Sydney could have extra reason next year to let Brian Taylor into its rooms for his 'Roaming Brian' segment when it hosts Adelaide on the Friday night of Round 2.

The Swans drafted former Magpie and Tiger Taylor's nephew, hard-running Oakleigh Chargers product James Rowbottom, with their second pick, No.25 overall on Friday.

Rowbottom, 18, is a tough midfielder who boasts elite endurance and clean hands in stoppages and can fulfill run-with roles where required. 

He joked in an AFL.com.au interview in October he was dreading his uncle commentating on one of his games and giving him an embarrassing nickname. 

"Each Christmas, we do a WWE wrestling thing at our farm," Rowbottom said. 

"One year I went as a schoolboy, so he started calling me 'Schoolboy Jimmy'. That would be disastrous if that came up." 

Rowbottom followed QBE Sydney Swans Academy graduate Nick Blakey into the Club after Sydney matched cross-city rival Greater Western Sydney's bid for him at No.10.

The process to bring Blakey in was one of the biggest talking points on Thursday night after the Swans traded their second-round pick to West Coast before the Giants' bid came in.

It was the first-ever trade on Draft night and enabled them to bundle up later picks to ensure Blakey arrived at Sydney after list manager Kinnear Beatson rated him as high as pick four.     

The Swans intelligently completed a second trade with the Eagles to re-enter the second-round with a selection that was used on Rowbottom.     

Beatson revealed on Friday his team came up with the trade idea about lunchtime on Thursday and it "evolved pretty quickly" after discussions with the AFL to tick it off.     

"I'll admit when the AFL first introduced (live draft pick trading), I was a bit of a sceptic – I didn't think much would happen," Beatson said.

"You normally set yourself up during the traditional Trade Period, but it's been really active. You see only the trades that come through, but behind the scenes there's a lot of phone calls being made.

"I think it's brought a new element to (the draft), absolutely, and I think from our perspective it would be a tick."

Beatson was pleasantly surprised to be able to wait as late as pick 10 to match a Blakey bid, but added that "other clubs set the market value".

"I'm on record as saying (I expected a Blakey bid) anywhere from four to 10. He slipped through to 10, so we're happy with that," he said.

"We set ourselves up with those initial trades when we got involved with the Carlton and Adelaide trade for (Mitch) McGovern, when we traded out pick 14.

"That was to give us the coverage we needed to just secure Nick at that pick, whether it came at three, four, whatever – we had that covered and it wasn't going to impact too much on our other selections, knowing we were going to have another three."

Sydney also used later picks on Northern Knights dasher Justin McInerney (No. 44) and Dandenong Stingrays wingman Zac Foot (No. 51).

"We came into the draft looking to get a bunch of midfielders and we've been able to do that," Beatson said.

"We really rate Rowbottom, a bigger-size midfielder (who is) very explosive around the stoppages and we needed to address that.

"We've also been able to address a bit of outside run with McInerney and Foot, so you always find out in two or three years whether it's worked, but on what our plan was coming in, we're happy."