2019 trading, drafting and list management: players and personnel

[Meg]

All quite correct. 23 Dans, 29 Dannys, a Dannie, a Danyle and 2 Danes.

Here's a chart of the full set, for completeness.

Plus three Danielles in the AFLW: Danielle Ponter Adelaide Crows; Danielle Hardiman North Melbourne; Danielle Orr Geelong. [emoji2088][emoji2088][emoji2088]

[S.S. Bleeder]

Like the idea, but GWS as a matter of principle does not trade with us.

How about Kelly from Geelong???

He is exactly what we need and a lot cheeper than Cogs will cost us.

There is the small matter of wanting to go home to Perth, but if you don't ask the question you will never know!

He wants to leave Geelong to be closer to family in Perth. Out of the question.

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And 1 major injury away from mediocrity, minus a first rounder

Just like every other player out there except he has a good injury history.

[S.S. Bleeder]

Must be a slow news days if we're rating people with the same first names. I'm tipping that we have the best Lance that's ever played the game.

[Markwebbos]

I was always a fan of the L Whitnall who captained Carlton

[goswannies]

Must be a slow news days if we're rating people with the same first names. I'm tipping that we have the best Lance that's ever played the game.

I think you overrate the career of Lance Morton

[Ralph Dawg]

Back onto recruiting (although very impressed by "Daniel" graphs!), I notice Brayden Sier has not been selected again. Around 90kg, 190 cm mid fielder, looked good last year. Could be a target for us?

[caj23]

Back onto recruiting (although very impressed by "Daniel" graphs!), I notice Brayden Sier has not been selected again. Around 90kg, 190 cm mid fielder, looked good last year. Could be a target for us?

Would love to get him, he was seriously impressive last year, a bullocking midfielder in the Josh Kennedy mould

Hopefully Beams keeps him out of the side this season

[Jimitron5000]

Would love to get him, he was seriously impressive last year, a bullocking midfielder in the Josh Kennedy mould

Hopefully Beams keeps him out of the side this season

Agreed.

[Markwebbos]

I think this is the right place for this post

[Markwebbos]

I think this is the right place for this post

Mick McGuane: Why Sydney Swans must inject Callum Mills into their midfield

Category: | Herald Sun

The evolution of the Sydney Swans midfield must take place now otherwise it will be too late.

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[Odysseus]

I think this is the right place for this post

Mick McGuane: Why Sydney Swans must inject Callum Mills into their midfield

Category: | Herald Sun

Thanks for the heads-up on this article. I think McGuane makes a very strong case.

I didn't watch much of Geelong's game last week but in the bit I did watch I noticed the commentators remarking how the younger players had been given greater responsibility in the midfield, and that they were doing well. I thought at the time, I wish the Bloods would do the same. Getting Callum Mills in there makes a lot of sense.

[Markwebbos]

The non selection of Thurlow / COR last week was not a good omen. Hopefully if Mills plays midfield there will be less inside 50s raining down on the defence.

[Ralph Dawg]

The non selection of Thurlow / COR last week was not a good omen. Hopefully if Mills plays midfield there will be less inside 50s raining down on the defence.

Our midfield, in particular the inside (but also the outside runners) has been neglected in recent times. I get the impression the club has just assumed that JPK and Parker, and to a lesser extent Hanners and Jack, would just continue to dominate. We have not drafted, traded or got game time into players who could be called upon to compete with the elite in the competition. I am not convinced that Mills and Heeney are the answers (quite clearly neither are the coaches) and if Papley and Jones are viewed as a big part of the succession plan for JPK then we are in big trouble. I guess that's why I have thrown up the names of Coniglio and Siers as I think the long term answer lies in trading / draft. Let's hope we still have some money in the kitty after we have paid Buddy and Tippett...........

[liz]

Our midfield, in particular the inside (but also the outside runners) has been neglected in recent times. I get the impression the club has just assumed that JPK and Parker, and to a lesser extent Hanners and Jack, would just continue to dominate. We have not drafted, traded or got game time into players who could be called upon to compete with the elite in the competition. I am not convinced that Mills and Heeney are the answers (quite clearly neither are the coaches) and if Papley and Jones are viewed as a big part of the succession plan for JPK then we are in big trouble. I guess that's why I have thrown up the names of Coniglio and Siers as I think the long term answer lies in trading / draft. Let's hope we still have some money in the kitty after we have paid Buddy and Tippett...........

I admit to being puzzled about the difference in what the club says about Mills and how they've been using him. At junior level he was an elite onballer, a much more natural "first dibs" player than Heeney, based on what I saw of both of them. (I think Heeney's best value is either on the outside, or as first receiver from the player who wins the ball at the coal face. His instincts seem to be to stand off multi-player contests and wait to pounce, rather than go in and dig the ball out himself.)

Is the apparent reluctance to play Mills as a full-time onballer because they think he's too valuable in defence? Or do they have reservations about his abilities in the middle of the ground. The latter puzzles me, given he's not been given much of a run there to find out (though I acknowledge the coaches will have seen much more of him in that role - at training).

He is a good intercept marker in defence, but that combination of reading the flight of the ball and courage to compete in the air is valuable all around the ground. And I think it is easier to find (or manufacture) decent mid-sized defenders than it is to find (or create) top-line onballers. Given our obvious deficits in the midfield, it seems like a no-brainer to play him there. And indeed, the rationale for chasing Langdon hard in the off-season, and then eventually recruiting Thurlow, was to give the club the option of playing Mills elsewhere.

So we roll around to the competitive games and, first up, Mills plays pretty well onball in the scratch match against the Giants. Of course, both Parker and JPK were missing that day. As the JLT rolled on, Mills seemed to spend less time in the midfield and more back in his old role as a medium sized defender. And then for round 1, they don't even pick the player they recruited to free him up, in Thurlow, and again we start the game with Mills in defence.

Even now, for round 2, Thurlow has again not been selected despite solid form throughout the JLT and a positive review from last week's NEAFL game. I know O'Riordan has been brought in, but I don't see him as a replacement in defence for Mills. He should have been in for round one in place of one of the talls, irrespective of where Mills played. So I still don't know where Mills is going to line up at the start of tonight's game, as opposed to later in the game when the midfield is again not firing.

I don't see Papley or Jones as proposed replacements for JPK. I think they are there to add some smaller bite and zip around the bigger guys - the role that Jack played with aplomb until a couple of seasons ago, when his hip issues really started to take their toll. I think Papley has done OK in the midfield thus far. My main gripe about him playing there is that he's then not in the forward line applying the pressure that was completely missing last weekend. Ronke might help rectify that but I think we need them both milling around Reid and Buddy for substantial periods of the game.

I've liked what I've seen of Jones in the midfield throughout the JLT and I thought he was one of our less poor players last week. I do also like him zipping out of defence but hopefully COR can provide some of that. (And maybe Ling, or Stoddart, or McInerney in years down the track.) I know I'm more of a fan of Jones than many on here - I forgive him for his occasional errors because they usually happen when he's trying to make something happen, rather than taking safe options.

[Markwebbos]

I don’t get it either with Mills. Could it relate to his running ability?