Player Watch #26 Luke Parker

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Luke Parker
Luke Parker has plenty of football ahead and has already compiled a resume packed with impressive achievements. Since landing at the Sydney Swans via the 2010 AFL Draft, he has won a 2012 premiership medal, earned All Australian selection and won two Bob Skilton medals. In 2015, he was added to the club’s leadership group at the age of just 22, and has led the team as a co-captain alongside Josh Kennedy and Dane Rampe since 2019. While Parker is among the league’s elite midfielders, his strong marking and expert game awareness make him a genuine threat when rotating through the forward line.

Luke Parker
DOB: 25 October 1992
DEBUT: 2011
DRAFT: #40, 2010 National Draft
RECRUITED FROM: Langwarrin (Vic)/Dandenong U18

www.sydneyswans.com.au

Luke Parker | AFL

Follow Luke Parker's progress through AFL
www.sydneyswans.com.au www.sydneyswans.com.au
 
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Superstar swan said:
His 700k+ will be handy
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For what?

If we really are pushing him out to save the cash it's likely already being used on the players we re-signed this year.
 

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J_Moore said:
not really interested in the debate over his place in the 22 this year or the next.

It’ll be sad to see him finish his career elsewhere. But it happens to players: not even Mitchell, Lewis or Hodge were above it.

Much sadder that he didn’t get a proper sendoff.
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for all of those who were there at both hanners final came and schneiders final game there were plenty of red and white fans giving them a cheer.

We can do that again if it comes to it
 
ashep said:
I don't think anyone is really arguing that the time time might be right to move on, or that the club should extend him, but that doesn't change the fact that his situation was poorly managed by the club this year.
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How was it poorly managed though?

I see you've pointed to his versatility up forward but in reality even in that position, he had some good performances against average teams towards the end of the H&A season and was mostly very average in the finals. His best performance in finals was playing the Billy Frampton (also not best 22 at his club) role on Aliir in the Preliminary Final.

You've said that he offers far more than Wicks, yet when our forward line and scoring ability was at its peak this year, Wicks was in the team in Parker's position.

It's the coaches' job to find the 22 that will net us a flag, and I think it's seriously unfair to suggest not automatically including Parker in that is disrespectful given his lack of impact in the finals. He wouldn't be in my best 22 next year if he stays and might not have been in my best 22 if this year went a few weeks longer.
 
Also, I don't think him dominating in the VFL is as relevant as people suggest.

Check out Jack Macrae's VFL stats for this year compared to Parker's:

- Jack Macrae

vfl.aflmstats.com vfl.aflmstats.com

- Luke Parker

vfl.aflmstats.com vfl.aflmstats.com
Much like our coaches seemed to think with Parker, the Bulldogs didn't think he had the speed to play midfield in the modern game anymore.

Much like Parker, he will likely leave his club for a team outside of the top 8 next year. It is what it is.
 
SSwans2011 said:
Also, I don't think him dominating in the VFL is as relevant as people suggest.

Check out Jack Macrae's VFL stats for this year compared to Parker's:

- Jack Macrae

vfl.aflmstats.com vfl.aflmstats.com

- Luke Parker

vfl.aflmstats.com vfl.aflmstats.com
Much like our coaches seemed to think with Parker, the Bulldogs didn't think he had the speed to play midfield in the modern game anymore.

Much like Parker, he will likely leave his club for a team outside of the top 8 next year. It is what it is.
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Difference being Macrae is basically only able to play one role in the seniors and Beveridge has pushed a lot of players out, for better or worse. Not entirely sure it's the best comparison to make to justify the club's stance.
 
SSwans2011 said:
How was it poorly managed though?

I see you've pointed to his versatility up forward but in reality even in that position, he had some good performances against average teams towards the end of the H&A season and was mostly very average in the finals. His best performance in finals was playing the Billy Frampton (also not best 22 at his club) role on Aliir in the Preliminary Final.

You've said that he offers far more than Wicks, yet when our forward line and scoring ability was at its peak this year, Wicks was in the team in Parker's position.

It's the coaches' job to find the 22 that will net us a flag, and I think it's seriously unfair to suggest not automatically including Parker in that is disrespectful given his lack of impact in the finals. He wouldn't be in my best 22 next year if he stays and might not have been in my best 22 if this year went a few weeks longer.
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It was poorly managed in multiple ways IMO.

Parker finished 2023 in reasonable form, and was named in our bests something like 3 of the last 6 weeks of the year. There was absolutely nothing to suggest he wouldn't be in the starting side for round 1.

He got injured. Nobody's fault, it happens. Someone needed to take his spot in the side.

Now, let's take Parker vs Adams. Parker has been a better player than Adams over the journey and was again last year. Based on that fact alone, it would make sense to bring him back into the side. Yes, we were winning, and yes Adams was contributing, but he wasn't in our top dozen. Complacency breeds mediocrity and there should always be competition for spots, especially when you're talking about a 250+ game club champion who knows our system, is proven, and has chemistry with the rest of the playing group.

He could/should have come in for Adams as a like for like replacement.

Or ok, maybe you saw Parker slowing down last year (just like Adams but I'll humour you) and think his spot is rotating forward. So it's Parker vs Wicks. This is a first round knockout for me. Not only did Wicks alienate the rest of the playing group, but apart from a couple of decent-to-good games, he was contributing very little to the performance of the side. He wasn't marking, he wasn't kicking goals, and he wasn't tackling. His apparent quality was "running around creating manic pressure" that's it. Parker came in and immediately ticked those first 3 boxes.

IMO saying to Luke Parker, club champion, former captain, still in good form, "you ride the pine while we carry a couple of passengers, one of which is new to the club and the other of whom is giving us nothing" is poor.

Nobody is owed a spot in an AFL side, but Parker deserved one and I've got no qualms with him getting his nose out of joint.

Do I think the club has committed some heinous crime of disloyalty or mismanagement? No, but I definitely think they handled the situation incorrectly in terms of the on field product, but also in terms of respect for the player.
 
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caesar88 said:
And there were plenty of fans questioning his spot. Parker was one of the last to secure his spot in the 22 for finals and was then one of our worst-performing players in the finals. That's line ball to me. I'd have preferred Cleary in the forward line and I think based on his finals games Parker was no better off than Adams or Wicks who he was supposedly so much better than.
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Wicks was responsible for one of our players being relieved of his teeth.

And that’s on top of the mysterious club imposed suspension earlier in the season.

I suspect we might not be seeing Wicks in the seniors again.
 
caesar88 said:
And there were plenty of fans questioning his spot. Parker was one of the last to secure his spot in the 22 for finals and was then one of our worst-performing players in the finals. That's line ball to me. I'd have preferred Cleary in the forward line and I think based on his finals games Parker was no better off than Adams or Wicks who he was supposedly so much better than.
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"Fans questioning spots" doesn't make the decision a contentious one. There is 0% chance Parker wasn't being picked for finals after his end of the season.

He had 6 tackles against the Lions which was 50% more than Wicks' season high. Also took 8 marks in 3 finals when Wicks took that many in his last 7 games, not taking into account he played a very deliberate negating role in the prelim and GF. Adams had less marks, a couple more tackles, and a handful more disposals in his last 3 games despite playing more on ball than Parker.

If you would have preferred Cleary in the forward line then that's a difference of opinion and tough to evaluate given he started 2 games, but suggesting Parker was no better than the other two isn't based in reality.
 
ashep said:
"Fans questioning spots" doesn't make the decision a contentious one. There is 0% chance Parker wasn't being picked for finals after his end of the season.

He had 6 tackles against the Lions which was 50% more than Wicks' season high. Also took 8 marks in 3 finals when Wicks took that many in his last 7 games, not taking into account he played a very deliberate negating role in the prelim and GF. Adams had less marks, a couple more tackles, and a handful more disposals in his last 3 games despite playing more on ball than Parker.

If you would have preferred Cleary in the forward line then that's a difference of opinion and tough to evaluate given he started 2 games, but suggesting Parker was no better than the other two isn't based in reality.
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Yet you questioning Adams & Wicks' spots is the very basis for your belief that Parker has been disrespected...

It reads like you don't really have a justification for feeling Parker was wronged beyond the fact you simply prefer him as a player, and your personal frustration is being projected onto Parker.

That he is even comparable to a kid who has played two games like Cleary, or to what Adams & Wicks were doing earlier this year, shows where he is at. So him not being picked in the team shouldn't be contentious at all.
 

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caesar88 said:
Yet you questioning Adams & Wicks' spots is the very basis for your belief that Parker has been disrespected...

It reads like you don't really have a justification for feeling Parker was wronged beyond the fact you simply prefer him as a player, and your personal frustration is being projected onto Parker.

That he is even comparable to a kid who has played two games like Cleary, or to what Adams & Wicks were doing earlier this year, shows where he is at. So him not being picked in the team shouldn't be contentious at all.
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Adams and Wicks weren't even in the squad for finals. Wicks wasn't available until the GF but clearly slipped behind Cleary in the pecking order.

So no, the decision between Parker and Adams/Wicks was in no way contentious or line-ball. Parker was a walk up start.

You're not really arguing in good faith here. You are free to disagree with my opinion, but I've been crystal clear in my justification so suggesting I'm just frustrated is crap. Parker had more to offer the side than Adams or Wicks and the fact he was kept behind them was proven to be a poor handling of the situation by the selection committee.

I and others said from the moment that Parker became available that he should have come back into the side, specifically for Adams or Wicks. The way each of those players ended the year completely supports that position.
 
ashep said:
Adams and Wicks weren't even in the squad for finals. Wicks wasn't available until the GF but clearly slipped behind Cleary in the pecking order.

So no, the decision between Parker and Adams/Wicks was in no way contentious or line-ball. Parker was a walk up start.

You're not really arguing in good faith here. You are free to disagree with my opinion, but I've been crystal clear in my justification so suggesting I'm just frustrated is crap. Parker had more to offer the side than Adams or Wicks and the fact he was kept behind them was proven to be a poor handling of the situation by the selection committee.

I and others said from the moment that Parker became available that he should have come back into the side, specifically for Adams or Wicks. The way each of those players ended the year completely supports that position.
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You keep referring to the squad in finals, but the offence you think exists occurred back in the middle of the season. Adams & Wicks weren't going as bad as they were later in the season at that time, so simply saying he was better than them or could've offered more, is a false prophecy. When Parker wasn't at his best - such as all three finals - he didn't look any better than Adams or Wicks when they were finally cut from the 22.
 
sataris said:
None of them deserve to be premiership players though.
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That’s right.
But if they had given that extra effort that JPK gave, perhaps one or two of them may have helped us get over the line against the Dogs. JPK sure as hell used all his will. Some of these latest guys were taught that someone else did their role for the team so that they could do all the flashy finishing stuff.
That doesn’t work in GFs & the footage being shown around by the GF analysts is putting them out front & centre.
Gulden for example was caught out being lazy a number of times. Not alone though.
 
caesar88 said:
You keep referring to the squad in finals, but the offence you think exists occurred back in the middle of the season. Adams & Wicks weren't going as bad as they were later in the season at that time, so simply saying he was better than them or could've offered more, is a false prophecy. When Parker wasn't at his best - such as all three finals - he didn't look any better than Adams or Wicks when they were finally cut from the 22.
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I usually agree with you quite a lot but that last comment is just plain wrong, particularly with regards to Wicks.

Parker even on a bad day offers far more to the team than Wicks. It honestly staggers me that that’s even up for debate. I know Wicks’ dad did a really good job pushing his son’s case on this board and managed to get a little fan club going but while the kid is a solid contributor on occasion, he will never be more than a ‘bottom six’ player for this club.
 
caesar88 said:
You keep referring to the squad in finals, but the offence you think exists occurred back in the middle of the season. Adams & Wicks weren't going as bad as they were later in the season at that time, so simply saying he was better than them or could've offered more, is a false prophecy. When Parker wasn't at his best - such as all three finals - he didn't look any better than Adams or Wicks when they were finally cut from the 22.
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When Parker became available, Wicks was ordinary to invisible most weeks and Taylor was a solid contributor at best. At that point in time, telling a 250 game club champion and former captain to sit tight in the VFL behind a bloke in his first year playing the same position but worse, and another who was dropped for alienating the playing group off the field while offering little on it was insulting.

I said that at the time.

What has happened since simply reinforces how poor that decision was. I don't agree at all that Parker looked as poor as the other 2 in the finals. Given the negating role he was assigned he was still more productive than Wicks and about on par with Adams. In the time he spent in each of those roles through the second half of the year he performed significantly better than Adams or Wicks did when playing them exclusively. When he went forward he marked and goaled often when Wicks did neither, and when he was thrown into the middle, he tackled, won contested ball and went inside 50 more efficiently than Adams.

Parker was quite simply better than both Adams and Wicks across the course of the season when available and should have been playing ahead of them.
 
DavyRed said:
I usually agree with you quite a lot but that last comment is just plain wrong, particularly with regards to Wicks.

Parker even on a bad day offers far more to the team than Wicks. It honestly staggers me that that’s even up for debate. I know Wicks’ dad did a really good job pushing his son’s case on this board and managed to get a little fan club going but while the kid is a solid contributor on occasion, he will never be more than a ‘bottom six’ player for this club.
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Well Parker on a bad day happened a fair bit this year, despite his relative freshness compared to the rest of the team. He had little to no impact in any of the finals, little to no impact when we played Brisbane at the Gabba. He had three very impressive games in succession against Collingwood, Essendon & Adelaide, but three games is three games.

I don't even entirely disagree with your sentiments on Wicks, my own patience had begun to wear thin with him. But my patience had begun to wear thin with Parker, too. Both can be average, they aren't mutually-exclusive.
 
ashep said:
When Parker became available, Wicks was ordinary to invisible most weeks and Taylor was a solid contributor at best. At that point in time, telling a 250 game club champion and former captain to sit tight in the VFL behind a bloke in his first year playing the same position but worse, and another who was dropped for alienating the playing group off the field while offering little on it was insulting.

I said that at the time.

What has happened since simply reinforces how poor that decision was. I don't agree at all that Parker looked as poor as the other 2 in the finals. Given the negating role he was assigned he was still more productive than Wicks and about on par with Adams. In the time he spent in each of those roles through the second half of the year he performed significantly better than Adams or Wicks did when playing them exclusively. When he went forward he marked and goaled often when Wicks did neither, and when he was thrown into the middle, he tackled, won contested ball and went inside 50 more efficiently than Adams.

Parker was quite simply better than both Adams and Wicks across the course of the season when available and should have been playing ahead of them.
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He was better than them for three games. If you genuinely believe he was better than them in the finals then we might as well agree to disagree as there is nothing to discuss.
 
You know he will be a club legend no matter what. He also gets to earn himself a lot more money, extend his career & perhaps roll into a coaching role at North going forward.
Unfortunately it happens.
Reference point being Maxfield who had to miss the p’ship because his body wouldn’t hold up & he selflessly pulled the pin. ROK was forced out. JPK too.
Luke at least gets another year in 2026 if he goes now. He will play some good footy for North & be valuable to the young group.
 

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Player Watch #26 Luke Parker

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