2013: The defining year for the Swans and a lot more

[KTigers]

I'm not sure it's panic stations just yet. Part of it is we have become used to supporting a successful club.
Four GFs and two premierships in the last decade (only really bested by Hawthorn & Geelong in that time)
and in the finals every year. So when things aren't going along swimmingly (like now) it's tempting to look
elsewhere for who to blame. I just think we need to figure out a way to kick more goals (somehow) and
the rest will take care of itself.
Having said that, it's pretty obvious that the AFL is really still the VFL (10 of 18 teams in Victoria just says it all
really) and not really a national comp, and the exec leadership of the AFL, as shown by the Essendon saga and
more recently the booing of Goodsey are totally bereft of any type of gumption. They are weak and self interested,
not unlike the political leaders of this country. The AFL's barometer of success seems to be how much they can
sell the TV rights for, yet the numbers at the grassroots of footy are way down.

[baskin]

After the Grand Final loss there was an opportunity to revisit where the Swans were at and redefine the 'culture'. Come up with something a bit new that all the players like Buddy and KT etc. could have input into and all buy into something fresh. To me it seemed at the beginning of the year it was too much same old, same old, when it shouldn't have been in light of the GF melt-down.

Rojo,
you have hit on something here which I discussed with my Dad earlier in the year. It is a long time since the players set up their standards with Leading Teams. While it would be nice to think that the new players to the club would just pick them up and run with them their are a lot of players in the club now who weren't around when it was set up. Maybe it's time for the current crop of players to determine what makes up the Bloods Culture now. It may not change much, if at all, but at least the current players would own the standards.

[Bloodthirsty]

I have always liked Longmire but lately he has really been p****ing me off in his press conferences. "We need to get better". No, really??? Why don't you explain exactly how instead of the same old vague crap about "effort". He also seems a bit flustered lately. He is usually pretty stoic, so it is barely perceptible, yet he is different, no doubt. I am growing tired of press conferences that are literally pointless. It's just another thing that compounds the feeling of a "great nothingness" that emanates from Moore Park lately.

[Dosser]

I blame Joe Daniher not coming as a father son in 2012 Draft for 2013 - the classic sliding door scenario for him and us walks into a drug contoversy at Essendon and we end up pissing off the rest of the competition eventually losing COLA in securing Tippett and Buddy - one of them would have been great - i remember when a coach said you cant have too many midfielders - we have and we will need to trade someone with ability eventually to get near a quality key defender

I blame touring with wives and girlfriends.

[i'm-uninformed2]

I blame touring with wives and girlfriends.

Close, but not quite. The absence of Gatorade Girl on the bench is a far bigger blow than anything cited in this thread.

[Ludwig]

The thing I always loved about the Swans was that even when we played better teams we always gave it our all, especially during the Maxfield-Kirk-Bolton era. The 2012 GF was perhaps a pinnacle, losing Mummy, Ted and Goodes badly hobbled, we came back to beat a superior team by our will to overcome adversity.

But we haven't been quite the same since then. We had a lot of injuries in 2013, so there were reasons to be given for under-performing. We had a very talented team last year, but started and ended the season as if the premiership was ours. There were plenty of times that Buddy brilliance pulled a rabbit out of the hat for victory. And this year (like Liz) I am searching to find what is wrong. Sometimes Macca and Kizza are great, other times lackluster. Both used to be very consistent players. Macca is not old. He's had a great run of lack of injuries and he's always been super fit. He should be playing his best footy now. We play a great half of footy, followed by an insipid half.

I'm also sick of Horse and the players repeatedly saying we've got to get better, we've got to be harder, and stuff like that. I don't think we were mentally damaged by the 2014 GF. Hawthorn certainly weren't damage by their 2012 GF loss.

There was something special about that 2012 GF side that got lost the following year. We are probably a more talented side now than we were then, but something is missing and I just don't know what it is.

[mcs]

I have always liked Longmire but lately he has really been p****ing me off in his press conferences. "We need to get better". No, really??? Why don't you explain exactly how instead of the same old vague crap about "effort". He also seems a bit flustered lately. He is usually pretty stoic, so it is barely perceptible, yet he is different, no doubt. I am growing tired of press conferences that are literally pointless. It's just another thing that compounds the feeling of a "great nothingness" that emanates from Moore Park lately.

Just like today when he said we need to find more consistency over the last 4 weeks of the season. No @@@@ Sherlock!

[Hotpotato]

The current Swans team without Buddy out there is like the Suns without Ablett .
He's a huge proactive
Influence on the whole team .

[Legs Akimbo]

It's easy to look in the retro-specto-scope and say 'why didn't we?'. Personally, I think Nankervis is a keeper. Coulda Would Shoulda.

However...

I think drafting Franklin was a bad misstep. As much as I love watching him play, I can't see this is going to end well for us, particularly if our window is closing, thanks in part to the AFL conniving against us but also because it has changed the fabric of the team.

I mourn the loss of our Cortina status. Feels like we are driving around in a clapped out pre-loved Ferrari with a dodgy transmission. No guts. Yesterday we were flicking through our treasured 2005 AFL Grand Final footy record. Champion team. We have lost that spirit - the ennui of the team. I never liked the 'bloods' thing but there was a fraternity and a self belief that we have lost. I miss BBBH and Kirky and all those rough nuts. I even miss Jessie White! I miss ROKLobster too.

As a supporter it means that I can't claim underdog status - we are the Bondi Billionnaires - no longer the foreign legion but a team of mercenaries (well, that's the perception although it really applies to only two players).

I think all this caught up with is on GF last year. I still remember watching the team before the game and despite being a bit drunk I looked at them and I knew we were going to lose. Hawthorn looked fixed, steely eyed determined we looked way too relaxed. I also believe that psychologically, there are quite a few players have not been the same since because they can't face the prospect of being humiliated again. They know they can't win so they are avoiding the fight. Manifests in those critical moments when they have to dig deep (typically third quarters it seems). Somewhere deep down inside, the fight has gone out of them. Easier to point the finger at someone else than lead by example.

But that's footy. I see a guy like Heeney and I think 'wow' - we just need a bit of list turnover and some new leadership and renewed belief and hunger. Regroup for another assault. Make all of the players earn it. Get the Leading Teams guys back. Or maybe that commando dude with the Indian Clubs.

[Mug Punter]

So much happened in 2013 that I think we will be talking about this year for a very long time. It's too difficult to say how much will be good and how much bad.

It started with the loss of Alex Johnson with an ACL injury.

A couple of months later there was the Indigenous Round incident with Adam Goodes, which has carried on till now and likely to go beyond.

Then, of course, there is the signing of Buddy Franklin and everything that comes with that, from the loss of Mummy and a few other players, and setting in motion several punitive measures by the AFL that might bite hard for many years to come.

With the benefit of hindsight, a few less evident matters are becoming clearer.

Despite having acquired Tippett in the previous year and Mike Pyke having a banner year in 2013, the club went into a mini panic with the loss of Mummy that may also have long lasting repercussions. Part of this is a result of 2013 looking to be an excellent draft year, with very few duds popping up even as we look into picks in the 40s and few genuine stars are sure to come out of this draft.

Before the ND began we already committed 2 spots to ruckmen with questionable credentials. Tom Derickx was a panic move and really unnecessary. The other was the American Pat Mitchell. They turned out to be poor choices, but mistakes are made and so be it. Why we signed Tom for another 2 years is beyond me.

But the real focus is on the 2013 National Draft. It would seem that we wanted Zak Jones and I can see why we liked him. He's a real competitor and has a lot of talent as well. It must have been hard to judge who would be available at pick 32, but with Hewett available, he had to be taken. I would suspect that we would have liked a KPD at that spot, and perhaps had our eye on McStay, who was snatched up by Brisbane at pick 25.

It's that next pick #35 when we took Toby Nankervis that baffles me. Here we have a ruckman who has years of development ahead of him. There are only 8 picks to be taken before our next pick at #44, and only one club, the WB, who might be interested in a ruckman. And there is still Ben Brown available, who eventually went to NM at pick 47. Aliir was not even rated as a rookie prospect, so would have easily been available at our first rookie slot, which we passed on for lack of space. He should have been taken at that selection instead of signing Pat Mitchell.

Between picks 35 and 44 we see the following key defenders get drafted:
Alex Pearce, who is looking good at Freo after 10 games.
Cameron Giles, who was picked by Carlton, but has not played due to injury, but is a good prospect nonetheless.
Jake Kolodjashnij, who has pushed Jared Rivers out of the Geelong backline and played well against us on Saturday.
Tom Barrass, who also played well against us in the Eagles game.

I was hoping we would take Kolodjashnij at the time, but we took Nankervis instead. As it turned out the WB took mature ager Mathew Fuller, so both Nankervis and Brown would have almost certainly been available at pick 44 anyway.

Given that we already knew that AJ had surgery complications, it would have been nice to have picked up one of those KPDs in the 2013 draft, especially given that we won't have the opportunity to get any this year due to the need to use most of our draft picks on Mills and the trade restrictions and salary cap reduction.

Perhaps if we had won the 2014 GF the club management would have been hailed as geniuses. But history is what it is and now we seem to be in a malaise and left wondering where it went all went wrong. Something wasn't right about how we played that 2nd half at Geelong, but I don't know what it is. We haven't looked right all year.

Hindsight is a great thing, I really don't think evaluating a draft down the track really serves too many purposes to be honest.

I also think Nankervis has a fair bit to offer and is a long term keeper, he started his AFL career late in life and I reckon he will be a late bloomer. Judge him in 5 years I reckon.

I also disagree with criticism of Buddy as I really do think he unfaultable since he joined. He does freakish things every week worth the admission price alone but it's his work off the ball I have liked. Sure there's some long term risk but with the new TV deal and flow on increase to the salary cap his salary won't seem such a burden in a couple of years. In short I think he was a calculated gamble that has so far paid off.

Having said that I agree with the general vibe that something has changed. I'd like to see us start growing our own again and re-adopt a more blue collar approach to our footy and the academy is central to this. We now have the ability to instill our values into kids from the age of 10 and build the club from the ground up....

[Ludwig]

Hindsight is a great thing, I really don't think evaluating a draft down the track really serves too many purposes to be honest.

I also think Nankervis has a fair bit to offer and is a long term keeper, he started his AFL career late in life and I reckon he will be a late bloomer. Judge him in 5 years I reckon.

I also disagree with criticism of Buddy as I really do think he unfaultable since he joined. He does freakish things every week worth the admission price alone but it's his work off the ball I have liked. Sure there's some long term risk but with the new TV deal and flow on increase to the salary cap his salary won't seem such a burden in a couple of years. In short I think he was a calculated gamble that has so far paid off.

I actually agree with both these points. I have supported the move to get Buddy all along, but was raising it only as a key issue that had many repercussions.

I also think that Nankervis could become a Mummy type ruckman in a few years time. I am not against his selection. I was critical of how we played the 2013 draft at the time (and only reviewing it now with the benefit of hindsight). I believe we played it wrong as all the teams between our picks 35 and 44 were well stocked with ruckmen except for the Bulldogs, who did have Minson, but not much depth. So there was little risk in letting Nankervis pass to pick 44. I don't know how our recruiting team rated Ben Brown, but I had him higher than Nankervis. In any case there were 2 to choose from but only 1 team likely to be looking for a ruckman (and they didn't take one anyway). I felt pick 35 was the time to take a KPD. Aliir had a terrible under 18s and was little chance of getting drafted, especially in the ND. There were 4 reasonable KPD prospects that were picked up in those 8 picks from #36 to #43. It was a position that we clearly were lacking in depth. I feel we missed an opportunity to pick up a critical prospective KPD, with little risk of losing either Nankervis or Aliir if we really wanted them as well. It may not be such a big point, but I think it was a tactical error that cost us a potentially good player. It seems like I'm making a big deal about it because it takes so many words to explain the situation. I do admit I was a bit upset to see Kolodjashnij playing so well when I feel he could have been playing for us.

[Mug Punter]

I actually agree with both these points. I have supported the move to get Buddy all along, but was raising it only as a key issue that had many repercussions.

I also think that Nankervis could become a Mummy type ruckman in a few years time. I am not against his selection. I was critical of how we played the 2013 draft at the time (and only reviewing it now with the benefit of hindsight). I believe we played it wrong as all the teams between our picks 35 and 44 were well stocked with ruckmen except for the Bulldogs, who did have Minson, but not much depth. So there was little risk in letting Nankervis pass to pick 44. I don't know how our recruiting team rated Ben Brown, but I had him higher than Nankervis. In any case there were 2 to choose from but only 1 team likely to be looking for a ruckman (and they didn't take one anyway). I felt pick 35 was the time to take a KPD. Aliir had a terrible under 18s and was little chance of getting drafted, especially in the ND. There were 4 reasonable KPD prospects that were picked up in those 8 picks from #36 to #43. It was a position that we clearly were lacking in depth. I feel we missed an opportunity to pick up a critical prospective KPD, with little risk of losing either Nankervis or Aliir if we really wanted them as well. It may not be such a big point, but I think it was a tactical error that cost us a potentially good player. It seems like I'm making a big deal about it because it takes so many words to explain the situation. I do admit I was a bit upset to see Kolodjashnij playing so well when I feel he could have been playing for us.

Pretty sure Aliir would have gone through to the rookie draft if we had left him.

I guess we were just so desperate for a ruckman we felt we couldn't risk losing Nankervis but see your point, we probably would have got him at 44. I rate Brown, that hurts reading that he went so late...