Just to give some context, at the end of 2009, swans finished 12th at 8-14. Barry hall punched that eagle (think it was staker?) and leo barry, o'loughlan and crouch all retired. Most the media thought that swans had to go down to come back up. That a re-build was necessary. They had played in 2 consecutive gfs 3-4 years prior and spent the last few seasons trying to snare another but looked to be on the decline.
So they entered the draft with picks 6, 22, 38, 54 & 70.
They kept picks 6, 38 and 54 and completed the following trades:
Barry hall for pick 47 (dogs)
Jolly for picks 14 & 46 (pies)
Buchanan, 22 & 47 for Seaby, 28, 39 & 55 (lions/eagles)
Pick 28 for Mumford (cats)
Picks 39, 46 & 70 for j Kennedy & mcglynn (hawks)
So in summary:
Out: hall, jolly, Buchanan & 22
In: Mumford, Kennedy, mcglynn, Seaby, 14 & 55
Looking at it now, that was some aggressive, yet smart trading. The identification of Mumford and Kennedy in particular are types we need to look at.. Players in that early to mid 20s brackets who can't crack into a good team.
Additionally the swans had a strong draft:
6: G Rohan
14: L Jetta
38: S Reid
54: Sumner
55: TDL
All in all pretty awesome 2009 of list management.
When you compare it to our 2009... (In summary: Lovett, peake, Winmar, j smith, pattinson, W Johnson and T Walsh. ie. not a single player still on out list...)... Horrendous. That draft has killed us.
To me this highlights the importance of not only good drafting but great list management.
I actually think we're not that far different from the 2009 swans. They played in gfs in 05/06, us in 09/10 - dif was they snared one of their close chances
We'll prob finish ~12-16th with say 5-6 wins this year. That gives us say picks 4, 22, 40 & 58. Kosi and Blake will retire come year end and possible Milne, Schneider, jones or Hayes (hoping not Hayes!). One of milera or TDL you would think would also go (unless Milne retires).
I guess the obv names come up when you think of potential trade bait we have so I'm not going to spit them out again but all in all i see some interesting similarities between the 2 teams
Obv there was a lot of other factors that meant the swans winning in 2012, but the success of 2009 trade/draft period was def one of them. Just some food for thought for your Monday night (I obv didn't have much else to do tonight!)
