Swans are lodging the paperwork to secure Hayden McLean from SANFL club South Adelaide.
Sydney signs McLean - sydneyswans.com.au
PS: AGAIN I see this has been posted already on the Maibaum thread!! I think this thread is more relevant now....
Swans are lodging the paperwork to secure Hayden McLean from SANFL club South Adelaide.
Sydney signs McLean - sydneyswans.com.au
PS: AGAIN I see this has been posted already on the Maibaum thread!! I think this thread is more relevant now....
Unfortunately it also says Franklin will miss round 1.
I feel positive about McLean recruitment. We need some KPP depth and he's a good size. Also has some good credentials: AFL Academy player, vice captain for Vic Metro etc. On the flip side, there must have been reasons why he didn't get rookie drafted. And we are selecting him very late in the piece, after other clubs have already taken the most promising leftover KPPs.
Anyway, we have nothing to lose. Scary for Maibaum though! Only got offered a late one year contract extension, now injured. Meanwhile we recruit Thurlow and now McLean. And he was already stuck behind Reg, Aliir, Melican.
Think the question mark on him at AFL level is mobility/agility. Seems to be similar sort of player to Nankervis who had similar queries (although Nank has a great tank to compensate).
Thurlow is a half back flanker/wingman, and McClean is a ruck/forward, I don't think he'll be competing with either of these 2
I reckon the signing of McLean is as much cover for the vacated Tippett spot as for Maibaum. The club possibly thought it was already a little light on for ruck/forward options, and that's been made starker by the slower than expected recovery of Naismith and the knock that Cameron took to his knee in the GWS practice game, the severity of which we (outside the club) know little.
Reid can play back can he? I have yet to see any evidence of any success of that move. In fact the last time he played back for a whole match he cot 4 goals kicked on him.
McCartin is still not developed to play back. Not strong enough against key forwards that Grundy has to play on.
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Look Mate , All going well this kid won’t play a game this year . He’s been Brought in as back up . As you said he’s not a defender, unfortunately it is now a week before the season ; after both the national draft and rookie draft have taken place , so it looks as though we took the best tall player available , regardless of his preferred position. A lot of young talls start out in one half the ground and end up playing most of their careers in the other half. You’re complaining he’s not a defender. Reid hasn’t strung enough good footy together at either end of the ground to suggest where he is best suited. And Mccartin has proven he can take a grab and compete and has a tank to boot. His best position could be in any third of the ground at this stage , or even all three. I’m just offering some solutions to your obvious displeasure at the swans taking this kid in the preseason SSP as he is more of a forward/ruck . Which other star defender do you think we should have taken instead wolf ?
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I did not complain he is not a defender. I remarked he was not a defender. There is a big difference. He might be another Reg, make the move back and be incredibly successful. But that takes time. What I did point out however was how crap as a defender Reid is.
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We are looking for a quick solution to a gap was my point. If Reg gets injured there is a definite gap. Maibaum looked poised to fill that gap this year should it have occurred. What this move does is bring a young bloke that would have to be trained to fill that gap at short notice into the equation.
If we are filling the Ruck gap then it is understandable. But to fill a key back gap? Probably not at this stage. I don't think McCartin is, far enough along in his development to take a key back position either. He is, a good player who has also played forward and not back. He will be good fir us no matter what end of the ground he plays but again given time. To fill a key back position, especially playing on the monsters, is incredibly hard. It is probably the hardest spot on a footy field and many young backs have been destroyed. Just ask Liam Jones, Harris-Andrews, Zac Dawson.
I am very aware this is spur of the moment, players recruiting on the run. But generally when you have a gap you try to get someone who can fill that gap. Obviously the identified gap was ruck. I'm not going to bother saying forward because the bloke kicked 9goals in 13 games last year in the VFL. A key forward needs to do better than that. Probably filling the just in case Naismith and Cameron don't get up.
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