I am not sure why "after the 2016 GF" is relevant. He would have made up his mind he was leaving well before then.Originally Posted by Captain
I am not sure why "after the 2016 GF" is relevant. He would have made up his mind he was leaving well before then.
Incorrect, there was still a small window to 'up' our offer.
Great player. We let him go, probably equally push/ pull factors. Time to move on.
I feel really bad, 'cause my crystal ball was in the repair shop after the 2016 GF. Had it been working, I could have alerted Tom Harley that we should have traded Hanners instead of Mitchell. He was at the top of his game and maybe we could have gotten 2 first rounders for him.
I remember Tom Mitchell & Steve Congilio being interviewed live from Sydney on AFL360 in 2016 in lead up to a Sydney derby match. It was about the half way mark of the season. Robbo out of the blue asked Tom if he was going to sign new contract with the Swans, as he'd heard rumours of a Hawthorn's offer. Tom gave a positive answer how happy he is in Sydney etc.. & hoping he would stay at the club. It was enough to convince Robbo he was staying in Sydney, but I remember thinking that if felt just short of him being fully committed in signing. Tom later came out with the classic line of leaving contract it till end of the season to concentrate on his footy & playing finals.
Come PF against Geelong at the G & Tom still hasn't signed, with Clarkson spotted in the stands heightening the Hawthorn rumours which came to be. At that point Robbo on AFL360 referred back to his earlier Hawthorn rumour, where during our bye round Tom was seriously considering signing Swans contract offer, when Hawthorn came right over the top with a big offer which the Swans couldn't match.
To add further light on this, the AFL then announced (post trade/draft period) the new Salary Cap ceiling which increased in % terms a lot higher than everyone expected. I remember Scott Lucas saying on SEN at the time that this probably impacted the Swans more than any other club, because it meant they probably could've hanged onto Tom Mitchell (offer him bigger contract) had they known Salary Cap was going to increase by that amount. Scott couldn't understand the logic of the AFL making this announcement after the trade period when the clubs had already finalised their lists. Read into that as you will.
Last edited by KSAS; 25th September 2018 at 06:19 PM.
They all do.
Why wouldn't they?
If Ollie Florent goes on to have a stella 200+ game career at the Swans, maybe a few bnf's, at least 1 AA, then we can look back and say...Not a bad result..
But the way things stand now , the Swans erred badly. They mistakenly had him No.4 or lower, on their midfield pecking order.
Congrats to Tom...He's a fine player, and he had a fabulous season. Good luck to him.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect... MT
Are you saying some clubs knew of the big increase and others didn't?
I wonder if #TomMitchellGate has had an effect on the Swans internally?
From a list management perspective, the trading of Hanners and Rohan implies that there will be no longer sacred cows.
But from a team selection POV it's still extremely hard for young, talented players (e.g. Jones, Mills etc) to get a gig in the midfield and for younger players to break into the side.
One wonders if Hanners is being traded to deny Horse the opportunity to select him?
No. It caught all the clubs by surprise that the increase was much more than they had expected. The point being (by Scott Lucas) was the late timing of this announcement by the AFL. Had it been done so earlier before the trade period, we would've been in position to offer Tom a bigger contract $$$$. Hence some might have suspicions that the AFL deliberately delayed this announcement to help ensure Tom gets to their pet team Hawthorn. We were still in the trade ban at the time which the AFL had never justified why, other than the "we can't have everyone" line by Gill.
But wouldn’t Hawthorn also have had more $ to match what we could have offered?
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