For a trade to be bad you have to have lost out on the trade and I can't see too many instances of that. It's extremely rare that a trade results in a key player moving clubs and more than 95% of trades occur on the margins.

With that in mind...

2002 Trades
Barnaby French traded by Port Adelaide for draft selection 16 (Stephen Gilham)

That pick would have been taken away in the penalties if we hadn't traded it. French has been extremely serviceable during his time at the club.


2003 Trades
David Clarke jnr traded by Geelong to Carlton for Simon Beaumont
Brett Johnson traded by Hawthorn for selection 51
Daniel Harford traded by Hawthorn for selection 51
Cory McGrath traded by Essendon* for Justin Murphy
Corey McKernan traded for David Teague and Digby Morrell
Heath Scotland traded by Collingwood for draft selection 35 (Brent Hall)
Matthew Allan traded to Essendon* for draft choice 57

Beaumont was a cancer who had to go. Clarke was all the market deemed he was worth.

Scotland's been good for us and would be top 3 in our B&F this year so far. Collingwood supporters are still shitty over this one.

McGrath plays senior football - Justin Murphy doesn't.

Johnson and Harford were effectively picked up for Matthew Allan (and a move 6 spots down the pecking order). We got rid of one of the club's major sources of dissent and picked up two guys who gave everything but unfortunately weren't up to senior footy. Harford's had a significant positive influence around the club.

Corey McKernan was a loss? Give me a break. Doesn't play anymore and was traded for two guys who were never world beaters but brought with them some character we were desperately lacking.



2004 Trades
Draft choice 57 traded for Callum Chambers
Draft choice 67 traded for Troy Longmuir

Poor pick ups for late picks - who were you suggesting we take with picks 57 and 67 that year?



2005 Trades
Draft choice 52 traded for Jason Saddington

A pick that might have been used on a younger player but was used on a guy who'd shown he was talented in his 150 games though blighted by injury. Possibly worth a punt considering how depleted our defence is/was though I'd prefer we'd erred on the side of youth. Who did you want to take at #52 last year.

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

The tedium of this subject continues.

Sometime ago I ran an analysis of our drafting and trading performance, as O'Sullivan was constantly being derided for his performance, but as the statistics clearly demonstrated, he did well with the poor selections he was provided.

As for recent years, GWS has clearly demonstrated our recruiting department has done exceptionally well with limited draft choice resources.

While some of the recycled players didn't live up to expectations, we have a strong group of younger players to base our future upon, and clubs such as Essendon* don't share the same promising horizon.

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"The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, and the young know everything." Oscar Wilde

Given the restraints we were under in 2002 , Kade Simpson and Brad Fisher are excellent choices and will turn into long term players for us. Not bad going for Shane O'Sullivan.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

2005 ND & RD are gunna be absolutely gold for us.

Murphy JK Bower Edwards Jackson Flint will all eventually get their names on a locker I predict. Just what we needed.

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There's so much I could say...

Dont agree....we stuffed up with early choices as well....1997-2000 was a disaster period and we are paying for it now.....the draft of 2000 is well documented as being one of our worst efforts and thats was with early picks...I wont bore people by dragging up the old names etc but lets not forget why we have had such a shite cycle in recent years...we didnt get two wooden spoons for no reason.......Thankfully Wayne Hughes seems to know what he is doing and his recruiting of U18 players has been very good...
re: Essendon*...made similar mistakes to us but dont have our finance problems while they dont have our promising horizon as far as youthful talent goes they dont share our problem of slipping off the horizon if the finances dont get sorted.....nice article about Sheedy tanking in todays Herald Sun....appears Kevin has got the message about rebuilding and how to do it as well.....no need for some of us to feel guilty about tanking anymore...
.

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"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

I never felt guilty about doing WHATEVER IT TAKES inside the rules of the game to win a flag..

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Elwood - Shane O'Sullivan gets derided constantly for this period of time you are highlighting eg 97 to 2000. However I think Shane is unfairly blamed for the shit recruiting during this period.

The blame lies clearly with David Parkin and the Match Committee who basically did not want anything to do with TAC Under 18 type players at this time - David Parkin's philosophy at the time (and still ) is of wanting mature strong bodies - and thats why most of our recruits over these times were mature age players from the VCFL or the SANFL and WAFL.

Parkin eschewed the Under 18 type players and only went for players like Vance, Massie and Chatfield who were Under 18 type players because they had bigger than normal bodies amongst there peers at the time and it was also felt they would grow into KPP types (gee werent we fooled )

Shane O'Sullivans recommendations were either vetoed or ignored - Shane O'Sullivan is not an idiot and his track record at identifying young talent when allowed is pretty good - refer Kade Simpson and Brad Fisher for starters.

No - David Parkin has a huge responsibility for the shit we drafted in the 90s because his philosophy is PLAIN WRONG you might get strong bodies on your list but all the talent has been drafted at the Under 18 level by the time we have any chance at it.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

Agreed. Even Karl Norman was ok. In hindsight he had issues, but in terms of picking someone in the 70's with talent Shane O did ok.

In our bleakest, darkest year (the dreaded 2002 draft) i think we did quite well!

Fisher & Simpson - you can't argue with that! Well recruited IMHO!

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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit"
- Aristotle

Quiet day at the office GWS ?

Regards Cazzesman

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Ricky Gervais - “Everyone has the right to hold whatever beliefs they want. And everyone else has the right to find those beliefs f***ing ridiculous.”

This one kills me ...

Michael Mansfield traded by Geelong for draft selection 31 (Paul Chapman)

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Number 17 - come on down!

You don't like butter on your bread?

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

Interesting that's Paul Roos current philosophy. The Swans won a flag in 2006 with a fair helping of injury and poor competition luck.

With Swans-like luck the Blues could've snagged a flag or 2 in 99-01 and maybe the price you are paying now would be a little easier to take.

It'll be very interesting to see how Roos is rated in 2010. A flag after 72 years is extremely valuable and maybe Roos' "moneyball" philosophy will stand up. On the other hand if he's wrong and he turns the Swans list to shit a la Parkin that flag will be gold.

He doesn't seem to rate the draft does he Old55. Traded away his first rounder the past 2 years (the Jolly trade was justified; not so sure about Ted Richards for pick 19 )

They don't really have any young gun KP players and also lack young talented midfielders. Will be interesting to see if they trade another first rounder at the end of the year

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"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch

And further to GWS points, Morrell & Harford are still leaders at the Bullants, & almost every week on 927 they interview a young player who praises their support & advice.

They have 18 players on their list who have yet to play a senoir game.
They probably could afford to over look the draft for a year or two

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

I'm sure if the Swans get in too much trouble after 2010 the AFL will bail them out with some pre-draft selections from Sydney in the name of promoting football up there.

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"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

How many rookies does this include?

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

They also have an extra 1 million in their salary cap. That's why they can win a flag, lose a premiership ruckman and try and replace him with Peter Everitt. Also helps you overlook a draft, just buy them ready made.

9 but still another nine haven't played and there is a few others with bugger all games aswell

_________________
If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws