2021 trading, drafting and list management: players and personnel

[MattW]

Worst re signing of all time.

Yeah, it's a bit loose.

[longmile]

Worst re signing of all time.

What we're they thinking. Don't even need hindsight to see that was a shocker

[Blood Fever]

The effective swap of Aliir for Hickey was looking good yesterday. But now with Hickey going to the usual place where ruckmen hang out, i.e. The Injury List, Aliir being the talk of the town at PA, and the Swans desperate for a key defender, the trade is looking to be a big loser.

So we're back to a no ruckman team again, a familiar spot that we should be comfortable with by now. And Melican has a 3 year contract to learn and learn and learn and then who knows what happens after that.

Let's not drop our bundle after one loss. Allir has slotted into a red hot team and Hickey is probably leading our B and F. Hopefully he's back sooner rather than later. Way too harsh on Melican, as if he was solely to blame for the loss. We couldn't get our hands on the ball in the last 7 or 8 minutes.

[Velour&Ruffles]

Not sure I understand all the Melican hate. A couple of poor kicks but some quite good moments as well - overall a comfortable pass mark.
He was by no means the only Swans player who kicked it to the opposition. The problem was our on-ballers were beaten (despite Hickey's best efforts when on the ground) and we reverted to a much stodgier game style. Those things are not Melican's fault.

[greeng]

The injuries are piling up early in the season as usual and once again we are left without a ruckman. The poor disposal seems to be creeping back in and without Heeney and Hickey, it's the predictable kick it to Franklin game plan. Might get him a few goals, but it won't win many games.

[Blood Fever]

Not sure I understand all the Melican hate. A couple of poor kicks but some quite good moments as well - overall a comfortable pass mark.
He was by no means the only Swans player who kicked it to the opposition. The problem was our on-ballers were beaten (despite Hickey's best efforts when on the ground) and we reverted to a much stodgier game style. Those things are not Melican's fault.

Spot on.

[Blood Fever]

The injuries are piling up early in the season as usual and once again we are left without a ruckman. The poor disposal seems to be creeping back in and without Heeney and Hickey, it's the predictable kick it to Franklin game plan. Might get him a few goals, but it won't win many games.

Wonder if they might think of resting Buddy this week and bring in McLean. Wicks and Goulden rend to be slideshows when he is playing. Predictability of kicking to Buddy didn't cost us the game and he was BOG but it is a dilemma concerning development of Mcdonald as well. Our best footy was played v Lions and Tigers.

[Ruck'n'Roll]

Wrong thread

[Ludwig]

I know that I made a couple of negative comments about Melican, but I still think we should persist with him. It's still just his 1st game of the season. I suppose I've taken on some comments that he will never improve and beginning to wonder about that myself. Our defence needs some fixing. We have to be able to cover for the loss of Rampe. It's just something a good side needs to do, i.e. cover for players when they get injured.

We will have to find someone to fill that key defender spot, even when Rampe returns, as our defence was too porous even with Rampe in the side. We should give Melican a few games to settle in and find his feet before looking for the next option, which is either Brand or O'Conner.

[Auntie.Gerald]

I remember Grundy first few years still sending some shocking kicks to the opposition...........Melican has been signed for 3 years for hopefully a win win contract arrangement.

He may become like Squizzy Taylor, Brand, Clarke, Thurlow, Gray have been so far ie a deeper squad that can play a role when required or equally if injuries go his way and he gets time in Snrs he may level jump and become a regular.

Way to hard for me to say as yet because he hasnt approached his growth edge of less week to week errors. I see upside in the Pelican..........if he takes out on or two errors on a more regular basis

I suppose the question is "why do we have so many of these more medium salaried players on our list?" vs alternative options that demand best 22 game time?

[SwanSand]

Our biggest problem is not Lewis Taylor or Brand or Thurlow or Gray who were brought in knowing their ceiling. Our biggest problem is to get the best out of players such as Ryan Clarke, Will Gould, Matt Ling, Amartey as they are relatively young and mouldable. Ling has lost a lot of time unfortunately with injury and he is serviceable. But not sure where the other three are going. Clarke seems to have been brought as an inside midfielder who we could develop but he is going nowhere. Will Gould seems to struggle in the defence even at a lower level and Amartey I haven't seen enough of to comment.
We may have mucked up our draft couple of years ago by overthinking about the potential (not that you could blame it completely on KB). Dylan Stephens, Will Gould, and Elijah Taylor .... good potential, but one already gone, one struggling and one yet to meet expectations. I know its early days but this is what happens that results in teams getting stuck with players who don't necessarily meet the potential.

[Captain]

I feel we have too much talent in the midfield and are severely lacking elsewhere.

We currently have Stephens and Rowbottom, both excellent players, unable to get in the 22 whilst being in the best 22 players on talent.

Meanwhile we are needing to select players like McLean, Sinclair and Melican who are all serviceable, but better suited to VFL.

[mcs]

I feel we have too much talent in the midfield and are severely lacking elsewhere.

We currently have Stephens and Rowbottom, both excellent players, unable to get in the 22 whilst being in the best 22 players on talent.

Meanwhile we are needing to select players like McLean, Sinclair and Melican who are all serviceable, but better suited to VFL.

Is it not to some degree a product of where we are in the development cycle?

One could argue you can in theory carry some weakness in the forward/defensive lines, but ultimately you can't win premierships without a high quality midfield (or at least a very even, high performing midfield). We've certainly prioritised that part of the ground in more recent years it seems in our recruiting (a little skewed too by the academy talent coming through too I guess in recent years being consolidated broadly into that part of the ground - - need to find a good KPD from the academy next!).

Might leave us a bit unbalanced at the moment as you say Captain, but might also give us a bit of leeway/currency when we get to a point of trying to fill the 'gaps'. And my take (happy for others to show me otherwise) but I feel like its been a fair while since we've had really strong depth at either end of the ground - certainly even pre-buddy we were pretty reliant on broadly having a fairly fit first 22 in terms of those key sorts of positions.

[mcs]

Our biggest problem is not Lewis Taylor or Brand or Thurlow or Gray who were brought in knowing their ceiling. Our biggest problem is to get the best out of players such as Ryan Clarke, Will Gould, Matt Ling, Amartey as they are relatively young and mouldable. Ling has lost a lot of time unfortunately with injury and he is serviceable. But not sure where the other three are going. Clarke seems to have been brought as an inside midfielder who we could develop but he is going nowhere. Will Gould seems to struggle in the defence even at a lower level and Amartey I haven't seen enough of to comment.
We may have mucked up our draft couple of years ago by overthinking about the potential (not that you could blame it completely on KB). Dylan Stephens, Will Gould, and Elijah Taylor .... good potential, but one already gone, one struggling and one yet to meet expectations. I know its early days but this is what happens that results in teams getting stuck with players who don't necessarily meet the potential.

While nothing needs to be said about Taylor, I think your being a bit harsh on Gould. He is over-hyped by many on the basis of some good SANFL performances in his draft year - I don't say 'over-hyped' on the basis of being no good, but on the basis that people are expecting a lot very quickly. Remember there was zero reserves footy last year either (outside scratch matches) - and we've long had a tradition of a lot of defenders serving pretty hefty reserves apprenticeships.

[liz]

Is it not to some degree a product of where we are in the development cycle?

One could argue you can in theory carry some weakness in the forward/defensive lines, but ultimately you can't win premierships without a high quality midfield (or at least a very even, high performing midfield). We've certainly prioritised that part of the ground in more recent years it seems in our recruiting (a little skewed too by the academy talent coming through too I guess in recent years being consolidated broadly into that part of the ground - - need to find a good KPD from the academy next!).

Might leave us a bit unbalanced at the moment as you say Captain, but might also give us a bit of leeway/currency when we get to a point of trying to fill the 'gaps'. And my take (happy for others to show me otherwise) but I feel like its been a fair while since we've had really strong depth at either end of the ground - certainly even pre-buddy we were pretty reliant on broadly having a fairly fit first 22 in terms of those key sorts of positions.

I think there are a few more factors at play, and if you look at the lists of every other club I think you'd see the same pattern.

There are relatively fewer top quality key position players, especially forwards. It's the hardest position to play, and while it is glamorous if you make it, it also brings more scrutiny and pressure. The number of 193 cm (or thereabouts) people is lower than those half a foot shorter, and few of those are both athletic and skilled. It is thus tougher for clubs to recruit high quality key forwards (and to a lesser extent, quality key defenders).

There are also limited spots in a team for key position players. That might seem like a good thing, given my paragraph above, but it makes it much harder to retain quality depth if a club is lucky enough to find itself with AFL-standard key position players not able to get a game. If you're an up and coming midfielder who is on the cusp of senior footy, you are more likely to bide your time (for a short while) and believe that an opportunity will provide itself in one of the dozen or more non-key position. That's less likely if you're stuck in a queue behind a couple of established, high quality key defenders or forwards in your squad. So the good depth will move to a club where they think they'll get a better shot.

The second paragraph above certainly isn't exclusive to key position players, which is why it's hard for a club to retain quality depth right across the squad (and salary cap issues also come into play). But you can often get teenagers to come in and perform adequately in the non-key position roles, especially if they are surrounded by quality and experience. Even the best key position prospects almost always take two or three years before they are ready to contribute in a consistent, meaningful way.