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Luke Parker and Zak Jones are clear signs of life after COLA

Roar Guru
21st May, 2015
2

The re-signing of future key defender Zak Jones earlier this week will have the Sydney Swans encouraged, as the club prepares to enter life after the Cost of Living Alllowance (COLA).

Jones has agreed to a new two year deal, which will begin to shatter the myth, the Swans will go to ruins once the contentious COLA is completely phased out in 2017. The COLA will be replaced by a rental subsidiary scheme to help both Sydney clubs combat Australia’s largest cities high housing and renting costs.

The Swans will also be buoyed by the continual emergence of Luke Parker, taken at pick No.40 in the 2010 National Draft, who the club will see as a future leader at Sydney.

Parker’s superhuman performance against Geelong has had the footy world in a buzz, from talking about his 5 goal and 31 possession game against the Cats, to how the Dandenong Stingrays product was not a first round draft pick.

The simple answer to the question is, well, another question: how did Adam Goodes end up being pick No.47 in 1997? Such is life with the draft.

Both Jones and Parker tell the real story of the Sydney Swans recruitment and list management process.

While the COLA has been seen by the club as a necessary program, the Swans would have seen the day coming when it was going.

Such is the diligence and the discipline instilled at the Sydney Swans, since Richard Colless took the reins in 1993, it only believes in going forwards – regardless of the circumstances.

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The club will be well and truly prepared for life without the COLA.

Plus this is not the Sydney Swans of 1993, when no player wanted to be within cooee of the club – the then laughing stock of Australian sport. It is 2015. It is one of the most respected sporting brands in the world, let alone Australian sport.

Zak Jones, who has not played a senior game of footy this season, has chosen to bide his time as an ageing Swans defence line will soon give the youngster the opportunity he craves.

Jones will know the Sydney Swans team of 2015 is one of the hardest teams to crack a spot in the seniors. At the same time, it is a team that demands excellence, and he would know he has to be playing out of his skin to get that spot.

His encouraging performances in his four games for the Swans in 2014, showed enough promise that he will be a permanent member of the side very soon.

Jones’ attitude reflects a by-product of the clubs “Bloods Culture”, which some liken to a bit of a myth. However, there must be something to it if a talented youngster like Jones is happy to stay around.

Luke Parker is also a by-product of the Swans much lauded recruiting and list management program.

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As pointed out earlier, Parker is not a first round draft pick, like much of the side itself. Only Gary Rohan (No.6, 2009) and Jarrad McVeigh (No.5, 2002) are high first round draft picks. If other clubs overlooked Parker in 2010, that is simply their bad luck.

The Swans, as far back as Paul Roos first draft and trade season as senior coach in 2002, have never placed a high priority on high draft picks. Even as coach as the Melbourne Demons, Roos still holds the position that there is too much mythology surrounding top and high first round draft picks.

Much of that was forgotten as the hysteria over of the Swans signing Kurt Tippett and Lance Franklin, washed over every bit of fact and truth, on the back of winning the 2012 premiership.

History will show the Swans have not recruited big names for the sake of recruiting big names, ironically, since Tony Lockett.

Former Swans president Richard Colless had acknowledged back in 2002, the club was in danger of sliding back in to the bad old days of the early 1990’s, and a rapid change had to happen.

So swift was the rapid change, it cost Rodney Eade his job as senior coach.

Prior to 2012, the Swans, as early as 2002, decided that bottoming out for high draft picks was not a solution to improving the side, neither was the need to rely on marquee players.

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Both solutions were not a true strategy to keep the Swans moving in rugby league centric Sydney.

As great as Barry Hall was, Hall did not have the same name big name status or impact Plugger did. Prior to Lance Franklin, Adam Goodes has arguably been, by far, the biggest name at the Sydney Swans since Tony Lockett.

Some may point to Daniel Bradshaw and Peter Everitt, but both players were way passed their best when they arrived at the club. Darren Jolly was not a big name when he came to the club via Melbourne, and most of the club’s biggest names have been in-house ones – Michael O’Loughlin, Jude Bolton, Leo Barry, Brett Kirk and Ryan O’Keefe, to name a few.

Fast forwarding to 2012, the year the Swans won a premiership with a bunch of no names and ‘has beens’, it seemed Sydney no longer needed to go after ‘big name’ recruits.

It was creating its own big names – Lewis Jetta, Daniel Hannebery and Nick Smith. It was also turning ‘also rans’ from other clubs into big names, such as Josh Kennedy.

Kurt Tippett, however, was not recruited to the Swans for his name; he was recruited because Sydney in 2012 – remarkably – did not have a recognised forward line. Adam Goodes, Lewis Roberts-Thomson and Sam Reid was the forward line (compare that to the Hawks forward line of Franklin, Roughead, Gunston and Breust), with Jetta ending up as the clubs leading goal kicker.

The Swans needed a power forward to complement its emerging and powerful midfield, and Tippett was the man they saw as the solution. He was approached by the Swans in August of 2012 – the Hawks were the raging favourites. The Swans were barely seen as a legitimate premiership threat – ah, such is the pain of irony!

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As for Lance Franklin, he decided after he watched the Swans gun down his Hawks in that famous 2012 decider, he wanted in then. But that’s another story.

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