Swans defend cheeky draft bids for young guns

Sydney Swans made cheeky bids for two academy players with successive picks on night one then backed it up by selecting a Hawthorn academy product – and landing the player before the Hawks had a chance to match the bid.

Sydney chose Cooper Vickery, a small defender tied to the Hawks though the next-generation academy, at pick 27. Clubs cannot match bids for NGA players before pick 40.

Harry Rowston in action for the Calder Cannons during an NAB League match.Credit:AFL Photos

A night earlier at the end of the first round, the Swans had ranked the crosstown rivals GWS when they made a bid for their academy product Harry Rowston with their first pick.

Bidding was one thing, what ruffled the Giants was the Swans had called to offer a trade dilemma before they made the bid.

The Swans rang GWS as soon as Melbourne was on the clock at pick 15 and so gave them 10 minutes to consider a deal.

The Swans laid out that they intended to bid for Rowston with the next pick at 16, and one pick before the Giants had the next two picks.

So, if the Swans didn’t pick Rowston, then the Giants would have their own two first-rounders before anyone got a chance to pick Rowston.

If the Giants wanted to avoid having to match the bid and lose one of their own first-round picks with the very next selection, then they should trade with the Swans.

Sydney wanted the Giants’ future first-round pick tied to Richmond as part of the Tim Tarranto trade.

The Giants turned it down. The Swans did bid for Rowston and GWS matched the bid. The Swans then less surprisingly bid on Adelaide father-son prospect Max Michalanney and the bid was matched.

Swans recruiter Simon Dalrymple defended the provocative move on Rowston, saying it was reasonable as they rated him about pick 12.

“He was on our talent list, we named him because he was on our list and we were disappointed we didn’t get him in the end,” Dalrymple said.

“So which other club was involved was irrelevant – it was more the player and where we rated him. We told them we are going to do it, so a trade was available.

“I thought it was reasonable, it was options open, it was their call whether they take part in that potential transaction, so that’s their decision and it didn’t go any further.”

After GWS and Adelaide matched the bids, the Swans traded with Hawthorn and moved back in the draft and still got a player they wanted: Hawthorn-tied Vickery.

“Once again we rated him (Vickery) really highly. He was in our mix at the 18-20 mark, so it validated the slide back to 27. He was in that group of players we thought would be still available,” Dalrymple said.

“I have been consistent throughout with our list management that from basically picks 11-30 they were very even and not much between them, so we thought ‘don’t use an earlier pick on an asset that you could get potentially cheaper and get some capital for next year.’”

The Swans then chose Caleb Mitchell at pick 40 – another player they rated much earlier in the draft, validating their decisions to trade back in an even draft.

“We are thrilled to get three boys we rated in the top 20 with our picks,” Dalrymple said.

“We were ambitious and well-planned and Chris Kean who runs that side of it for us did a great job. Very well organised, of the 20 potential deals one came off and we are happy with that.”

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