The Sydney Swans today finalised a deal to trade Jordan Dawson to the Adelaide Crows in exchange for a 2022 first round selection in the NAB AFL Draft (tied to the Melbourne Football Club). 

Speaking on Continental Tyres Trade Radio earlier this afternoon, Executive General Manager – Football Charlie Gardiner provided an update on the trade of Jordan Dawson and insight into the Sydney Swans approach to the Continental Tyres AFL Trade Period.

“After some extensive and lengthy negotiations, we felt that we had exhausted our options and it was time to accept the deal that was tabled," Gardiner said when questioned on Jordan Dawson.

"We’re disappointed to lose a player like Jordan, but we feel like we did all we could and weren’t going to improve on the offer in the circumstances.

"We were strong in voicing that we rated Jordan as high as anyone that was on the market in the trade period," Gardiner continued.

"We think that the deal we struck – the premiers future first round selection, time will tell if it reflects Jordan’s true value. At 17 or 18 it probably doesn’t, but we certainly feel like we exhausted every option and didn’t feel like we were going to improve on it.

"There’s circumstances and context to these sorts of decisions that you weigh up when assessing what’s in the best interest of the club, and the decision we made we feel was the right one. We now must move on, we’ve got two first round selections in 2022 which puts us in a really strong position.”

Gardiner said that if a deal wasn't able to be reached, there was a prospect of losing Dawson to a pre-season draft situation, but Sydney had agreed to a better deal than one that was tabled previously in the trade period.

“If we couldn’t conclude with a trade, losing Jordan for nothing to Adelaide or another club with a selection in the pre-season draft was a possible scenario," Gardiner said.

"The deal that was tabled early last week involving pick 17 was not as good as the one we accepted last night.

"It involved a slide of picks in this year’s draft, together with future selections given up in next year’s draft - which would have compromised not only this year but next year too. The deal we’ve landed and the outcome we’ve achieved is significantly better than the one that was tabled on the second day of trade period.”

Dawson's trade to the Adelaide Crows was in exchange for a 2022 first round selection in the NAB AFL Draft (tied to the Melbourne Football Club).

Gardiner spoke of approaching the trade period to improve your draft hand, but also as an opportunity to improve Sydney's list and complement many of the young, talented players who had shown great development this year, 

"All this talk about who wins and loses the trade period - we don’t look at trade period in isolation. You look at the evolution of your list, and trade period is one part of that," Gardiner said.

"It’s an opportunity to improve your list and improve on your draft hand, but our improvement year on year is going to come from within.

"We think we have a really talented list that we have a lot of confidence in, and we’re really excited to see the emergence of guys like Dylan Stephens, Braeden Campbell, Chad Warner, Errol Gulden and Justin McInerney who have taken great strides last year and are continuing that development, that’s where we’re going to get better."

With the 7.00PM trade deadline looming, Gardiner provided an update on Port Adelaide’s Peter Ladhams.

“We’re in discussions with Port Adelaide, we’ve got well known interest in Peter and he’s got an interest to get to Sydney but he is contracted so we’ve got to come up with a deal that’s acceptable for both Port Adelaide and us. Those talks are underway and we’ll see where we get to before 7 o’clock tonight.

“Tom Hickey has been fantastic for us this year and we don’t see any signs of him slowing down. Peter does bring the added dimension of being able to play forward, but we’ve got some young developing ruck-forwards in Joel Amartey and Hayden McLean so we’ll have some competition for spots there.

"We’re in a different situation to where we were 12 months ago with this one with Peter, we would like to bring him in and he provides a long-term ruck option for us but it has to be on the right terms. If it doesn’t happen so be it, but we’ll be working to try and strike a fair and reasonable deal that brings him in.”

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