Opinion Sydney Swans Academy and Rebuild

[Tedeski]

For all the criticism that the Swans Academy has attracted over the last decade, it's still yet to produce a premiership. In fact, 2024 is the first year that a northern team has won the flag since the northern academy draft access was established in 2013 and that became inevitable because we had a northern team playing another northern team in the GF for the first time. The northern teams actually have a poor 1-6 win loss record in grand finals since the northern academies were established. Plus, the team with less academy players (Brisbane - 3) beat the team with more academy players (Sydney - 5) on Saturday.

Brisbane didn't win the flag because they had a few academy players in their team on Saturday. They won the flag because they drafted very well with players like Rayner, McCluggage, Lohmann, Starcevic etc and traded in some very good players like Neale, Dunkley, Cameron, Ah Chee, Zorko etc as well as Daniher through free agency. Additionally, they got lucky with the father-son rule netting them Ashcroft and Fletcher, but that's just how it goes in the AFL and other teams have experienced that like Collingwood with Darcy Moore + the Daicos brothers so there's nothing questionable there for the Lions.

The stats suggest that the Swans can't be so reliant on their academy moving forward. They need to draft, trade and use free agency well because that appears to be the bigger factors when it comes to building a premiership side. The same can be said about the Suns who have had some academy success in recent times, but have no significant results to show for it and are now finally prioritising recruiting mature players from other clubs.

They drafted very well because they were a basket case for a few years on end with players wanting out allowing them to get consecutive high draft picks. Rainer, McCluggage, Berry, a quality father son etc. But in the end, they had to put good people/coach in place to manage the group to get the best out of the talent brought in & Fagan is the key here along with Swan.
Excellent club management by the Lions.

 

[WOFTAMWarrior]

Typical lazy reply.

We know how the academies benefit the competition you fool. You wont find many - myself included - who are against them. The angst comes from the exclusive access of talent from an entire state. At a discount at that!

FFS at least own the massive advantage!

Ah the old straight to a name calling insult when you have nothing to contribute.

If academy concessions are given away then we may as well have the AFL exclusively fund academies, get rid of other zone advantages that are in all States and get rid of the Father Son picks. All in the interests of having everything fairly talent wise.

All 3rd party deals may as well go as well as incentives to attract players back interstate too unless it’s included in the salary cap.

It’s all in the interests of fairness and making sure that no one club gets any advantages.

 

[GC2015]

Ah the old straight to a name calling insult when you have nothing to contribute.

If academy concessions are given away then we may as well have the AFL exclusively fund academies, get rid of other zone advantages that are in all States and get rid of the Father Son picks. All in the interests of having everything fairly talent wise.

All 3rd party deals may as well go as well as incentives to attract players back interstate too unless it’s included in the salary cap.

It’s all in the interests of fairness and making sure that no one club gets any advantages.

What we've seen over the last few weeks with Chad Warner proves that retention continues to be an issue for the Swans, despite clinching the minor premiership and playing in the GF this year. Warner is turning 24 in a few months from now and is about to enter his prime years after the Swans spent the last six years developing him into an AA this year, yet there's every chance he'll be a Docker or Eagle this time next year. That's a problem because it shows that even on field success for both player and club isn't enough sometimes.

This is why the northern academies are so important going forward. Swans academy graduates Isaac Heeney and Callum Mills have both been offered huge deals to leave the Swans, but have turned them down in favour of staying loyal to the Swans. Having access to homegrown stars on your list is the best way to decrease the risk of massive retention issues that all four northern clubs have faced in their history.

 

[Blackhawk42]

They're lucky they have the academy, because their drafting leaves a lot to be desired.

Dylan Stephens

15

Dylan Stephens

Age

23

Ht

184cm

Wt

80kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.3

3star

K

7.0

3star

HB

3.3

3star

M

3.0

3star

T

1.7

4star

CL

0.0

1star

D

10.3

3star

K

7.0

3star

HB

3.3

2star

M

3.0

3star

T

1.7

3star

CL

0.0

1star

D

10.3

3star

K

7.0

3star

HB

3.3

3star

M

3.0

3star

T

1.7

4star

CL

0.0

1star

didn't make it.

Now their picks 20 and 27 from the draft only 2 years ago are gone without playing a single game.

 

[RUNVS]

They're lucky they have the academy, because their drafting leaves a lot to be desired.

Dylan Stephens didn't make it.

Now their picks 20 and 27 from the draft only 2 years ago are gone without playing a single game.

Our first round drafting leaves a lot to be desired. Our second and third round drafting is pretty good.

 

[Mr Meeseeks]

Ah the old straight to a name calling insult when you have nothing to contribute.

If academy concessions are given away then we may as well have the AFL exclusively fund academies, get rid of other zone advantages that are in all States and get rid of the Father Son picks. All in the interests of having everything fairly talent wise.

All 3rd party deals may as well go as well as incentives to attract players back interstate too unless it’s included in the salary cap.

It’s all in the interests of fairness and making sure that no one club gets any advantages.

How did I insult you? I'm not calling you names?

I agree. Have the afl fund the academies, the Northern clubs get a bit chunk of $$ from the equalisation pile anyway.

Id be happy to get rid of these 'zone' advantages you speak of, if they exist.

Same goes for 3rd party deals although I think you are fabricating stuff there too.

This is what I mean. If you have to make up other 'advantages' to justify the advantage Northern clubs get, perhaps a bit of self awareness couldn't hurt.

Don't touch f/s though. It's a great part of our game and completely random. I understand gws and gc don't benefit yet but that will come. I don't care that my club has never really benefited from it with a bonafide star, I love seeing Daicos', Ashcrofts etc in their father's jumpers. More so as I've gotten older and can remember their father's playing

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[powerrrrrrrrrrrr]

What we've seen over the last few weeks with Chad Warner proves that retention continues to be an issue for the Swans, despite clinching the minor premiership and playing in the GF this year. Warner is turning 24 in a few months from now and is about to enter his prime years after the Swans spent the last six years developing him into an AA this year, yet there's every chance he'll be a Docker or Eagle this time next year.

Using that logic, we just lost Dan Houston so does that mean it signals that we should also have an academy?

The Swans don’t tend to have many issues attracting or retaining players. Very few quality players leave and you have a decent flow of players coming in.

The academies just provide such an uneven playing field purely to serve the AFLs agenda which in turn.

 

[Mr Meeseeks]

What we've seen over the last few weeks with Chad Warner proves that retention continues to be an issue for the Swans, despite clinching the minor premiership and playing in the GF this year. Warner is turning 24 in a few months from now and is about to enter his prime years after the Swans spent the last six years developing him into an AA this year, yet there's every chance he'll be a Docker or Eagle this time next year. That's a problem because it shows that even on field success for both player and club isn't enough sometimes.

This is why the northern academies are so important going forward. Swans academy graduates Isaac Heeney and Callum Mills have both been offered huge deals to leave the Swans, but have turned them down in favour of staying loyal to the Swans. Having access to homegrown stars on your list is the best way to decrease the risk of massive retention issues that all four northern clubs have faced in their history.

What about Brodie Grundy moving to Sydney last year? He turned them into a minor premier. Hogan played OK this year after moving to GWS. Dunkley and Daniher requested to go to Brisbane and helped win a flag. Sam Taylor is one the premier defenders in the league who just signed on for his career, rejecting monster offers.

None of these players are in their home state

These examples are more tangible than a hypothetical move that may or may not happen 12 months from now.

3 of the 4 northern clubs have great cultures and are no longer any worse off than other clubs when it comes to retaining players. They don't need the academies any more.

GC are an exception. They are a shitshow

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[geelong_crazy26]

What we've seen over the last few weeks with Chad Warner proves that retention continues to be an issue for the Swans, despite clinching the minor premiership and playing in the GF this year. Warner is turning 24 in a few months from now and is about to enter his prime years after the Swans spent the last six years developing him into an AA this year, yet there's every chance he'll be a Docker or Eagle this time next year. That's a problem because it shows that even on field success for both player and club isn't enough sometimes.

This is why the northern academies are so important going forward. Swans academy graduates Isaac Heeney and Callum Mills have both been offered huge deals to leave the Swans, but have turned them down in favour of staying loyal to the Swans. Having access to homegrown stars on your list is the best way to decrease the risk of massive retention issues that all four northern clubs have faced in their history.

Wrong, Sydney don’t have a retention issue, they are if anything huge poachers themselves.

If they want home grown talent, they can do what everyone else does and draft them in the open draft system or attract them back home via trades. To insinuate they need a leg up or special privileges is a joke.

The amount of success Sydney has due to the academy and cola of past is a huge leg up no other team gets.

 

[GC2015]

Wrong, Sydney don’t have a retention issue, they are if anything huge poachers themselves.

Not sure how you can suggest Sydney don't have retention issues when guns like Jordan Dawson and Chad Warner have recently proven otherwise. Are you just going to ignore the fact that players they want to keep request trades away?

 

[geelong_crazy26]

Not sure how you can suggest Sydney don't have retention issues when guns like Jordan Dawson and Chad Warner have recently proven otherwise. Are you just going to ignore the fact that players they want to keep request trades away?

Every club loses players. So I assume you also think geelong has a retention issue since Tim Kelly and Garry ablett left??

 

[RUNVS]

Every club loses players. So I assume you also think geelong has a retention issue since Tim Kelly and Garry ablett left??

One of your examples happened over a decade ago, and the other 5 years ago.

 

[sthmelb_dimmies]

Ah 126 pages

 

[The King!]

Wrong, Sydney don’t have a retention issue, they are if anything huge poachers themselves.

If they want home grown talent, they can do what everyone else does and draft them in the open draft system or attract them back home via trades. To insinuate they need a leg up or special privileges is a joke.

The amount of success Sydney has due to the academy and cola of past is a huge leg up no other team gets.

Always interesting to start off a post being completely wrong and to make it get stupider and stupider as it goes .

Well done

 

[geelong_crazy26]

One of your examples happened over a decade ago, and the other 5 years ago.

My point was all clubs lose players. To suggest Sydney has a retention issue is silly and simply not remotely true.

 

[geelong_crazy26]

Always interesting to start off a post being completely wrong and to make it get stupider and stupider as it goes .

Well done

Usual emotion riled insults when you don’t know how to argue back. Typical low IQ response

Next.

 

[geelong_crazy26]

Ah 126 pages

And a job well done.

Sydney paying up a slightly fairer price next year for academy players is a good start.

Eventually it will be gone with enough noise

 

[Dogflogger]

Not sure how you can suggest Sydney don't have retention issues when guns like Jordan Dawson and Chad Warner have recently proven otherwise. Are you just going to ignore the fact that players they want to keep request trades away?

they have also traded for the best two forwards of the last 30-40 years in Lockett and Franklin. they seem to do well at attracting talent.

 

[bluespooner]

Can west coast also get an academy given they lost more players to trades than Sydney this trade period.