BTW Brad Crouch has decided he wants to stay at the Crows, which means they are unlikely to get the #2 pick as compensation. Big call looms after Brad Crouch declares he'd prefer to stay a Crow
I think if we take pick 3 or 4 or even 5 to the draft because we win some more games, there won't be many on here upset by that.
You'd think we'd be in with a chance against Freo, Demons and Carlton, but could also lose all three.
I would say that Ling is being trained as a lock down small defender, which is a much more challenging role than it used to be, with the increasing number of quality small forwards going around. I believe he will be a rebounding defending in due course, but no player can be only an offensive weapon these days. Everyone needs to defend and it's something that's not drilled into teenage players before they're drafted.
It's interesting to see that my first choice for pick 14 in the 2017 draft, Ed Richards, has seemed to have lost his ability to kick the footy straight. The start of his career was fantastic, but he seems to have stalled. He's not the only one. Jayden Stephenson has gone off the rails as well. There are a lot of good players from recent drafts who have lost form this year. I think it's an indication that we shouldn't jump to conclusions about player performance based on 2020 alone. Things could be very different next year.
Just wondering.
The vocal swans supporters that haven't thought much of Geelong and their recruitment strategy.
Im curious ......can we learn from Geelong and their strategy? What could we embrace that has worked
Top of the table in 2019
2nd this year so far
A significant reserve bank of early draft picks coming up via smart trading
Ok, this one is bit out of left field, but I want to put it out there to see what people think. Specifically, bringing a veteran in to tutor some of our young guys.
Now normally I'd say we have a good mix of veterans to train up the kids, Rampe to teach the defenders. Buddy and Reid in the forward line, Parker and JPK in the guts. But Hawthorn's demise and this article (Do these veteran Hawks have any trade value? ) got me thinking about Isaac Smith
Hear me out, it's a bit unusual, but I think it has some merit. We have lot of young wingers/flankers, without an elite experienced winger to tutor them. Florent, Stephens, JMac, COR, Foot, Bell, Elijah, and even Dawson and Heeney to an extent. We'll soon have Gulden and Campbell joining us. But our best winger above the age of 25 is Cunningham.
With that in mind, I would actually like to see us make a move for Isaac Smith during the trade period.
Think about it, he's UFA, so he wouldn't cost us anything. He's been an elite winger for a number of years and obviously knows what a winning culture is like so he would fit in immediately with our culture. But he also knows what Bloods culture is like as an outsider, as he had some massive battles against us, so he'd be able to boost some of the kids up to remind them how respected the red and white guernsey is. The biggest thing for me would be the tutoring of the younger guys. Guys like Stephens and Florent would learn so much from him.
Are there any other vets you'd like to see us chase?
They did a very very good deal for Tim Kelly, who was a draft steal.
You could argue we could have played harder ball on Mitchell and Jones, but I think they were both out of contract.
Otherwise the Cats have been topping up with older players and will fall off a cliff soon enough. I reckon it’s now or never for their premiership.
I don’t mind the strategy, not sold on the target though. I think getting Hodge to the Lions was a master stroke, and if we could find someone out there to have similar effect on our youngsters than I’m all for it.
We are slightly different to the Lions though as we have some premiership winning. veteran players still on our list, and we’ll get two of those back next year ( all going well ) in Joey and Bud. Not necessarily to mentor our wings as you suggest but still to provide leadership and make the team walk taller on the field .
I can’t wait to see this young group play with Buddy in the side. Rowbottom , Dawson and Stephens delivering beautiful passes to him. He’ll kick 100 next year if he’s fit
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There's a part of me that would like to see JPK and Bud come back for the final game this year, just so the kids can see what the Swans team looks like with them in the lineup.
Yeah the Hodge move was in the back of my mind as well. But we don't need a Hodge type as we've got Rampe as a player and McVeigh as a coach so we're covered there. The wing is the one position where we lack an onfield tutor, or even a coach really. That's what got me thinking of Smith. If not Smith, then I wouldn't mind us looking at other veteran wingers, but I think he'd fit the bill nicely, he'd be able to give us 10-15 games for a couple of seasons and he teach the kids so much. I can't think of many other free agents that would fit that bill.
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