Media Swans Talk in the Media 2025

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[RUNVS]

The quality of analysis is staggering. Add one forward, stir lightly and rise 6+ ladder spots. Nothing about injuries, new coach etc etc.
The facile remark about Curnow's training is mean.

Remember in the mid to late 2000's every time rain was forecast every "analyst" would say that Sydney will win as a result as our contested game works well in the rain, despite us losing almost all wet weather games in that period because we were actually terrible in the wet.

Then when the game was over, and we did lose, the commentators would then say how amazing it was that X team beat the Swans in the wet, because the Swans are so good in the wet.

 

[Wolfgang West]

The atmosphere of a buisiness is always best if the employees of the business are valued. If they need to be let go you do it in a genuinely sensitive manner. It is generally hard for a manager to sack an employee if the manager has anything, even a dash of empathy. I have run businesses and I know the hardest thing for me was to tell someone not to come Monday.

If the management does not handle the issue well, I had a manager once who's idea of letting someone go was to march them out the door. Absolutely vile with no empathy at all. This effects the people in the business. The atmosphere changes and it does have a detrimentral effect on the model you are trying to sell, the good will. It is worse with a business like this where players have developed a very strong bond. They expect to be treated well and I'm sure a player would not come to the managment and say 'You can piss off I'm getting a contract at the Cats'. They would have more respect for their teammates.

I am not saying this was said but 'IF IT WAS SAID OR IMPLIED' then it shows lack of judgement. The club should have addressed whether it was handled in this manner or not and if so appologised. If not then clear the misconception. I don't like to see the club in the news for the wrong reasons. The cocaine thing, any negative media is bad media in this business.

Oh and Mumford really loved us didn't he. Went out of his way to get revenge on our players, who had nothing to do with the situation. Joey Kennedy knows how that feels, bering knocked out by Mumford. How successful was the Buddy era? No Premierships really says it all .He was a great marketing tool. But as to the success of a team, we were successfully making money out of him. But still no premierships. Yes we made finals, but were making finals before he came anyway. 2012, Premiers, finals in 2013. Flogged in the 2014 GF by his ex team. 2015 Bud had mental health issues and couldn't play finals. I wonder how we would have gone had he been able to play? 2016, he got injured during the match. 2017 won a final, 2018 made finals before GWS bundled us out, 2019 15th, 2020 16th, 2021 6th, 2022 2nd (played a GF 1 year early), 2023 8th on a bad decision, Franklin retired in round 20. Do I think the Franklin years were wasted? Yep I do. We wasted them by targetting him far too often, when targetting him less would have reeped more. He was a great player. There has probably never been a player of his natural talent and ability to impact games, except G Ablett Snr. It was a bit like selling the horses to upgrade the coach (not football coach but Cobb & Co).

Cats are a diffewrent story. They have third party deals which the AFL was going to investigate but then all we get is nothing to see here and a big fine for some smaller breaches. They use loopholes in the Salary Cap Rules to manipulate the cap. Simple. That is how they can get players to take less. It has nothing to do with playing finals all the time, although I'm sure the players want this. They get compensated by a third party.

Your form is consistent will give you that.

 

[Callipygian]

Was impressed with Mills in his press conference after the official pre season start.

Didn't miss a beat and gave probably the best sincere response about Florent and Hayward. Tough call but had to be done. But welcome back any time was the clincher for me. That's how a good club should do it. Business decision but acknowledge the emotional side of it as some fans find it hard to lose players. I've been unfair on Mills with influence by long injury stints and maybe other supporter views who are Sydney based. Opened my eyes to his leadership. Good vibes.

I think Mills is a smart and media-savvy guy. I thought it was a disciplined performance by him. But, actually, when I saw the presser, I honestly felt a little worried for him and like he's not doing the best and was putting on a brave front. I have absolutely no basis for saying that except intuition and could well be totally off the mark. I don't feel confident in my observation but that is what came into my mind.

 

[The Blue Max]

The quality of analysis is staggering. Add one forward, stir lightly and rise 6+ ladder spots. Nothing about injuries, new coach etc etc.
The facile remark about Curnow's training is mean.

I can’t view it, SEN has blocked me - probably because I assassinated Mr ‘Multi Chins’ over his and Watson’s ridiculous love affair with American sport - at the expense of decent AFL analysis.

Where’s my Badge of Honour?! 🎖

 

[Cadsky]

Excellent behind the scenes of the draft

Behind the scenes of an AFL draft | Inside Sydney

Ever wondered what really goes down behind the scenes of an AFL draft? Enjoy exclusive access from our rooms in the lead up and on the nights of the 2025 AFL draft as we brought a selection of new recruits to the club.

www.sydneyswans.com.au

 

[bedford]

Excellent behind the scenes of the draft

Behind the scenes of an AFL draft | Inside Sydney

Ever wondered what really goes down behind the scenes of an AFL draft? Enjoy exclusive access from our rooms in the lead up and on the nights of the 2025 AFL draft as we brought a selection of new recruits to the club.

www.sydneyswans.com.au

This is great stuff , thank you
Will we spot LP1 and 86

 

[SwansLifer]

This is great stuff , thank you
Will we spot LP1 and 86

Isn't LP the guy with black hair saying "We've heard nothing about King, like nothing from anyone about him"
Think he muttered "Been telling everyone that will listen he is crap" but the microphone didn't pick it up.

 

[ScottBo]

Interesting they talked about possibly trading up for Thredgold given there are already three developing tall defenders on the list (Edwards, Snell and Andrew) and Serong was traded in. Must've really rated him.

 

[Callipygian]

Wow! This is really cool! Can see our draft rankings (with names blurred). So much to glean!

* Even though they have blurred out the names it is not that hard to figure out a lot of them. E.g. looks like we rated Harry Dean at #6, Cooper Duff-Tytler #10.

* Also we gave each player a numerical grade (possibly out of 100), the highest rated player was 72.7.

* We ranked the prospective draftees in tiers. The first tier was divided into 1(a) and (b). The 1(a) tier had 7 players.

* We describe a draftee's "projected position" with descriptions like attacking mid, transition mid, high defender, key defender, hybrid defender.

Other points of interest:

* Kinnear Beatson may have stepped back but he was still in the room. What an asset! He has so much knowledge and so many relationships.

* We would have matched a bid on Harry Kyle from pick 10 onwards! (I wonder if we would have gone even higher than that if we had more points to match with?) They expected him to be the first to have his name called out. They had a detailed map of how to match with a bid at every selection from pick 10 onwards. We were expecting the bid in the mid-late teens but it probably came slightly earlier than we expected (no doubt on account of the Giants trading forward).

* When they say "we know that Lachie's probably going to go, so we can work around that" [at about 2:00] it sounds like they had anticipated not matching the bid for him in the rough range that it came.

* We would have matched any bid for King on the second night (and possibly even sooner)

* We rated Phillipou really highly and thought he would be taken on the first night. We were willing to trade forward to get him. So to get him without having to trade forward was a windfall!

Overall sounds like we got two players that we rated in the first round despite having traded out our first rounder.

That is the best draft vid they have ever posted. I hope they don't regret it and do it again.

 

[SwansLifer]

Wow! This is really cool! Can see our draft rankings (with names blurred). So much to glean!

* Even though they have blurred out the names it is not that hard to figure out a lot of them. E.g. looks like we rated Harry Dean at #6, Cooper Duff-Tytler #10.

* Also we gave each player a numerical grade (possibly out of 100), the highest rated player was 72.7.

* We ranked the prospective draftees in tiers. The first tier was divided into 1(a) and (b). The 1(a) tier had 7 players.

* We describe a draftee's "projected position" with descriptions like attacking mid, transition mid, high defender, key defender, hybrid defender.

Other points of interest:

* Kinnear Beatson may have stepped back but he was still in the room. What an asset! He has so much knowledge and so many relationships.

* We would have matched a bid on Harry Kyle from pick 10 onwards! (I wonder if we would have gone even higher than that if we had more points to match with?) They expected him to be the first to have his name called out. They had a detailed map of how to match with a bid at every selection from pick 10 onwards. We were expecting the bid in the mid-late teens but it probably came slightly earlier than we expected (no doubt on account of the Giants trading forward).

* When they say "we know that Lachie's probably going to go, so we can work around that" [at about 2:00] it sounds like they had anticipated not matching the bid for him in the rough range that it came.

* We would have matched any bid for King on the second night (and possibly even sooner)

* We rated Phillipou really highly and thought he would be taken on the first night. We were willing to trade forward to get him. So to get him without having to trade forward was a windfall!

Overall sounds like we got two players that we rated in the first round despite having traded out our first rounder.

That is the best draft vid they have ever posted. I hope they don't regret it and do it again.

Agree with all of this. The bolded I was thinking back to the night and it seemed like it took a long time for it to come through so was that the timer running out or was it Sydney trying to work out a way to make it all happen?
In the video it seemed like they had anticipated Lachie getting bid on and them not being willing to match.

 

[Jewelsbon]

Your form is consistent will give you that.

If only we had FFS or FMD emoji (and I am not a swearing person as a rule), life would be so much easier on here....

 

[The Blue Max]

I don't listen to him anymore , he was really good when he came into the media

Regrettably he hasn’t gotten over certain ‘failures’

campaigner of a bloke off camera as well apparently…..which is a shame as I enjoy his sense of humour on Bounce.

 

[Kiama Chris]

Agree with all of this. The bolded I was thinking back to the night and it seemed like it took a long time for it to come through so was that the timer running out or was it Sydney trying to work out a way to make it all happen?
In the video it seemed like they had anticipated Lachie getting bid on and them not being willing to match.

A lot on here thought (I think) that taking Lachie risked getting Max and it sounded like that to me, that they had an idea that Lachie was going early and didn't want to risk it.

 

[joeykanga]

A lot on here thought (I think) that taking Lachie risked getting Max and it sounded like that to me, that they had an idea that Lachie was going early and didn't want to risk it.

I dont know it felt like what they didnt want to risk is the possibility of a bid on Jevan or the other guy that went first on the second night. Obviously they didnt want to risk King and would have been one half of the reason for not matching Lachie but from the comments early in that video it sounded like they'd dug around and there seemed to be no intel on any early interest on King. At the point of the Carmichael bid both the King match but also a prior juicy selection before King swayed them just as much.

 

[Jewelsbon]

A lot on here thought (I think) that taking Lachie risked getting Max and it sounded like that to me, that they had an idea that Lachie was going early and didn't want to risk it.

I saw the kid that I know that is mates with King on the weekend and from what he was told, that's pretty much what happened. Apparently, both King and Kyle were assured by the Swans that they would be taken - no matter what, so my assumption is that they feared if they matched the Carmichael bid, they wouldn't be able to match King if he was bid on soon after.

 

[bedford]

If only we had FFS or FMD emoji (and I am not a swearing person as a rule), life would be so much easier on here....

I got barred from using FFS in capitals , so won't be going there again

 

[RedBloodBlackSwan]

I think Mills is a smart and media-savvy guy. I thought it was a disciplined performance by him. But, actually, when I saw the presser, I honestly felt a little worried for him and like he's not doing the best and was putting on a brave front. I have absolutely no basis for saying that except intuition and could well be totally off the mark. I don't feel confident in my observation but that is what came into my mind.

Do you mean Mills may not be doing the best or someone else?

 

[Callipygian]

Do you mean Mills may not be doing the best or someone else?

I meant Mills but I kinda feel silly for sharing it because it's based on nothing. I only mentioned it because I had such a different take from Banyo Bloods posting about the exact same thing.

 

[tombomb]

The atmosphere of a buisiness is always best if the employees of the business are valued. If they need to be let go you do it in a genuinely sensitive manner. It is generally hard for a manager to sack an employee if the manager has anything, even a dash of empathy. I have run businesses and I know the hardest thing for me was to tell someone not to come Monday.

If the management does not handle the issue well, I had a manager once who's idea of letting someone go was to march them out the door. Absolutely vile with no empathy at all. This effects the people in the business. The atmosphere changes and it does have a detrimentral effect on the model you are trying to sell, the good will. It is worse with a business like this where players have developed a very strong bond. They expect to be treated well and I'm sure a player would not come to the managment and say 'You can piss off I'm getting a contract at the Cats'. They would have more respect for their teammates.

I am not saying this was said but 'IF IT WAS SAID OR IMPLIED' then it shows lack of judgement. The club should have addressed whether it was handled in this manner or not and if so appologised. If not then clear the misconception. I don't like to see the club in the news for the wrong reasons. The cocaine thing, any negative media is bad media in this business.

Oh and Mumford really loved us didn't he. Went out of his way to get revenge on our players, who had nothing to do with the situation. Joey Kennedy knows how that feels, bering knocked out by Mumford. How successful was the Buddy era? No Premierships really says it all .He was a great marketing tool. But as to the success of a team, we were successfully making money out of him. But still no premierships. Yes we made finals, but were making finals before he came anyway. 2012, Premiers, finals in 2013. Flogged in the 2014 GF by his ex team. 2015 Bud had mental health issues and couldn't play finals. I wonder how we would have gone had he been able to play? 2016, he got injured during the match. 2017 won a final, 2018 made finals before GWS bundled us out, 2019 15th, 2020 16th, 2021 6th, 2022 2nd (played a GF 1 year early), 2023 8th on a bad decision, Franklin retired in round 20. Do I think the Franklin years were wasted? Yep I do. We wasted them by targetting him far too often, when targetting him less would have reeped more. He was a great player. There has probably never been a player of his natural talent and ability to impact games, except G Ablett Snr. It was a bit like selling the horses to upgrade the coach (not football coach but Cobb & Co).

Cats are a diffewrent story. They have third party deals which the AFL was going to investigate but then all we get is nothing to see here and a big fine for some smaller breaches. They use loopholes in the Salary Cap Rules to manipulate the cap. Simple. That is how they can get players to take less. It has nothing to do with playing finals all the time, although I'm sure the players want this. They get compensated by a third party.

Does Florent have to apologise for taking a huge contract and then playing like an average VFL player for 12 months?

Or do the apologies only go one way?

 

[Banyo Bloods]

I think Mills is a smart and media-savvy guy. I thought it was a disciplined performance by him. But, actually, when I saw the presser, I honestly felt a little worried for him and like he's not doing the best and was putting on a brave front. I have absolutely no basis for saying that except intuition and could well be totally off the mark. I don't feel confident in my observation but that is what came into my mind.

Sometimes you gotta trust your gut. I don't agree with your take, but doesn't mean mine is gospel either. We shall see, hope he gets a decent run at it body wise.

 

[SwansLifer]

Does Florent have to apologise for taking a huge contract and then playing like an average VFL player for 12 months?

Or do the apologies only go one way?

 

[Bandicoot]

Note that the HS has a list of the best 50 under 23 players currently in the AFL. There was not a single Swans player in the list.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/afls-top-50-players-under-23-years-old-ranked-ahead-of-the-2026-season/news-story/2f1b0989e5e7f22f330f81cb464548c8

 

[Callipygian]

Note that the HS has a list of the best 50 under 23 players currently in the AFL. There was not a single Swans player in the list.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/afls-top-50-players-under-23-years-old-ranked-ahead-of-the-2026-season/news-story/2f1b0989e5e7f22f330f81cb464548c8

Disappointing. But fair. I can't think of any now that Errol and co are outside the age range.

However, it's not only coincidence that we got in all the good young players while we were at the bottom of the ladder and haven't got them since we bounced back to near the top. This year we missed finals and got a better result at the draft. It doesn't feel exactly causal but I don't think it's total coincidence either.

 

[Callipygian]

Now for some actual media:

Inside the draft: The 'Grlj spill', Sharp chase and Dees' perfect Pickett plan

Callum Twomey takes a closer look at the wheeling and dealing behind the scenes at the 2025 Telstra AFL Draft

www.afl.com.au

 

[bedford]

Note that the HS has a list of the best 50 under 23 players currently in the AFL. There was not a single Swans player in the list.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/afls-top-50-players-under-23-years-old-ranked-ahead-of-the-2026-season/news-story/2f1b0989e5e7f22f330f81cb464548c8

Done by Glenn MacFarlane who is easily one of the better ones at Murdoch scum