2020 trading, drafting and list management: players and personnel

[Auntie.Gerald]

Current list of first round drafted players: 8 in total of which we drafted 6 of them.

Stephens 3
Mills 3
Bud 5
Blakey 10
Ollie 11
Ling 14
Thurlow 16
Heeney 18

that would mean 14 players minimum of our best 22 come from 2nd round draft picks thru to later draft / different categories etc

Tall, athletic and versatile: 25 of the best draft prospects

[sprite]

Here’s the SEN article about Port offering AA - a contracted player - a contract!

Power set to approach Swans defender in trade period

"SEN SANFL commentator Miles Pfitzner believes the Power have approached Sydney defender Aliir Aliir about filling that void."

He probably believes in unicorns and fairy's at the bottom of his garden too!

[sprite]

+1

I'm a big fan of getting Paddy McCartin basically for free rather than gambling on Hogan.....who is a huge risk.

Can see your point Stevo, but McCartin is also a risk, albeit a cheaper one.

Would like to see a comparison of output per game as well as games missed for these two.

[KTigers]

Here’s the SEN article about Port offering AA - a contracted player - a contract!

Power set to approach Swans defender in trade period

It does seem like the culture for player movement is changing. I can't help thinking it's what the players want.
Like Jerry Seinfeld says in that skit, basically we support a piece of clothing. In our case it's red and white.

[barry]

If we lose Allir, we are officially stuffed.

If some of this talk becomes real. Lose Allir, pay overs for high risk players like Hogan....

Heads must roll. You cant finish 3rd last, and then lose key position players in their prime. It just spells 'basketcase'.

[Steve]

If we lose Allir, we are officially stuffed.

If some of this talk becomes real. Lose Allir, pay overs for high risk players like Hogan....

Heads must roll. You cant finish 3rd last, and then lose key position players in their prime. It just spells 'basketcase'.

Which key position does Aliir play (I mean at least on any semi-permanent basis, outside of when we are decimated by injury in a particular position)?

I think most posters have got Aliir's role / value correct - handy utility but only used as a makeshift fill-in when we have injuries in a particular area.

I don't think Longmire rates him very highly, which is more reason to let him go if it helps us - he's never going to be given a genuine opportunity to hold down a permanent role.

When he has been in defence in the last couple of years he looks far less assured as he did in that stint at the end of 2016, when he took intercept marks confidently and was weaving through defenders hitting targets etc. He is definitely a confidence player and needs to be set in one position to be of most value - but he's 26 and we're still only using him as a utility to cover whichever area we have a hole in at any given time.

He is probably a very good chance of wanting to leave at the end of his contract next year anyway based on all of that, so a trade now if we get something of value now would be worth looking at.

[rb4x]

It does seem like the culture for player movement is changing. I can't help thinking it's what the players want.
Like Jerry Seinfeld says in that skit, basically we support a piece of clothing. In our case it's red and white.

Usually red and white except for indigenous, heritage, LBBTI, multicultural, breast cancer, prostate cancer etc. rounds or when some sponsor wants to incorporate their colours or logo into the piece of cloth. I feel a lot less affinity for players that we trade in compared to those that we draft and nurture especially if they are local lads.

Ben Darwin did an article on how the most successful teams are the ones that grow up and stay together and that bringing in a star player is actually disruptive to the team and has a net negative influence. Losing interest in manufactured teams which they are all becoming as players and their agents chase the dollars.

Free agency is flawed as the receiving team pays nothing for getting the player hence the wealthy teams get wealthy while the poorer ones are plundered.

If Aliir is being offered a contract by Port while under contract to the Swans then it means contracts are not worth the paper they were written on from a teams point of view but can be sacrosanct from a players point of view if they are a list clogger.

End of rant.

[Thunder Shaker]

If we lose Allir, we are officially stuffed.

If some of this talk becomes real. Lose Allir, pay overs for high risk players like Hogan....

Heads must roll. You cant finish 3rd last, and then lose key position players in their prime. It just spells 'basketcase'.

Aliir is a contracted player with one year left on his contract. He becomes a RFA next year.

If he's going to end up at Port this year, they're going to need to pay slight overs to make the Swans release him from the contract. If they're that desperate for an established tall defender for 2021 because they think they can win the 2021 premiership, they're not paying unders.

They may bide their time and wait for 2021 when Aliir comes off contract and the RFA window opens. It depends on how desperate they are to have him in 2021.

As for Hogan, I doubt the Swans would end up paying overs. The Roar has this to say about Hogan on their trade rumours page:

Jesse Hogan – Rival clubs have told media outlets that the Dockers are looking to move the key forward on. Fremantle chairman Dale Alcock made comments on radio that suggested Freo were open to moving him on too. Will attract interest from clubs in search of key forward help – Brisbane and Collingwood’s names have been thrown up. Contracted until 2021.

A club that is initiating the trade is at a disadvantage in negotiations. It would be a very different story if Fremantle wanted to hold on to Hogan, then paying overs would be necessary to get the deal done. That's not the case here.

[AnsweredPrayers]

Aliir looks good in the ruck at times but he is very inconsistent. He looks good in defense when the opposition bomb the ball in long but otherwise seems to get lost. If we could swap him for a genuine ruck prospect, I'd be happy.

[SwanSand]

Aliir looks good in the ruck at times but he is very inconsistent. He looks good in defense when the opposition bomb the ball in long but otherwise seems to get lost. If we could swap him for a genuine ruck prospect, I'd be happy.

I think Aliir is handy and good guy to have around our club but I doubt he is top 5 defensive stock on our list.
McCartin, Rampe, mills, Lloyd, Dawson, Melican and maybe even thurlow would be rated higher. I think Thurlow is a very good kick.Then we have Brand, Gould, O’Connor on our list too.
Mind you none of them as tall as Aliir except for Brand.
So we can play the hard ball and if he wants to leave then get the best deal we can. Player in return and a third rounder ! Or maybe second rounder this year and give back future third rounder

- - - Updated - - -

I think Aliir is handy and good guy to have around our club but I doubt he is top 5 defensive stock on our list.
McCartin, Rampe, mills, Lloyd, Dawson, Melican and maybe even thurlow would be rated higher. I think Thurlow is a very good kick.Then we have Brand, Gould, O’Connor on our list too.
Mind you none of them as tall as Aliir except for Brand.
So we can play the hard ball and if he wants to leave then get the best deal we can. Player in return and a third rounder ! Or maybe second rounder this year and give back future third rounder

Maybe we can ask them to take back Sam Gray as part of the deal !

[Markwebbos]

Maybe we can ask them to take back Sam Gray as part of the deal !

I think you are onto something. But why stop there?

Lets make it a package deal: AA, Sam Gray, Sam Reid, Ben Ronke and Lewis Taylor for Ladhams, Hayes and Mitch Georgiades.

[Ludwig]

Port have lost Justin Westoff to retirement. He was one of the best utility players in recent times and one of the most valuable players on their list. I wouldn't underestimate the value of a good utility player. Aliir has become a utility mainly because of the gaps in the ruck and forward line due to injuries. It was easier to replace a defender for us than finding someone to fill these other vacancies in games this year. Rampe aside, Aliir is our best tall defender, but we have others who can do the job, and although we don't have a highly rated key defender, we do have a good deal of depth there.

McCartin playing so well as a defender both improves and complicates our backline. It makes Aliir expendable as a defender, but that doesn't mean he's not a valuable player for us. Aliir is now a prime prospect for a forward/ruck role in the future. I suppose some will say that he's a players without a true position, and now he would have to prove himself capable of playing that forward role well enough to deserve a spot in our side playing that role.

So what is a 26 yo player who has shown promise in a new position (where we do need help) worth to us? I can understand why there is such a wide range of opinion on this. If Aliir were on Port's list, would he be the kind of player we would try to recruit? I would say yes, since I've already commented that a player like Mabior Chol, who plays that forward/ruck position, is the kind of player that I think would help the team.

We go into the 2021 with an aging Buddy Franklin, an injury prone Reid, and 31 yo Callum Sinclair to carry the load in the key forward and ruck positions. Do we really want to thin the ranks in this area?

That's my read on the situation.

[Markwebbos]

I think the Westhoff comparison is a little misleading for two reasons: (1) I don't think Port are planning on using AA as a replacement for the Hoff, but as a tall defender (2) Westhoff was a genuine forward who became a forward/ruck. Happy to be proved wrong, but I don't think AA is a natural forward... so that option is always going to be a stretch.

So I'm not sure losing AA is really going to be thinning the fwd line. I agree he shows potential in the ruck, but is probably not quite tall enough.

Other clubs have found imaginative ways to use non-fwd players in the ruck: Blicavs, Astbury and even McEvoy (who played more as a ruck/back and then went the other way). I'm not writing Aliir off. It may be that during the off season we can find a role that maximises his talents.

But the Swans do seem to be a side that worries a little too much about players weaknesses rather than focusing on their strengths. He might fare better under a different coach.

I don't think AA is the messiah, and we need to grab at least one genuine fwd and one centre bounce capable ruckman from elsewhere.

It's a question of what is better for our list, retaining AA in the hope he can be turned into a ruck, or swapping him with an untried, but potentially genuine ruck (if we could get Hayes from Port in return)?

[AnnieH]

Yeah no... Aliir is a contracted player.

[dejavoodoo44]

Port have lost Justin Westoff to retirement. He was one of the best utility players in recent times and one of the most valuable players on their list. I wouldn't underestimate the value of a good utility player. Aliir has become a utility mainly because of the gaps in the ruck and forward line due to injuries. It was easier to replace a defender for us than finding someone to fill these other vacancies in games this year. Rampe aside, Aliir is our best tall defender, but we have others who can do the job, and although we don't have a highly rated key defender, we do have a good deal of depth there.

McCartin playing so well as a defender both improves and complicates our backline. It makes Aliir expendable as a defender, but that doesn't mean he's not a valuable player for us. Aliir is now a prime prospect for a forward/ruck role in the future. I suppose some will say that he's a players without a true position, and now he would have prove himself capable of playing that forward role well enough to deserve a spot in our side playing that role.

So what is a 26 yo player who has shown promise in a new position (where we do need help) worth to us? I can understand why there is such a wide range of opinion on this. If Aliir were on Port's list, would he be the kind of player we would try to recruit? I would say yes, since I've already commented that a player like Mabior Chol, who plays that forward/ruck position, is the kind of player that I think would help the team.

We go into the 2021 with an aging Buddy Franklin, an injury prone Reid, and 31 yo Callum Sinclair to carry the load in the key forward and ruck positions. Do we really want to thin the ranks in this area?

That's my read on the situation.

Yes, and with the delisting of Knoll, I suspect that management are thinking that Aliir is an option to cover in the ruck.

(Neuroscience alert)


And by the way, I did have a read through a few papers, to see if I could find the answer to your question of, are there a couple of types of tau proteins. Although I was finding nothing definitive, the answer is probably more or less. That is, when released from an axon, tau protein is more likely to attract a phosphoryl group and that may make the tau more likely to form tangles.

There are also subtle differences in both an individual's tau and how it interacts with their particular biochemistry: largely due to which genetic alleles are switched on and off, and consequently which enzymes and proteins are expressed. For instance, one person may express more of a protease, that may be able to cleave problem tau proteins and render them less harmful.

I hope that makes some sort of sense, but trying to explain in more detail, would largely be a long collection of gene names, and complicated genetics usually has me screaming at the computer, "What fresh hell is this!"