Key members of the Sydney Swans Football Department took part in our zoom Member's Forum last night hosted by CEO Tom Harley.
Senior Coach John Longmire, Executive General Manager- Football Charlie Gardiner and Head of Recruiting and List Strategy Kinnear Beatson addressed an array of questions regarding the 2020 season, the AFL Draft and looking ahead to season 2021.
Here’s a short snapshot of what you missed if you haven’t signed up as a member yet.
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Kinnear Beatson on the 2020 AFL Draft:
The one upside of finishing lower on the ladder this year was having an earlier pick and the group of players we were looking at were all key position players and all had played full seasons at the their state leagues (SAFL ,WAFL) including Logan McDonald who we took at pick four.
We were also able to take two QBE Sydney Swans Academy boys that we were always keen on. Because of their involvement in the Academy since they were 10, we knew these young men backwards and how well they can play so it was a matter of getting the points in to be able to match bids and we knew we were well placed with three good players coming in.
Not every club had that benefit of having players that they knew so well coming through their own academies.
Kinnear Beatson on choosing Logan McDonald over defender Denver Grainger Barras:
There wasn’t that much in it but when we looked at our list matrix and our needs with Tommy McCartin showing such good form last year going back we felt that there was more of a need in terms of securing a key forward. Logan had an outstanding season with Perth predominantly playing centre half forward at senior level, he has a big tank and finished second in the WAFL goal-kicking award. There wasn’t a lot in it, but in the end you have to make a call and we went with the key forward.
Kinnear Beatson on Paddy McCartin:
At this stage we have elected not to go with him. We have one spot available on our list and we have kept that spot vacant for a range of reasons. It was always going to be hard for Paddy once Logan came in, there is only so many key positional players that you can have.
He has been cleared by two of the leading neurosurgeons in Australia to play so that’s not an issue, it’s just where he would fit into the squad if he was to come. He’s still very keen to move up to Sydney and play in our East Coast League team and I know Chris Smith (QBE Sydney Swans Academy General Manager) is in constant contact with him and his manager about that, so that situation continues to evolve and we will monitor it as we go forward.
John Longmire on staff changes due to COVID-19:
There's been significant shift in what happens at your football club, its happened across the entire competition. We went from nine full-time coaches this time last year to now five full-time coaches. The reality is you can no longer be a specialist in any one area, you have to be very broad in everything you do. We are doing a bit of sharing of roles and responsibilities which you just have to do.
John Longmire on the young Swans group from interstate:
It can be a challenge having so many players from interstate but the positive is they all have each other and they are a really close unit. They stick together and they spend a lot of time with each other so when players come to our club, particularly from other states they know what they are going through and know what matters to them and are really welcoming. The new draftees have fitted in really well.
John Longmire on Lance Franklin:
He is doing a lot of work on his strength through his core and pelvis area and he is coming on well so far. We are making sure that it is a significant piece of work he needs to do there and he has done a little bit of running outside but we are making sure first and foremost that he gets really strong through the core and can maintain that training load which we know he needs to do to be able to get his resilience up in a soft tissue sense.
Charlie Gardiner on the new East Coast / second tier competition:
We are doing a lot of work on our squad. The new competition is going to be interesting – we don’t have a fixture or what the season will look like other than we know it’s a 16 round season and we understand it will start late April.
We are busy working away on a list build. We think we will need to have about 14/15 players on that list and that group will be a core group of players that coupled with our primary listed players will play in the competition.
The challenge will be incorporating this group into our senior program and we will try do that as best we can, keeping in mind these players will have commitments outside of football (study or work) so we need to make sure we are accommodating and flexible so they can fit in their outside commitments around training.
It will be a really important part of our program going forward. We see the competition as having a development focus. It’s about winning and we will be trying to win every game but there will be an element of preparing our primary listed players to hopefully play senior football.
