2004-2007 Draft Review

[swansfan51]

I had been planning to write about this topic for a while, saw the 2008 Draft Review thread and it was perfect. I've been wondering for a while how to get some more information about our young players. Unfortunately since I moved to WA I have found it pretty hard to follow any of them and can't get a lot of information on their progress. So I went through the 2004-2007 AFL drafts to see exactly who we selected and where they are.

(All in draft order. I have included a few other players to give an idea of what was available)

2004 Draft:
Jarred Moore (current senior, 28 games)
Pick 32: Brent Prismall
Pick 37: Mark LeCras
David Spriggs (delisted)
Pick 56: Chris Knights
Heath James (delisted)
Pick 74: Daniel Pratt

Rookie Draft:
Guy Campbell (delisted)
Luke Vogels (delisted)
Heath Grundy (current senior, 28 games)
Stefan Garrubba (delisted)
Earl Shaw (delisted)
Edward Clarke (delisted)
Andrew Hayes (delisted)

2005 Draft:
Matthew Laidlaw (delisted)
Kristin Thornton (yet to debut)
Ryan Brabazon (delisted)

Rookie Draft:
Jonathan Simpkin (delisted)
James Wall (delisted)
Paul Currie (delisted)
Simon Phillips (delisted)
Kieran Jack (current senior, liked the look of him last year)
Ed Barlow (current fringe player)
Adam Prior (delisted)
Sam Rowe (delisted)

2006 Draft:
Daniel O'Keefe (delisted)
Daniel Currie (yet to debut)
Peter Faulks (delisted)
Jesse White (current senior, good 2009)

Rookie Draft:
Nick Smith (2 games in 2008)
Matthew O'Dwyer (2 games in 2008)
Luke Brennan (delisted)
Matthew Davis (delisted)
Earl Shaw (delisted)

2007 Draft:
Patrick Veszpremi (current senior, 8 games)
Brett Meredith (current fringe senior)
Craig Bird (current senior)

Rookie Draft:
Matthew O'Dwyer (see above)
Brendan Murphy (delisted)
Jake Orreal (yet to debut)
Matthew Beckmans (delisted)
Aaron Bruce (delisted)
Dean Terlich (delisted)

My main questions would be:

2004 - is Jarred Moore the only usable player from this draft? Grundy was obtained at a very low price in the rookie draft, plays a senior role.
2005 - any hope for these 3 draftees?
2006 - looks like Currie and White are going to be very handy, what about Faulks and O'Keefe?
2007 - this draft seemed to deliver the best prospects for us.

Were the 04/05 drafts a poor result? I'm much happier with what we look to have from 07 and 08. Big thanks to anyone who can fill me in a bit more on our youngsters!

 

[kira]

wow, all those names certainly brings me back....

but here are my points:

- no point in posting up the names of other players we could of drafted, because in hindsight most things appear bad, and there's nothing we can do about it anyway

- 04/05 draft was particularly weak..... but we utilised our top picks for trades for ted richards and darren jolly (unless i'm mistaken)..... and they're now among our best players

- heath grundy will make it as an afl footballer imho, and given the age of our list, he'll get opportunities.... but he's still an apprentice imo

- 05 draft.... personally can't see any of them making it, except thornton who was demoted to the rookie list due to injury (so he's hard to gauge)

- 06 draft..... is better than what i first anticipated given white's progression, and currie's expected debut..... but given this was the super draft, we could of done better

- faulks is gone

- 07 draft was probably our best..... but i have issues with the club going small with all 3 picks

so overall the drafting in this period wasn't great..... but when you consider we had low draft picks, we drafted few players and our trades brought us instant success, we did alright in the end

2004-2007 draft review
rating: 6/10

 

[legend166]

Geeze, the 07 draft is looking good.

What did we trade for Playfair? That's probably the one that's dudded us the most.

 

[vonn]

Brett Meredith has had streaks put into his hair since 07. Yep that's my contribution to this thread.

 

[SM]

Yeah, geeze, Vesz, Bird and Meredith in the same draft could be seen in the years to come as the foundations of our next Premiership team.

06 wasn't too bad either, with Currie, White and O'Dwyer being the key picks from there. Smith not looking bad either, and Currie could still be anything.

05 looks horrible, with Jack the only gem in there, and Barlow iffy.

04, as well, pretty bad, with the Rookies providing more than the actual draft. Grundy looking the goods.

 

[SouthSwans]

Jesse White (current senior, great player)

Geez, is "great" really a word that should be thrown around this much?

 

[SM]

Yeah... he's played 5 games, wouldn't call him great, not even good. He's improving though, steadily and game by game.

 

[robbieando]

2004 got us Jared Moore with a late 2nd Round Pick after we traded for Darren Jolly using our 1st Round Pick. I call that win-win, a win for now (Jolly helped us win the flag in 05 and turned into one of the top ruckmen of the AFL beyond that while Moore was a win for later on as he will play for the next 10 years and is part of our leadership group already). Yes our last two picks weren't used on kids but Roos went into the draft saying that those would be used in that manner. I call it a success of sorts.

2005 we still have all 3 pick in the clubs system even though they were picked after 50 in the draft. History of late tells us that we shouldn't of expected much out of them and the fact we have got this much out of them is a bonus. Ted Richards was the cost of our 1st Round Pick and over time he has proven his worth but Paul Chambers alone for the 2nd Round Pick was TOO costly and makes this draft group a failure unless one of the three picks really kicks on. Gettiing Jack in the Rookie Draft will be seen as a good thing long term.

2006 was the Superdraft and the selection of Daniel O'Keefe was popular at the time and it is looking back still not that popular considering the Key Position Players we could of got at that Pick. Still other than him and Faulks who for a KPP was too skinny to last long term we got Currie and White who look like long term types.

2007 was our Superdraft. All three should be long term players at the club and possibly play over 200 games. Not a bad draft where we only had 3 selections. Plus we still have Brendan Murphy to come though off the Rookie List. This could be the draft that lays the foundation of our midfield for the next decade.

So considering we have had late selections and made trades, I feel we have taken good advantage of the draft except for the first pick in 2006. Sure we could of gone taller in Key Positions but I'm in no doubt that we have unearthed some gems for the future.

 

[smasher]

The most positive thing I can see is that we got Grundy at a bargain price.Footy people were shocked that he did not go early in the draft but the experts obviously knew their stuff.
As for Vesp and Meredith,I saw them quite often playing together for Northern Knights and I thought Meredith was more consistantly good than Patrick who played alot of "emotional footy".He does have that "X" factor which I don't see in any other Swans.He needs to build up his tank and get on the park to show it.

 

[Bonz]

Wasn't last year seen as the super draft?

 

[MF]

Geez, is "great" really a word that should be thrown around this much?

Love the new avatar SS

 

[SouthSwans]

Love the new avatar SS

Ditto

 

[strauchanie59]

2007 was defo our best draft. Veszpremi has proven himself with that performance vs Brisbane rd 22 last year, Meredith has almost proved himself. Liked his 60m bomb vs Brissie last week and Bird is just all class. Why hasnt Bird got NAB rising star nomination???

 

[vonn]

Bird is to old i think.

 

[TheMase]

I don't think either Vez nor Meredith (as much as I think he will make it) have proven anything yet.

So far so good, but lets not get ahead of ourselves. Plenty of times players have started well only to stifle.

 

[BarneyBent]

Bird is to old i think.

Nah, too many games. He could have (and should have) gotten one last year, but since he played 20 odd games, he's not eligible this year.

 

[EatBig Australia]

So far so good, but lets not get ahead of ourselves. Plenty of times players have started well only to stifle.

Barlow...

 

[TheMase]

Barlow...

Exactly. There are plenty of examples. Brett O'Farrell back in the day looked a promising footballer. Got transferred to the Hawks and disappeared into oblivion.

 

[Jeffers]

Exactly. There are plenty of examples. Brett O'Farrell back in the day looked a promising footballer. Got transferred to the Hawks and disappeared into oblivion.

Was a great trade for us . I think it got us Pick 3 in the 98 draft which was Nic Fosdike....or was it Fitzy? hmm

 

[bloods01]

Was a great trade for us . I think it got us Pick 3 in the 98 draft which was Nic Fosdike....or was it Fitzy? hmm

It was Fosdike at 3, Fitzy at 4 and Jude Bolton at 8.

Bolton is without doubt the pick of that trio. He has played 214 games and has been a great servant to the club. If he plays 22 games this year, his games tally would be 233, placing him 1 game behind club champion Paul Kelly who played 234. If he plays another on in 2010 and racks up another 22 games, his games tally will be 255, placing him fourth on our clubs games record. Not a bad effort if you ask me.

 

[TheMase]

Was a great trade for us . I think it got us Pick 3 in the 98 draft which was Nic Fosdike....or was it Fitzy? hmm

An awesome trade period for us. We finished 3rd in the season proper and managed to gain picks 3 (Fosdike), 4 (Fitzy) and 8 (Jude).

We offloaded Orchard back to Collingwood along with Licuria, sent O'Farrell to the Hawks, Jason Mooney and Simon Arnott to Geelong.

The only downside was picking up Andrew Bomford and Scott Russell (pre-season draft)

 

[Jeffers]

The only downside was picking up Andrew Bomford and Scott Russell (pre-season draft)

haha some ripper names to come out of that draft for us.

4 52 Ryan O'Connor Essendon Sydney Swans
5 71 Simon Feast Sturt Football Club Sydney Swans

haha there was a bit of excitement when Rhino got picked up but it was oh so painful.

Feast the bald headed warrior was a shocker.

 

[swansfan51]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/demons-rule-draft/story-e6frf9jf-1225827457502

Conversely, the report nominates Fremantle and Sydney, ranked 15th and 16th, as the paupers in that period, due to a glut of below average youngsters.
While Sydney has enjoyed much success trading and recycling players in recent times, according to Gloury's formula, the Swans' '05 and '06 drafts were shockers. In that period, 10 of 12 players picked were rated poor-below average under Gloury's formula.

That report rates us as the worst drafters in the competition over the 2004-2007 period. What are everyone's thoughts?

These are the only players from 04-07 still on our list who have played senior games:

Jarred Moore (2004)
Heath Grundy (2004 rookie draft)
Kristin Thornton (2005)
Kieren Jack (2005 rookie draft)
Ed Barlow (2005 rookie draft)
Jesse White (2006)
Nick Smith (2006 rookie draft)
Matthew O'Dwyer (2006 rookie draft)
Patrick Veszpremi (1st round 2007)
Brett Meredith (2007)
Craig Bird (2007)

Before anyone mentions the fact we traded for a number of senior players, the formula in that report only assesses players that were actually drafted, in relation to their positions - so its taken into account.

 

[SM]

Grundy, Jack, White, Smith, and Bird are all players who have already proven themselves, with Barlow, MOD, Vesz and Meredith to possibly join them. The rest, sure, a bit sub-par.

 

[kira]

obvious question, who is this Gloury-hole, and what is this formula?

but besides that.... no one actually needs a formula to work out our draft picks in general were pretty average in this time period

but looking at our list now, who really cares.... because our list is in great shape