sign him on what we feel he is worth.

For the first time in ages we have salary cap room to do whatever we want and Buddy only has two more $mill+ years on his contract so we can now realistically be writing long back ended contracts that put more money in the last year of Buddy's contract (reportedly $500k) but of course keeping $ spare to re-sign Buddy on a year by year basis :-)

[Kumarangk]

So how do we distinguish :

whether our team is better for keeping Jones or finding another player that makes our team better for 2020 season ?

All depends on what his manager wants. The club needs to gauge his potential for further improvement ( has he just about peaked ? ) against his game intelligence , which is very much lacking at times. Love to keep him but not at a price that impacts our ability to retain & recruit other players.Same for Reid , playing well at presnt but injury prone and like a Rohan, goes missing.

[Ludwig]

Zak Jones is The Good, The Bad and The Ugly wrapped up in a single package. He does everything with flair and stands out, whatever he's doing. I don't think he does more bad and ugly than other players that take the game on, but gets noticed more due to the way he goes about it. This year he's getting plenty of the ball and generally uses it well. More importantly, he's often a part of our better scoring opportunities.

Overall, he's mostly good and one of the more important players for us going forward. Given our current age demographic, he's worth far more to us than a 1st round draft pick.

[Auntie.Gerald]

For me there are a few layers to review

1. We need to improve our midfield significantly to be a top 4 team again next year and will Jones be part of that ?

2. Can we improve the midfield with jones and another key midfield recruit with the $ we have to spend via Grundy, macca and jack most likely retiring minimum ?

3. If jones stayed for significant $ is his current midfield ability on a trajectory to improve significantly? It needs to quite frankly. He is a challenging player to play with as he isn’t obvious in his decision making when breaking from the pack. I think Rowbottom next year won’t be far off Jones standard if not go pass him. Rowbottom is a real find !!

4. Is Mills finally going to be released into the midfield if we find a back in a similar role to Mills but is better ?

5. Heeney and Florent will get more and more time in the middle rather then the wings as our developing wingman start moving into the snr team next year onwards

[caj23]

I don't think anyone at the club wants Jones to leave, as no matter the outcome we will be weaker in the short term without him. He's not an elite player, and probably won't ever be, but he is good to very good.

If he decides to leave, there won't be much the club can do about it given his contract status, in that event we simply have to maximise his trade value

Assuming $'s are the driving factor, and not the wish to return home, the question then is how much is he worth on our list. I would've thought a 3 year contract of around $650k would be around the mark for a player of his ability. Other teams (such as St Kilda) may offer him significantly higher $'s and length of contract to pry him loose which we simply may not be able/willing to match

[Mr Magoo]

I don't think anyone at the club wants Jones to leave, as no matter the outcome we will be weaker in the short term without him. He's not an elite player, and probably won't ever be, but he is good to very good.

If he decides to leave, there won't be much the club can do about it given his contract status, in that event we simply have to maximise his trade value

Assuming $'s are the driving factor, and not the wish to return home, the question then is how much is he worth on our list. I would've thought a 3 year contract of around $650k would be around the mark for a player of his ability. Other teams (such as St Kilda) may offer him significantly higher $'s and length of contract to pry him loose which we simply may not be able/willing to match

This sums it up for me . Nothing more to see , lets move on

[S.S. Bleeder]

Zak Jones is The Good, The Bad and The Ugly wrapped up in a single package. He does everything with flair and stands out, whatever he's doing. I don't think he does more bad and ugly than other players that take the game on, but gets noticed more due to the way he goes about it. This year he's getting plenty of the ball and generally uses it well. More importantly, he's often a part of our better scoring opportunities.

Overall, he's mostly good and one of the more important players for us going forward. Given our current age demographic, he's worth far more to us than a 1st round draft pick.

I couldn't agree more. Jones has his faults, but he's the only player in our team who takes the game on to his extent. Supporters are always complaining about how stagnant our game style is. If you remove him from the side, you make it worse. Other players such as Florent might develop this trait but that's not proven yet.

Jones is the type of player that would be a gun in another team. That said, he's not worth $700k p.a..

[Ralph Dawg]

Notice a story in AFL.com that Reilly O'Brien is open to leaving the crowd if they land Grundy. Now he would be perfect for us. Young, talented and on the way up. It's still not clear where his ceiling lies so won't cost the house to get, both in terms of trades and price.

[Markwebbos]

Notice a story in AFL.com that Reilly O'Brien is open to leaving the crowd if they land Grundy. Now he would be perfect for us. Young, talented and on the way up. It's still not clear where his ceiling lies so won't cost the house to get, both in terms of trades and price.

I'm not sure that he would come cheap given the Saints have offered nearly $500k a year for Draper who has yet to play a game of AFL. And O'Brien is keeping Jacobs out of the side. And he's 23.

[bloodspirit]

Notice a story in AFL.com that Reilly O'Brien is open to leaving the crowd if they land Grundy. Now he would be perfect for us. Young, talented and on the way up. It's still not clear where his ceiling lies so won't cost the house to get, both in terms of trades and price.

I had the same thought.

[Ralph Dawg]

I'm not sure that he would come cheap given the Saints have offered nearly $500k a year for Draper who has yet to play a game of AFL. And O'Brien is keeping Jacobs out of the side. And he's 23.

I think if Crows landed Grundy, he could come to us for around the same price, certainly no more than 650k, we could then send Rose and a second rounder. I say Rose, not because I don't rate him (shown great signs lately) but I think he's the sort of player Adelaide needs and is from SA. They'd most probably want George but no way we should trade him!

[Markwebbos]

I think that's all wishful thinking. Grundy would be in the top 5-10 players this year. The Collywobbles will do everything they can to hang on to him AND he's shown no signs of wanting to leave. If the Crows were in with a chance of snaring Grundy, I'm sure they'd be smart enough to sign O'Brien up first.