2021 trading, drafting and list management: players and personnel

[Blood Fever]

Outstanding post.

I have a memory of Dawson that’s etched in my mind.

In 2018, I was making my way up elevators in the Trumper stand. It was 40 minutes before a night time game. I looked into the Swans SCG gymnasium and there was this lone figure working hard all by himself. It was like Ronnie Coleman working out by himself in the dungeon in the 2000s.

Nobody else was in the Gymnasium. I said to my best mate “who’s that”. He said “Jordan Dawson, guy who plays reserves with that blistering left foot kick”. He was rehabbing all by himself. While his fellow reserves players were most probably entertaining groupies, Dawson was doing rehab.

In the words of TheBloods “Dawson was taking his career seriously”.

He worked very hard to get to his current position from pick 50. Any financial reward Dawson gets from the game he richly deserves.

Fiction

[U.S. Swan]

For those who are saying that loyalty is a two-way street...I could not disagree more. No business is really a two-way street. Ever wonder why you can be fired on a moments notice but are expected to give two weeks notice when you decide to move on? One can't compare professional sports with other private businesses anyways...in other lines of work you want your company to make as much profit as possible and certainly don't support the competition. In professional sports, the league can only be viable if teams are all allowed to be competitive. The level of competitiveness will ebb and flow, but they must remain competititve overall. These young men who choose to play professional sports know what they are getting into. They know their future is out of their hands for about ten years or so...but they choose the profession for all sorts of reasons (including the possible money, fame, girls, etc.) They are well aware that they can be released or traded with no say...that is the nature of the beast and it is vital for the league to stay healthy. I have no problem when players become unrestricted and wanting to play for the team of their choice...that is the benefit and reward of being restricted. And, I will add, that is what was negotiated by the players' union as to the rules they will follow. If the precedent is set that players under the age of 26-28 can start to demand trades, then certain teams are bound to be severely hampered. Yes, it sounds like Dawson worked hard. Good for him. That was also to HIS benefit. But he also benefited from years of resources being put into his development. It generally takes 3-4 years to develop a youngster into a legitimate every day regular (not counting the superstars like Heeney, etc.) So to allow players to dictate terms as restricted free agents, once they finally start to blossom, is a very dangerous road to head down. Eventually, you will have things become like the NBA where 3 or 4 player-popular clubs (in Victoria, of course) will dominate. That is why there is a difference between restricted and unrestricted free agency and why it is so special when guys in their 30's only play for one club.

I don't believe Dawson is vital anyway...he had a break out year but it wasn't in a vacuum. He was part of a break-out team. I doubt he would have had been so successful playing for the Crows in 2021. The Swans will certainly recover from losing him. But the Swans and every other team need to be worried about the slippery slope of letting these young guys demand trades. They did the exact right thing with Papley two years ago. I hope they do it again with Dawson...

[Nico]

Fiction

Or doing what his Job Description and Income dictates he does.

[111431]

I wonder if we could wrap Todd Marshall up in the trade , only 22 a NSW boy and talks take longer to mature


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We should consider this

[Mountain Man]

On field, I think we will cope without Dawson given Blakey and McInerney and Campbell contributing somewhat similar skills.

My biggest fear is losing Don Pike - not so easily replaced

[Thunder Shaker]

Spot on BS.

I don't understand some people's idea of loyalty. Because you are drafted by a club you aren't allowed to leave seemingly.
Do the critics of Dawson think just as badly towards Franklin for leaving Hawthorn.

Good post. Players have the right to move to other clubs and our players are not exempt from this.

People who don't recognise this have been too emotional. It's best to keep the emotion out of it. My only reaction to Dawson's trade request was disappointment before speculating on his trade value in draft picks.

Some people have said it's bad player management. Oh, really? To see bad player management, look at what a mess Collingwood made of the 2020 trade period. Look at the Giants, who have lost so many players to other clubs that they have had at least two first-round draft picks in almost every draft. The Suns are a basket case. Every club has lost players to other clubs in the last few years. Look how many players have moved clubs due to free agency and then see how many we have lost in the last 10 years: very few. So the "bad player management" argument is rubbish; we have done rather well, actually.

So we can't keep every single good player we get. It's a football team, not a Pokemon collection.

[Roadrunner]

For those who are saying that loyalty is a two-way street...I could not disagree more. No business is really a two-way street. Ever wonder why you can be fired on a moments notice but are expected to give two weeks notice when you decide to move on? One can't compare professional sports with other private businesses anyways...in other lines of work you want your company to make as much profit as possible and certainly don't support the competition. In professional sports, the league can only be viable if teams are all allowed to be competitive. The level of competitiveness will ebb and flow, but they must remain competititve overall. These young men who choose to play professional sports know what they are getting into. They know their future is out of their hands for about ten years or so...but they choose the profession for all sorts of reasons (including the possible money, fame, girls, etc.) They are well aware that they can be released or traded with no say...that is the nature of the beast and it is vital for the league to stay healthy. I have no problem when players become unrestricted and wanting to play for the team of their choice...that is the benefit and reward of being restricted. And, I will add, that is what was negotiated by the players' union as to the rules they will follow. If the precedent is set that players under the age of 26-28 can start to demand trades, then certain teams are bound to be severely hampered. Yes, it sounds like Dawson worked hard. Good for him. That was also to HIS benefit. But he also benefited from years of resources being put into his development. It generally takes 3-4 years to develop a youngster into a legitimate every day regular (not counting the superstars like Heeney, etc.) So to allow players to dictate terms as restricted free agents, once they finally start to blossom, is a very dangerous road to head down. Eventually, you will have things become like the NBA where 3 or 4 player-popular clubs (in Victoria, of course) will dominate. That is why there is a difference between restricted and unrestricted free agency and why it is so special when guys in their 30's only play for one club.

I don't believe Dawson is vital anyway...he had a break out year but it wasn't in a vacuum. He was part of a break-out team. I doubt he would have had been so successful playing for the Crows in 2021. The Swans will certainly recover from losing him. But the Swans and every other team need to be worried about the slippery slope of letting these young guys demand trades. They did the exact right thing with Papley two years ago. I hope they do it again with Dawson...

Excellent points, US Swan. I would also add that players should also consider us fans- how can you tell fans “there is nothing to worry about” a few weeks ago in an interview and then come up with this “want to be closer to family” line.

It smacks of covering up the real reason which is money. Of course no player will say this openly but here it is clearly the reason and I wonder just how much the Adelaide clubs are willing to throw at him.

This means that a significant number of footballers are mercenaries and this is the case for all professional team sports.
As fans, we just have to accept this and there is always going to be a certain amount of ring a ring a rosey in our game.

We need to appreciate those players who come out and say” I love this club” and be prepared to lose some players who play for the money- this is part of life.

[Ludwig]

A ten-year history lesson. Not a blame game.

There has been sufficient blowback for those wanting to revisit the past as part of analyzing the current situation. But I feel it is relevant and goes a long way to explaining the fallout from earlier decisions. I don’t intend to blame anyone, at least not just yet. I just want to express my take on what has transpired in relation to our current list management problems.

It started way back in 2012 when after winning the premiership we got Kurt Tippett in a draft steal but at the cost of a lucrative long-term contract loaded with triggers. bonuses and contract extensions that lasted beyond his playing days.

This was followed up in 2013 by an even bigger 10-million-dollar contract for Lance Franklin, which was locked in for the duration of its 9 years. Now we had 2 players who were sucking up close to 20% of our salary cap, and coincided with a group of talented young players coming trough who deserved to be paid handsomely as well.

Two young midfielders, Jones and Hewett were drafted in the same year, as were Aliir and Nankervis. Is the fate of these four players mere coincidence or rather connected to the 2 major signings during the same period? It’s worth a deep reflection.

What followed was the predicted punishment from the AFL and the loss of COLA and a deep cut into our fragile salary cap that we’ve never recovered from.

Contracts would have to be back ended, but not into a void, but rather the fat end of the Tippett and Franklin contracts.

By 2016 we find ourselves with the best midfield in the league and a team that deserved to win the premiership. We also recruited 2 talented academy midfielders in Heeney and Mills, who had to play in positions outside the midfield. With a very talented Tom Mitchell in the side, we had ball winners galore, but they lacked outside run. There was also the specter of too many players deserving of big contracts, but the coffers were near empty. All of these players were young and talented with plenty of lucrative contracts on the horizon to make for salary cap pressure well into the future. Someone had to go, and it had to be a player that would be on a big contract, and come from our inside mids, where we had plenty of talent to fill his absence. We didn’t want to lose Mitchell, but he was the only realistic option that would open some space in the midfield, especially for Hewett, and get us a 1^st round pick, which we used on Florent.

We must have committed to a lot of back ended contracts to get past the 2020 Franklin salary hump, and it probably cost more in total salary to do so. Now those bigger contracts for players like Heeney, Florent and Hayward will continue to haunt us for several years to come.

And just like the COLA cut hit just at a critical time, the Covid TPP reduction could not have happened at a worse time. Despite shedding players like Hanners and Jones, we couldn’t afford to hold onto Aliir last year, presaging what was to come this year.

Just like in a game of footy, pressure can make the best of players unravel and make dreadful mistakes. Our club is cracking under an unrelenting salary cap squeeze. The obvious question is how do we get ourselves out of the mire and emerge with a team that can challenge for premierships once again.

[Thunder Shaker]

I don't believe Dawson is vital anyway...he had a break out year but it wasn't in a vacuum. He was part of a break-out team. I doubt he would have had been so successful playing for the Crows in 2021. The Swans will certainly recover from losing him. But the Swans and every other team need to be worried about the slippery slope of letting these young guys demand trades. They did the exact right thing with Papley two years ago. I hope they do it again with Dawson...

There is an important difference with Papley's trade request and Dawson's trade request: Papley had a current contract and Dawson doesn't. We could play hardball with Papley because he had a contract, whereas Dawson's lack of a contract means he could walk to the PSD and we get nothing. He is unlikely to do this (he could end up at North or Collingwood) but it is still a possibility that tempers our trade requests.

[707]

A lot of hand wringing going on, lets wait and see who out of Crows and Port Dawson nominates, then work out what might be a satisfactory deal. Both clubs have awkward 2021 trade hands for us, expect there'll be some 2022 pick involved somewhere.

Todd Marshall does not fit a need for us nor is he more than fringe for Port anbd would be for us. I repeat, Port's fringe players will not win us a flag.

[Ludwig]

What happened in the negotiations?

Maybe one day we will get some insight into why we couldn’t hold onto Dawson. It could have been something that was going to happen regardless of our offer and was really about going back to SA. And the Dawson camp was just going through the motions until the right time to make his announcement.

Personally, I don’t think that professional athletes in a national competition should be able to use the go home factor as an excuse to change clubs. I would like to see severe sanctions imposed on players that do so. There is nothing wrong about putting family first, and those who do should prove it by going into a profession where they can stay close to home, not into a profession where there’s lots of travel and uncertainty about place of abode. It’s dishonest and unfair to teammates to go to a club with the intention of leaving to go home. I’m okay if it’s about money, because that’s part of professional sport. It’s not dishonest and both sides are playing the same game.

Since we don’t know the details of the Dawson negotiations, I will just conjecture about one possible scenario. The Swans were toying with Dawson, low-balling a contract offer until they were able to settle other contracts, particularly Parker. This upset the Dawson camp, making them feel unappreciated. Pressure could have come from Dawson’s partner, who is also from Robe: “If they don’t value you here, let’s go home; we can get more money and be closer to family.” Probably Charlie Gardiner was handling the matter throughout the year. I could be wrong, but he may lack the experience to deal with sensitive situations and might have ticked someone ff along the way. I could have been Dawson’s manager, who would be eager to get him to move clubs. There’s a lot of self interest going into these contract negotiations.

If I had to pick a Swan player who looked the least happy in life, it would be Dawson. It’s just his personality. He seems low key and introverted. There’s nothing wrong about that and it doesn’t seem to have affected his game. It may be worth noting that Dawson is one of 3 metal health ambassadors at the club working with the Mental Health Institute, the other 2 being Fox and Naismith. There may be a connection with Dawson’s psychological state or just coincidence, but it’s something to consider. It is something could add to the sensitivity of handling such a personality and the unpredictability of outcomes from difficult negotiations.

Tom Harley seemed genuinely shocked by Dawson’s decision. It’s not very comforting to see our CEO caught off guard like this. I would like to think he’s on top of these situations. Clearly, we wanted to keep Dawson, but have failed. I agree with those who think we need to move on, make the best deal we can for Dawson and fill the holes left by Dawson and Aliir. We have had a setback, but we can recover if recognize the current state of affairs at the club and make the right decisions from here.

Most critically, we have to claw our way out of this salary cap bind. Losing Aliir and Dawson should be the trigger to unload any excess baggage on our list. We can’t afford to keep Hewett, not because he’s not a good player, but because we have a strong inside midfield group with Mills, Parker and Kennedy, and several up and comers like Rowbottom and Warner, whose best position is on ball, that need to develop their games. Sinclair and Reid are the other 2 that probably need to be cut. There may be a few others who can be offered low contracts and they can decide if they want to stay or not.

[Markwebbos]

That is some spectacular speculation there Ludwig

[rickmat]

Wide words, Ludwig rather than emotion and rhetoric. We need to move on and as that other great philosopher of our time " Trump" has said " make the Swans great again"

[rb4x]

I am sorry to see Dawson go but do not begrudge him making the decision that he has made.

1. I assume he already has had at least one offer and probably two from the Adelaide teams that would at least match the offer that the Swans have put up. Neither team would be under the same salary cap pressure that I would expect the Swans have so it is fairly safe to assume this.

2. The cost of housing in Adelaide is substantially lower than Sydney so regardless of whether they rent or buy they can expect a much better home in a great location than what they can get in Sydney.

3. At their age I assume they will be considering starting a family soon. I have no knowledge of what they are thinking in this regard and frankly it is none of our business to know. Having both of their families in a reasonable proximity would be expected to be important.

4. People in Adelaide are living a relatively normal life at present versus the 5k or LGA restrictions in Sydney that Dawson has returned to. Remember Dawson and his partner have been living the past few weeks in an AFL bubble not knowing where they will be sleeping even that night. Dawson and the rest of the Sydney team had to escape Brisbane and move to Melbourne while the partners were in Quarantine in Brisbane. Not great for Millie who must have felt she was chasing Jordan around Australia not knowing if they would even catch up. It may have weighed heavily on her that with her were Kim Reid and Chloe Hickey both about to give birth and not even knowing what state that would take place in.

5. Moving to new team also would engender a sense of adventure and excitement over and above all this.

Much I regret the possibility of losing Dawson I can really empathise with his situation. Finally as an ex Adelaide person myself I can advise that Adelaide is actually quite a nice place to live. Biggest negative for me is that the climate is not quite as nice as Sydney and they do not have the harbour or the bush in the suburbs that Sydney has but otherwise a great place to live.

I wish Jordan all the best for his future AFL career and warn him that it will only last a few short years. There is a long time to live after your AFL time is over which can happen very suddenly.

[Blood Relative]

Edmund is amongst the worst of a very poor AFL media scrum, looks like he's recycling last weeks "news" sprouted by fellow low lying media.

This is not about money, it's about location

Disappointed with the personal attacks on Dawson in here, I'm as gutted as anyone but these are difficult times and I can tell you it's perfectly normal life here in Adelaide at present and has been for most of the Covid period. It's a big lure.

Hey folks, 707 is spot on here. Adelaide is free to do what it likes. Sure we have to wear masks and scan a QR code at every shop, and the only other inconvenience is that one cellar door won't let wine taste unless you are vaccinated.

Also, didn't a certain T. Papley request a trade recently? He was told if "we can get a suitable deal done we will grant your wish".

Secondly, who eve wants Jordan will be willing topart with someone decent or equivalent pick.

What might be a useful use of negative energies is to write to your local state member and roast them over their appalling management of the COVID virus.

I would imaging a lot of players will be fed up with living in motels and not knowing where they'll be based next week, let alone next year.