2021 trading, drafting and list management: players and personnel

[Bangalore Swans]

To confirm, how many players do you need to take in the NAB AFL draft?

With so many 1st, 2nd and 3rd year players tracking so strongly in their development, would it be wise for the Swans this year to trade out their 2021 1st and 2nd round picks for future picks?

If there is not the Academy crop this year like 2020 why not trade for future picks and points.

There may be a better draft and Academy crop in 2022 as opposed to 2021.

There may be clubs who desperately need our picks to get targeted players and we could extract great future draft value.

[gloveski]

To confirm, how many players do you need to take in the NAB AFL draft?

With so many 1st, 2nd and 3rd year players tracking so strongly in their development, would it be wise for the Swans this year to trade out their 2021 1st and 2nd round picks for future picks?

If there is not the Academy crop this year like 2020 why not trade for future picks and points.

There may be a better draft and Academy crop in 2022 as opposed to 2021.

There may be clubs who desperately need our picks to get targeted players and we could extract great future draft value.

It’s 3 picks from memory . This year is a strong draft can’t see us trading our first pick unless we bring in a gun from another club


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[aardvark]

It’s 3 picks from memory . This year is a strong draft can’t see us trading our first pick unless we bring in a gun from another club


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We'll probably only have pick 18 anyway

[Nico]

To confirm, how many players do you need to take in the NAB AFL draft?

With so many 1st, 2nd and 3rd year players tracking so strongly in their development, would it be wise for the Swans this year to trade out their 2021 1st and 2nd round picks for future picks?

If there is not the Academy crop this year like 2020 why not trade for future picks and points.

There may be a better draft and Academy crop in 2022 as opposed to 2021.

There may be clubs who desperately need our picks to get targeted players and we could extract great future draft value.

BS, no,no,no. You must always be drafting quality. Look at Collingwood's predicament and Carlton over a sustained period.

[Markwebbos]

Mart Rendell is saying how poor this years VIC crop is due to missing last year

Matt Rendell concerned about 2021 Victorian draft crop

[Bangalore Swans]

There are varying reports about the quality of the 2021 draft class.

If this 2021 draft class is not great and the Acdemy crop is not great then our 1st and 2nd round picks could be better value to trade out and get more 2022 picks.

The following 1st - 3rd year players will most probably be top 22 next season:

Gulden
Campbell
McDonald
Stephens
Warner
Rowbottom
Blakey
J-Mac
Wicks

Those guys will still all be under 23 years old next season. It’s a very young list.

If you have one draft where you take less young players because the draft or academy class is not strong, then that’s ok.

[Ruck'n'Roll]

Mart Rendell is saying how poor this years VIC crop is due to missing last year [/url]

Maybe we'll draft more South Australians, they tend to be less of a flight risk than kids from Melbourne.

[Markwebbos]

I wasn’t aware of this re: the mid-season draft. According to the Roar:

One important difference to the national draft is that players must agree to terms ahead of being drafted, particularly if there is an interstate club interested or that player decides not to nominate in this draft because they stand a better chance of earning a primary list spot and better starting salary by entering the main end of season draft pool.

Mock mid-season rookie draft order

Would leave the MSD very open to tampering if true.

[bloodspirit]

How to nominate for the NAB AFL Mid-Season Rookie Draft

I think it's been widely understood for a while now but this is the first time I've seen it clearly stated that the order in which clubs pick will be based on the reverse ladder after round 11. For us that means we'll play Collingwood, Freo and Carlton. I reckon we'll win at least two of those so we'll be up somewhere in the 8. I have no idea who we will pick. I suspect it won't be a player to fill a short term need but will be a promising youngster.

[707]

Makes me puke that the Pies are so low on the ladder they may actually draft someone good in the MSD. Like the year they deliberately bottomed out to gain the automatic Priority Pick they used to draft Pendlebury.

Liking the fact they traded out their 1st and 2nd ND picks this year, don't even have enough points for Daicos if he gets bid on top 5 - nice one Ned "Fall" Guy

As for us, you would think McCartin Snr must be under consideration, but who knows?

[Ludwig]

Makes me puke that the Pies are so low on the ladder they may actually draft someone good in the MSD. Like the year they deliberately bottomed out to gain the automatic Priority Pick they used to draft Pendlebury.

Maybe we should throw the game to screw up their plans.

And then you wouldn't have to puke, which would be another positive.

[Auntie.Gerald]

Melbourne are interesting to review and predict their trajectory........... 8 wins from 8 games so far in 2021 after 9 wins in 2020 and only 5 wins in 2019 but 14 wins 2018

MFC went about very targeted trades in May, Brown, Tomlinson couple of years - different to our strategy of 6 or so roughies that may feature but use decent cap space when not playing - $1.2m to $1.5mill pa which could be used towards two strong recruits that have impact in the Snrs?

Melbournes picks 21,22 and 34 have not even played as yet in Snrs so you would presume more runway in their depth in 2021 and 2022

Last years draft picks
Jake Bowey (pick No.21), Bailey Laurie (pick No.22) and Fraser Rosman (pick No.34) have not played Snrs as yet
Ben Brown drafted in

Year before
Jackson (pick no3)
plus Steven May and Tomlinson drafted in

prior
Jake Lever
Langdon

[bloodspirit]

Yes, AG, Melbourne FC have done well. It is worth reviewing other clubs that have executed successful strategies to see what we can learn - although the lessons may not necessarily be transferable. For example, as a Melbourne club, Melbourne FC benefit from the 'go home' factor with Victorian kids. This applied in relation to Jake Lever, Ed Langdon and Adam Tomlinson. In Steven May's case it's less clear cut: he grew up in the NT and finished high school at Melbourne Grammar on a footy scholarship - but there is no NT club he can go home to. It also helped, in relation to those players traded in, that Melbourne FC played in a prelim final in 2018. You didn't mention the Ben Brown trade, which was an entirely different case as he kind of fell into their lap.

However, primarily I think Melbourne's success has been based on the draft: Oliver, Petracca, Salem, Gawn, Harmes, McDonald, Pickett, Jackson etc. etc.

I don't think there is one road to good list management. However, I do think our club has done exceptionally well at this during Kinnear Beatson's tenure (since 2006) - building the 2012 premiership list and keeping us playing finals pretty much the whole time.

Now as we are heading up the ladder and our 'premiership window' is opening, and simultaneously some salary cap is going to come available over this year and next with Buddy's contract going away, we will also be able to consider 'topping up' with trades, and we will be a more attractive destination than we have been the past couple of years.

Lastly, I think your comment about "our strategy of 6 or so roughies that may feature but use decent cap space when not playing - $1.2m to $1.5mill pa which could be used towards two strong recruits that have impact in the Snrs" misses the point that: (a) there is a minimum list size; (b) we had a lot of salary cap tied up paying our stars (Buddy, JPK, Parker, Rampe, Mills, Heeney, Lloyd etc etc); and (c) at the time we drafted the likes of Taylor, Gray, Thurlow, Clarke, we had a young list and we wanted to surround them with players who had a bit more experience rather than draft even more kids from the very back end of the draft (which was the only real alternative given our salary cap constraints).

Sure, it would have been great to trade in some better players but, given that we didn't have cap space and they didn't want to come to NSW, especially when we were heading to the bottom of the ladder, we didn't have that luxury. If we had had a different list strategy earlier we might not have been in that position - but then again we might not have had the success we enjoyed either. While no list manager gets every decision right, I think ours have been resoundingly successful and the proof is in our track record of sustained success and the promise our young team is showing this season that suggests we are going to return to playing finals and contending for a flag for many seasons to come.

[gloveski]

Interesting point with a young list is if we manage to make finals or even just miss out all of a sudden we might start to become a destination club again . Buddy has next year to run on his contract so in theory we should have a decent war chest cash wise to play with . First priority will be retaining our young talent . But if not this trade period it will be the following year that we start to target specific players we think will fill a hole


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[Aprilbr]

There seems to be an impressive group of ex-Swans players performing well elsewhere at the moment: Aliir, Nankervis, Membery, Rohan, Mitchell and Jones come to mind. I think all benefited from their move.

Nankervis and Membery lacked opportunities with us at the time they left. Both have been great contributors to their current team over several seasons.

Aliir seems to have regained his confidence and dare in a very strong team. Many think he may be All Australian this year.

Jones has become a mainstream midfielder rather than a half-back who floated into the midfield sometimes. His last two games have been very impressive.

Rohan is benefiting from playing alongside two star forwards and using his speed and height to advantage as a lead-up target. Career best form but can he maintain it into the finals?

Mitchell continues to accumulate huge possession numbers and has improved his fitness and handball since being with us. He is now a key player in a weak Hawthorn outfit. I've always been a fan of his but I know some others on here are not big fans.

These players left for a range of reasons but it shows our drafting has been excellent over the past decade. I wish them all well as long as they don't play too well against us!