Sydney Swans Head of List Strategy Chris Keane joins Continental Tyres AFL Trade Radio on Deadline Day (Wednesday, October 14) to speak on Nick Blakey and getting into the upcoming draft’s top end

See what he had to say below.

Nick Blakey has been one of the big names to move this trade period. When did he first tell you that he wanted to depart the Swans?

We got relatively good word of that probably late last week, that it was probably a bit more real than we first realised. Clearly it's been a challenging period for the footy club and for Nick as well, but at the end of the day we're really happy to bring in the trade haul that we did and clearly pick six is a big part of that and we're really excited about what that represents.

A complex situation, of course, but take us inside the negotiations with North Melbourne. It moved pretty quick in the end.

I think we had really good discussions, myself and Brady (Brady Rawlings – North Melbourne list manager), throughout that period and obviously Robbie (Robbie D’Orazio), his manager, gets involved as well. But look, I think like any negotiations, you start at a point and we ended up at a point that both parties were happy with and we did the deal.

Chris, obviously the main parts of that deal were pick six, a 2028 first round pick and also a future second round selection. Do you move those around at all to try and get even further up the board? Are you happy at pick six now with what your play you're going to get at that selection?

I think we've obviously done a fair bit of work internally around what that selection would represent and at the moment we're really comfortable just sitting there. But we're open to all options and we understand the calibre of play we're going to get there at pick six.

I'm intrigued by how much work you do on that part of the draft through the year, given you probably didn't think, having already traded out your pick in this year's pool for Charlie Curnow last year, probably didn't think you were going to have a selection in that vicinity. As a list management and a recruiting team, how much work do you actually do on those early parts, just in case you have a situation like this late in the year where something unexpected does turn up?

Yeah, it's a good point. I think every year, I think most clubs would do all the work on everyone in the draft, including those at the pointy end.

You never want to probably be in this situation, but you have to expect the unexpected at times throughout this period.

And yeah, as I said, we've done a fair bit of work on this group and we're really excited about the calibre of play that's going to be there.