Past Aliir Aliir - traded 2020, to Port

[Kennedy Parker]

Aliir Aliir

Player Profile
Aliir Aliir is a key defender with elite intercept-marking skills who generates a wealth of drive out of the Sydney Swans’ backline. Although he’s just 25, the 2013 draftee is now one of the Swans’ most experienced backmen after the retirement of champion defenders Jarrad McVeigh, Heath Grundy and Nick Smith. Aliir’s height, excellent verticle leap and cat-like movement around the footy also make him a handy option as a back-up ruckman. Born in Kenya to Sudanese parents, Aliir is an inspiration to kids from diverse backgrounds starting a new chapter in Australia. Draft history: 2013 AFL Draft 3rd round selection (Sydney) No. 44 overall.

Aliir Aliir

21

Aliir Aliir

Age

29

Ht

194cm

Wt

96kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

15.2

4star

K

9.3

4star

HB

5.9

4star

M

5.2

5star

T

1.9

4star

MG

240.9

4star

D

11.0

3star

K

6.0

2star

HB

5.0

3star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.0

3star

D

13.0

4star

K

6.4

3star

HB

6.6

4star

M

3.8

4star

T

2.0

4star

MG

158.4

3star

DOB: 05 September 1994
DEBUT:2014
DRAFT: 2013
RECRUITED FROM: Aspley (Qld)/East Fremantle (WAFL)

Aliir Aliir | AFL

Follow Aliir Aliir's progress through AFL

www.sydneyswans.com.au

 

[bungee]

Yes ive heard that but its a poor reason when we have list cloggers like Clark, Grey and Taylor chewing up the cap.

Its looking very very poor right now.

I understood none of Clark, Grey or Taylor were out of contract last year, so we'd have still had to pay for their contracts. As well as picking up Hickey we also strenghtened our draft hand.

You judge Aliir's value by how well he's filling a role at Port. He doesn't have the same value to us. We always knew he was good but we needed a ruckman. Aliir's role is covered at the Swans. Even if we could keep both Aliir and Hickey, who would we drop from defence ? Port have a different game plan and different strengths. Like in scrabble, the most valuable letter is the one you need to make your word, not the one someone else needs.

The Aliir trade was a calculated move by our recruiting staff. Their job is to find all the right players to build a team, even better if a player can do many roles well. Hickey filled a big need in our team and we also got the points we needed to secure our targeted draft picks. The fact that we were taking Aliir out of defence and throwing him into the ruck answers the question of what we needed more. Port needed an intercepting defender, much more than we did. They had an Aliir shaped hole in their defence. Our defence can function well without Aliir. Tom McCartin is a great intercept defender who is also able to play 1 on 1. Melican can be pretty handy as an intercept defender if he's allowed to roam. Blakey has been a revelation in defence, not only giving us another intercept marking option but incredible run and carry, and a left foot that can hit long targets. Throw in Rampe, Lloyd, Fox and Cunningham and we have plenty of other intercept options and strong run out of defence. Their disposal efficiency is very high too. We could probably use a tall brute gorilla wrestler to deal with giant forwards in a one on one, but that's not Aliir. We seem to get by anyway, working as an efficient unit. We just don't have an Aliir shaped hole that could justify giving a big contract. Aliir's value to Port is simply much greater, good on him.

It's a bit like the Mitchell trade. We already had a glut of several hard edged mids who could fill the role. Mitchell wanted much more cash. We'd have been mad to pay the same money the Hawks did, because they needed his skills more than we did.

Aliir got exactly what he wanted, a 4 year contract that we would have struggled to match. So we let him go, with our blessing, adding goodwill among our players. We strengthened our draft hand and got our prize in Hickey, who has lifted the team far more than Aliir could have lifted us. I expect Cox knew what exactly what Hickey was capable of given the right opportunity.

 

[bungee]

I remember being halfway through my 8th schooner when the news of the trade came through....rang my mate in Melbourne immediately and didn't stop ranting for half an hour!

Suffice to say that time has not healed the wound - what an epic utensil-up by our list management!!

Trading away a 25 year old gun defender for virtually nothing, phark me...

We needed a ruckman, we had little need for an intercept defender who struggles 1 on 1. It's a huge win:win for both teams

 

[bungee]

He asked for the trade. We needed a ruckman more than we needed a loose 3rd tall. The lack of a ruckman was why we played him in the ruck to begin with.

How else would we have gotten the 2nd rounder to give to WCE? Please enlighten me.

Aliir plays 1 role in a side, really well: loose man in defense. Last time Port played Geelong he played on Cameron. Cameron kicked 5 and Geelong won by 21 points. This time he plays on non-finals forward Rohan who had 2 handballs to half time iirc and the game was basically over. Make Aliir actually defend and Port become a much easier side to defeat.

We don't need a player who can't defend a man in the backline. That's not how we play. Aliir also isn't an amazing ball user.

Trading him when he asked for the trade to get a player we actually needed makes perfect sense and is the definition of a win-win.

This isn't Mitchel walking out so we can draft Florent

Mitchell was not needed, why would we pay big bucks for something we didn't need ?

On a highway, a man and his wife drive past another car, which is crawling along the road with a flat tyre. The guy realises he's almost out of fuel. They have no money. He pulls into a garage and offers to sell one of his two spare wheels for $100. "Sure", says the owner. They fill up and go. The car with the flat finally pulls in, flap, flap, flap. That driver needs a spare wheel. He buys the wheel for $150. Soon he's zooming along the highway. As his car pulls up alongside the first guy, the first guy's wife nags "That car is going much faster with our wheel. I can't believe you sold it"

 

[tombomb]

Mistake wasn’t trading Aliir, it was how we treated him from 2017 onwards.
Bouncing around the ground and in/out of the team.
There was no evidence to suggest that would have been any different this year.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

got our prize in Hickey, who has lifted the team far more than Aliir could have lifted us. I expect Cox knew what exactly what Hickey was capable of given the right opportunity.

And this is all that needs to be said.

We couldn’t have both.

We chose Tom Hickey.

We did far better in season 2021 with Tom Hickey than we would have done with AAAA.

 

[Caj]

And this is all that needs to be said.

We couldn’t have both.

We chose Tom Hickey.

We did far better in season 2021 with Tom Hickey than we would have done with AAAA.

How did we get into a position where we didn't have the salary cap/trade currency to afford a 29 year old journeyman ruckman at his 3rd club?

Disgraceful list management, simple as that

 

[Grand Uncle Horace]

Imagine JPK being asked to play BP or running outside winger or as a fast leading full forward? Sure he would try but he not be effective. There are some players who are suited to a specific role.

Allir was another and Horse and co compromised an asset and then dropped him for it when he bombed.

I think all of us could see what AA's strengths and weaknesses were and how much he loved the Club.

I was a trenchant critic of Horse and various tactical decisions he made. I think had Pyke come earlier and McPointy been more established in the coaches' box, Dawson would have been brought in earlier and Allir would have been left permanently in defence.

The great thing about Horse is he seems to have made a hard assessment of his own strengths and weaknesses. His long suit is emotional intelligence. He bonds with people and has a high level of acuity. His shorter suit is game planning and game day tactics. The other guys like McPointy (who always impressed me as a cerebral type) and Pyke who may be even more clinical balance him out.

Absolute kudos to Horse and the Club for building a great coaching team

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

Imagine JPK being asked to play BP or running outside winger or as a fast leading full forward? Sure he would try but he not be effective. There are some players who are suited to a specific role.

Allir was another and Horse and co compromised an asset and then dropped him for it when he bombed.

I think all of us could see what AA's strengths and weaknesses were and how much he loved the Club.

I was a trenchant critic of Horse and various tactical decisions he made. I think had Pyke come earlier and McPointy been more established in the coaches' box, Dawson would have been brought in earlier and Allir would have been left permanently in defence.

The great thing about Horse is he seems to have made a hard assessment of his own strengths and weaknesses. His long suit is emotional intelligence. He bonds with people and has a high level of acuity. His shorter suit is game planning and game day tactics. The other guys like McPointy (who always impressed me as a cerebral type) and Pyke who may be even more clinical balance him out.

Absolute kudos to Horse and the Club for building a great coaching team

I’m just finishing Brandon Jack’s memoir and one thing it’s told me is that most of us outsiders don’t know 99% of what it’s like inside the club.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

How did we get into a position where we didn't have the salary cap/trade currency to afford a 29 year old journeyman ruckman at his 3rd club?

I don’t know; I don’t know the first thing about trading.

 

[Punts]

Absolutely killled them the other night

Recruit off the year by a mile IMO

Still only 26

 

[Caj]

We needed a ruckman, we had little need for an intercept defender who struggles 1 on 1. It's a huge win:win for both teams

You obviously didn't watch Friday night, spent most of the night on Hawkins and gave him a bath

 

[Heeney2Franklin]

Absolutely killled them the other night

Recruit off the year by a mile IMO

Still only 26

Awesome we get to discuss him for the next 5 years while Hickey will be long retired.

 

[TheMase]

Absolutely killled them the other night

Recruit off the year by a mile IMO

Still only 26

27 in less than a week!

Had a cracking first quarter though it helped they kept kicking it to him!

Worth noting that Port finished 1st in 2020 on ladder and second in 2021 on ladder. For mine, that makes him less recruit of the year than Hickey who was very influential in taking us back into contention.

Just my way of looking at it.

 

[TheMase]

You obviously didn't watch Friday night, spent most of the night on Hawkins and gave him a bath

I am not convinced you watched it either! Almost certain Aliir wasn’t on him “most of the night”.

In fact I just flicked through the first quarter to be sure, which was Aliirs dominant quarter, and McKenzie was on Hawkins.

 

[brad cooper]

You obviously didn't watch Friday night, spent most of the night on Hawkins and gave him a bath

You obviously didn't either if you think Aliir spent most of the night on Hawkins, just watching it now and up to half time he hasn't once been matched up one on one with Hawkins.

 

[brad cooper]

I am not convinced you watched it either! Almost certain Aliir wasn’t on him “most of the night”.

In fact I just flicked through the first quarter to be sure, which was Aliirs dominant quarter, and McKenzie was on Hawkins.

beat me to it by a minute

 

[Punts]

Mark ricciuto

Mark Ricciuto

Age

48

Ht

184cm

Wt

92kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

21.1

5star

K

12.8

5star

HB

8.3

5star

M

4.4

4star

T

1.7

4star

G

0.9

4star

No current season stats available

D

16.2

4star

K

9.6

4star

HB

6.6

4star

M

2.8

3star

T

2.0

4star

G

0.2

3star

reckons his first quarter was one of the best he has seen by anyone

Most influential

 

[sataris]

Mark ricciuto reckons his first quarter was one of the best he has seen by anyone

Most influential

Ronke kicked 4 goals against the dawks in the first quarter.

 

[Millky95]

Ronke kicked 4 goals against the dawks in the first quarter.

Best ******* game

 

[caesar88]

Still absolutely filthy that we let this bloke go.

The main arguments against him are that he's no good against forwards who play in front, and that he gets exposed when the delivery is quality.

Ummmm has anyone watched the game lately and seen the state of it? One thing the game is not at risk of is being overpopulated with forwards who play in front and flooded with good delivery.

Maybe in some past era a defender like Aliir would regularly struggle, or his kind of role might not even exist and he'd therefore be delisted after two years. But it is 2021, the long bomb is still by far the most common kick inside 50, strong key forwards are a dying breed, and intercept defenders are as dangerous as anyone on the ground. Melbourne won the minor premiership on the back of a record-breaking season by Lever. Geelong absolutely battled without their intercept defender Tom Stewart while their opposition charged away to a lead on the back of their own intercept defender Aliir.

I do not think Melbourne and Port Adelaide would be lamenting Aliir's defensive deficiencies right now in their coaches meetings as they prepare for preliminary finals!

 

[Jewelsbon]

Please, please, please Big Footy gods, come up with something that enables us to ignore entire threads!
First it was the continuously monotonous droning on about Mitchell, now it's Aliir. Both threads the same, ignoring the logical reasoning behind the trades and just going on and on and on ad nauseam about what we've lost.
As someone posted earlier in this thread, some of us support the club not individual players and this constant harping on about the great ones that we threw away is nauseating and lacking in logic, so please make up some wondrous magical button that I can hit so that those that want to keep their heads in the sand and completely ignore the logic can continue their hero worship unimpeded and those of us that choose to can simply avoid it.

 

[caesar88]

Please, please, please Big Footy gods, come up with something that enables us to ignore entire threads!
First it was the continuously monotonous droning on about Mitchell, now it's Aliir. Both threads the same, ignoring the logical reasoning behind the trades and just going on and on and on ad nauseam about what we've lost.
As someone posted earlier in this thread, some of us support the club not individual players and this constant harping on about the great ones that we threw away is nauseating and lacking in logic, so please make up some wondrous magical button that I can hit so that those that want to keep their heads in the sand and completely ignore the logic can continue their hero worship unimpeded and those of us that choose to can simply avoid it.

It's not hard to not click into a thread if you don't want to Jewels. If true that you follow the club and not individual players (somewhat of an oxymoron to me, since you can't have one without the other, but to each their own), then you can just avoid any thread with the 'Past player' filter. That filter exists for a reason - it's a valid topic of discussion and you can't deny that the discussion is on topic. So it comes off as a little condescending to say that people who are discussing a valid topic in the relevant thread are being "illogical" and "nauseating", just because you may not agree with the arguments being made.

And I come in peace as I respect your views and usually agree with them anyway.

 

[bungee]

You obviously didn't watch Friday night, spent most of the night on Hawkins and gave him a bath

You seem to think I don't rate Aliir but I do, I really do. He's one of the very best intercept defenders in the AFL, who will cut off just about anything if there's an opportunity. Geelong played him all wrong. They needed to pinpoint their entries inside 50, their forwards needed to keep Aliir honest while maintaining enough separation to stop him coming across. He would have cut us to bits with our awful long range kick-in-hope bombs forward in the 2nd quarter of the elim final.

But here's the thing. WE JUST DIDN'T HAVE PORT'S NEED FOR ANOTHER INTERCEPT DEFENDER. Aliir is rightly lauded for his 11 intercepts and 7 marks in the qualifying final. Jonas & Burton both had 8 intercepts. But without Aliir at The Swans, Melican had 10 intercepts and 8 marks in the elim final. Rampe had 9 intercepts and McCartin 7. That's 27 intercepts between Port's top 3 (including Aliir) vs. 26 between Swans top 3 (without Aliir). I'm comfortable losing one extra intercept but gaining a hell of a lot more hitouts (Aliir's best ever was 11 hitouts as no.1 ruck. Hickey had 33 in the elim final)

Port needed an intercept defender, so through a complex trade we effectively swapped our surplus intercept defender for a surplus ruckman from West Coast. It's an example of Comparative Advantage (look it up). Comparative Advantage explains why trading with China (or others) is to our advantage, even if we could make some of the goods we import just as cheaply, but I digress.

Aliir's value to our team as an intercept defender simply wasn't worth a 4 year contract. Longmire didn't underestimate Aliir's abilit. He clearly tried to broaden his versatility in other roles to increase his value to our team, but Aliir really only played one role, exceptionally well. He & Longmire would have been well aware of how things stood, so when Port made the offer Swans gave Aliir their blessing and used the chance to pick up a ruckman. It was a win-win-win for all involved.

 

[bungee]

Absolutely killled them the other night

Recruit off the year by a mile IMO

Still only 26

Port's recruit of the year was Aliir and we got our recruit of the year in Hickey.

Win-Win trade of the year.

 

[bungee]

You obviously didn't watch Friday night, spent most of the night on Hawkins and gave him a bath

He didn't spend most of the night on Hawkins. You should watch the game, or better still, go back to Rd 7 SCG and watch Melican hold Hawkins goalless until he went off with a hammy and Hawkins got his one goal.

No-one's arguing that Aliir's not a great defender but we lost bugger all compared to what we gained. Suggest you and Punts get over it quickly