Swans chat Buddy Trade Ban still hurting Swans

[KSAS]

HS article detailing how the Buddy trade ban is really hurting us now as we have dearth shortage of players in the 24 - 30 age bracket (as some here had already highlighted). Mick McGuane stating the trade ban was unjust as the Swans had done nothing wrong securing Buddy. But Gill has opened up old wounds saying he has no regrets with handing out the ban because it was related how the COLA was executed (but not giving any details of course!!!). He tries to dismiss the whole episode by saying it was a decision made long ago!!!!

Outline - Read & annotate without distractions

The past coming back to haunt the AFL & Gill this week with the uncovering of the transcripts to the Melbourne tanking saga.

[barry]

A Victorian comp, run by Victorians for Victorians.

[KSAS]

Furthermore what really gets my blood boiling, is some time later after the ban was imposed I recall Gill saying we didn't rort COLA to get Buddy as was implied by Eddie & co. His only comment at the time in justifying the ban was we couldn't have everyone! Gil, seems to have changed his tune now implying we misused COLA. Funny how the (Melb) media at the time let this go through to the keeper and stayed quiet about it, but after 4.5 years only now are they seeing it as unjust!

The timing of the ban announcement can't also be overlooked as the AFL did so in GF week of 2014, which we were of course competting in. Not blaming that on the result and our poor performance that day, but still a deliberate ploy to unsettle the club as much as possible in the biggest week of the year.

There was talk at the time of Lawyers willing to represent us and take the AFL to court for restrain of trade. In hindsight I wish we did so after reading Gill's latest comments.

[Blood Fever]

Furthermore what really gets my blood boiling, is some time later after the ban was imposed I recall Gill saying we didn't rort COLA to get Buddy as was implied by Eddie & co. His only comment at the time in justifying the ban was we couldn't have everyone! Gil, seems to have changed his tune now implying we misused COLA. Funny how the (Melb) media at the time let this go through to the keeper and stayed quiet about it, but after 4.5 years only now are they seeing it as unjust!

The timing of the ban announcement can't also be overlooked as the AFL did so in GF week of 2014, which we were of course competting in. Not blaming that on the result and our poor performance that day, but still a deliberate ploy to unsettle the club as much as possible in the biggest week of the year.

There was talk at the time of Lawyers willing to represent us and take the AFL to court for restrain of trade. In hindsight I wish we did so after reading Gill's latest comments.

AFL vindictive and petulant. Typical that Melbourne media have a story long after damage is done and the horse has bolted.

[Steve]

Buddy Trade Ban still hurting Swans

The trade ban was a farce, and had certain impacts, but it can’t be totally blamed as the reason for our list age profile.

We’ve had too many players in the age bracket being talked about who we traded out or delisted, who either weren’t good enough, we didn’t give sufficient opportunities, or prioritised older players and therefore squeezed other out:

Hannebery
Rohan
Newman
Towers
Robinson
Marsh
Nankervis
Mitchell

Hannebery was bad luck with his body packing it in, but clearly we made a few poor list management decisions.

It’s not about how many players you have in that age bracket, it’s that you need to have a core of good players amongst them to be the driving force of the team.

With our recent recruiting we’ll have that in 5 years, but there’s no overnight solution until then.

[barry]

The trade band, unjustified as it was, didn't really hurt us. The loss of COLA has hurt us, more so the giants.

The way the AFLhas treated Sydney clubs is a disgrace.

Need I repeat myself. A victorian league, run by Vic's, for Vic's.

[Mel_C]

The AFL had no idea how COLA was distributed. Fitzpatrick said as much to Mike Sheehan during an interview last year. He said something along the lines that he thought we were using all of COLA to pay Buddy. Mike had to correct him.

The AFL are being run by incompetent and corrupt people. Just look at the Dees tanking documents that have come out...Gil says nothing to see here. And don't get me started on the Essendon drugs saga.

[liz]

The AFL's own salary cap monitor (whose name has escaped me - Andrew something, I think) said on several occasions that they had never found any evidence of the Swans abusing COLA. The ban was ridiculous and vindictive.

That said, I agree with Steve that our current list profile can't really be attributed to it. There are too many factors to take into account, and I'm not convinced we were ever really prevented for trading for anyone we wanted or were able to trade for. It's the injustice of the ban that still stings, not the effects.

[Blood Fever]

The AFL's own salary cap monitor (whose name has escaped me - Andrew something, I think) said on several occasions that they had never found any evidence of the Swans abusing COLA. The ban was ridiculous and vindictive.

That said, I agree with Steve that our current list profile can't really be attributed to it. There are too many factors to take into account, and I'm not convinced we were ever really prevented for trading for anyone we wanted or were able to trade for. It's the injustice of the ban that still stings, not the effects.

We can't say definitively that we weren't hurt by ban. Who knows which seasoned payers we may have been able to bring in to improve the list. Our youngsters are top notch and we may not have got all of them to be fair.

[0918330512]

The trade band, unjustified as it was, didn't really hurt us. The loss of COLA has hurt us, more so the giants.

The way the AFLhas treated Sydney clubs is a disgrace.

Need I repeat myself. A victorian league, run by Vic's, for Vic's.

You don’t need to, but you without a doubt will regardless

[Danzar]

Here's a link to the article, should work for anyone How Buddy trade ban is still hurting Swans

[Ludwig]

It was the loss of COLA which added to the salary cap squeeze inherent in recruiting Franklin and Tippett, along with several all star players getting big contracts, that was the reason for our lack of adding yet more stars to the club during the trading ban period. The ban itself had no impact, as we didn't have the cap space to bring in anyone anyway.

I think the Swans' management have conceded that rebuilding through the draft and getting that large group of players that would eventually come through together in due course, was the way to proceed under the circumstances. We did a further cleaning out last year.

We can see that some of those that came to the club starting with the 2013 draft are heading into some good form: Jones, Hewett, Aliir, Heeney, Mills and Papley. It's a good start. We need the next group of Melican, Hayward, COR, Dawson, Florent and Ronke to join them, and then we should be back up with the better teams in the competition. We still have more to follow from the last 2 drafts.

There's also a fair bit of work to do to get these younger players working together as a well oiled machine. It doesn't happen overnight. I just want to see progress being made this year and next. When I see the on-field organisation of a team like the Eagles, it's evident that we aren't in that class just yet. We are still a reasonably competitive side, but more in the middle of the pack than the top of the heap.

In retrospect, we did well getting through that difficult period of the trade ban years, even if the ban itself wasn't the culprit. We should come out of this in good shape. We peaked out in 2016 when we should have had another premiership. Now we are just hanging in there during this transition period.

[liz]

I think we peaked in 2014. At the start of 2016 I thought we’d be doing well to scrape into the bottom of the eight, given the number of young players we had in our best 22. That we made a GF speaks for how weak the competition was that year ( and for how good our top half dozen players were that year. And for how few injuries of importance we suffered until about a week out from the start of the finals).

[Boddo]

I look back upon the trade ban n realised it was the beginning of the end of my love for AFL. The competition reeks of a sports entertainment business to make money for the Melbourne boys club.

I absolutely enjoy following my local Australian rules side now & still have a soft spot for the swans but I have no interest in following a competition that has its main goal is to make money ahead of a fair competition. I still watch Sydney but only occasionally now if it’s on tv and I’ve got nothing on.

Sadly I am starting to see this in other people a lot more. So there’s no surprise the games tv ratings were down last year.

The game desperately needs a separation of powers that the AFL have over the game. Like the ANFC.

Australian National Football Council - Wikipedia

And lastly I have no idea why anyone thinks the media would ask any questions in regards to the trade ban. They have AFL accreditation to hold onto, they lose this and they are basically ostracised from gaining access to the games players, coaches and administrators. Basically your reporting of the game ends.

It’s not a sporting competition, it’s a business to make as much money as possible for the admistraters.

[barry]

Spot on boddo. Many in sydney feel the same way.