Whoa! I know it is early to start discussing this stuff but there's not much to do in the off-season and we need a place to do it. There is some overlap with the 'Contracts left to sign' thread and I don't know if they should be merged. But I'm suggesting this as a broader thread all to do with our list management in the 2017-18 off-season. Obviously it is too soon to say much definitively but I don't think it's too soon to start tossing around concepts and ideas. The thread can mature as the season rolls along.

* Who might retire or get delisted?
* Who might we think of drafting?
* Do we have any promising Academy prospects?
* Are there any players we should target for trade?
* Are there any players we should consider trading out?
* Which of our players are we at risk of losing (if any)?
* Which should be our priorities to re-sign? (this is definitely overlap territory with 'Contracts left to sign')
* Let's not limit it to players if anyone has thoughts about coaching or other staff who should be poached/renewed/jettisoned/promoted.

Whose contracts will be up?

I'll begin by reposting the most up-to-date list of our players' contract status I know of and some of my thoughts about which players might be at the end of the road and which players we should prioritise re-signing:

SYDNEY SWANS CONTRACT STATUS (Updated 28-NOV-2016)

Contract Expires - 2017:
Jordan Dawson
Shaun Edwards (Cat A Rookie - 1st Year)
Robbie Fox (Cat A Rookie - 1st Year)
Sam Fisher (Cat B Rookie - 1st Year)
Issac Heeney
Brandon Jack
Alex Johnson
Zak Jones
Josh Kennedy
Tyrone Leonardis
Jarrad McVeigh
Lewis Melican (Cat A Rookie - 3rd Year)
Sam Murray (Cat B Rookie - 2nd Year)
Colin O'Riordan (Cat B Rookie - International)
Toby Pink (Cat A Rookie - 1st Year)
Sam Reid
Ben Ronke (Cat A Rookie - 1st Year)
Michael Talia

Contract Expires - 2018:
Aliir Aliir
Darcy Cameron
Jordan Foote
Oliver Florent
Heath Grundy
Will Hayward
George Hewett
Jeremy Laidler
Jake Lloyd
Jack Maibaum
Harry Marsh
Callum Mills
Sam Naismith
Nic Newman
Tom Papley
James Rose
Daniel Robinson
Callum Sinclair
Nick Smith
Kurt Tippett
Dean Towers

Contract Expires - 2019:
Harry Cunningham
Kieren Jack
Dane Rampe

Contract Expires - 2020:
Gary Rohan
John Longmire (Senior Coach)

Contract Expires - 2021:
Daniel Hannebery
Luke Parker

Contract Expires - 2022:
Lance Franklin


This year Heeney, Joey, Reid and Jones will be our priorities and in roughly that order I suspect. Joey is our best player and Heeney is the future. Not everyone loves Reid and he seems to be hung with an "always injured" label that I don't think he deserves but we definitely need him. KPFs are not a long suit of ours. Buddy and Sammy are pretty much our only KPFs (not counting Pinky). Dawson, Rohan, Hayward, Towers et. al. are third talls at best or just mediums. And Jones is a beast that we would hate to lose. Incidentally, I really hope we start chucking him the guts a bit this year, which may have the added benefit of making a bit of room down back for Newman or Leonardis to start rebounding the ball.

I suppose this also means that whatever departures we have at the end of next season will all come from the first 18 players (trades excepted). I don't expect any of the rest to retire unless forced to do so by injury or other misadventure. I reckon the writing is on the wall for Macca. BJ will have to lift his game or, more likely, be out the door. Talia, Melican and AJ will need to show something. And you would think at least one of the new rookies won't get extended and quite possibly more than one. I think O'Riordan and Melican are our best rookie prospects and I'm almost willing to add Ronke to that list without having seen him.


Free agents

Another thing to keep an eye on is the 2017 free agents list. This is where it can be found - Free Agency - AFL.com.au - but it hasn't been updated for this season yet. I think there was an article on afl.com.au that posted the free agents who haven't re-signed beyond this season yet but I can't find it to post here. If you know, you might like to add it to this thread. I'm not sure if it's headlined by Nat Fyfe (is he going to be a free agent or merely out of contract?). Anyway, I wouldn't think we would try to get him. Given our midfield depth we would save any such mega trade deal for a KPF and we probably don't need to (nor can we afford to) do that this season.

GWS players?

My next thoughts were who might be available from the Giants at the end of next season? They are going to be bursting at the seams in terms of trying to retain players with their salary cap, particularly given the legitimate expectations the players will have of salary increases. Steve Johnson is probably the only top 22 player that will be retiring and that is just not going to create nearly enough room in the salary cap I wouldn't think. With that in mind, here are a list of GWS players whose contracts are up this season:

Senior List
#02 Jacob Hopper
#05 Dylan Shiel
#10 Devon Smith
#12 Jonathan Patton
#15 Matt Kennedy
#17 Steve Johnson
#20 Adam Tomlinson
#21 Matt Buntine
#22 Josh Kelly
#26 Dawson Simpson
#27 Harrison Himmelberg
#29 Zac Williams
#30 Matt Flynn
#31 Jeremy Finlayson
#40 Adam Kennedy
#24 Matt De Boer

Rookie List
#00 Joel Patfull
#38 Daniel Lloyd
#50 Sam Reid
#25 Tendai M'Zungu
#42 Jake Stein
#28 Zac Sproule

That is an awful lot of top flight talent that is in need of re-signing. Surely they can't keep them all. Buntine, Kennedy, Finlayson and Tomlinson all might be gettable and worthy of consideration. Their biggest stars (Shiel, Smith, Patton, Kelly) are probably out of our reach even if they were gettable.

Swans Academy

As for Academy talent, I'm not the best informed but I have heard the names Hardman and Bell mentioned. Can anyone confirm - are they part of the Swans Academy and of draft age in 2017? Would we be interested in drafting them? Are they likely NEAFL top ups this year? Who else should be on our radar?



Alright, I hope I've got the ball rolling. Like I said, it is kinda premature, so I won't expect a deluge of responses but if there are others of you who have off-season blues and the inclination to post I'll be interested in your thoughts - here's looking at you, Ludwig, this is a field you generally seem to revel in.