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Tom Scully (L) and Kevin Sheedy (R) pose for the media after a Greater West Sydney press conference at Blacktown in Sydney. Slattery Images
Having completed its first year of senior footy, making the finals of the inaugural North-Eastern Australian Football League with mostly a group of 17 and 18 year old kids, GWS enters the next phase of building a team that will be competitive when it debuts in the AFL in 2012.
Last week, head coach Kevin Sheedy and his recruitment team, which includes former Carlton champ Stephen Silvagni, spent three days surveying 120 of the very best prospects in the annual AFL Draft Combine.
GWS has picks one, two, and three (as the Suns did last year) in November’s national draft, along with a further six selections from numbers five to 15. How those selections pan out will be one of the determinants in not only how GWS goes next season, but where it will be in five years’ time when these players will be approaching their peak, some with 100 games under their belt.
There are two players who appear destined to be selected in the top three. The likely top pick will be Jonathon Patton, a likely key forward already standing at 197cm and at 95kg, and very much in the mould of namesake Jonathan Brown.
The other is Stephen Coniglio, a midfielder from Western Australia, an U18 All-Australian who recently chose footy ahead of cricket.
GWS is currently involved in the 2012 trade week and has already been involved in two trades, coming from its priority access to players that have previously been AFL-listed. It also has the right to on-trade four 17 year old footballers in exchange for draft picks and players.
The various draft rules create certain intricacies which make it very unpredictable as to what clubs will agree to, far too many for a short article such as this to cover.
One such rule allowed Richmond to forego the father-son process, which would have meant the Tigers giving up a second round selection to get Steve Morris, son of premiership player Kevin Morris. This is because Port Adelaide was prepared to bid a second round selection, and under current father-son rules, this would have forced Richmond to match that.
Instead, the Tigers were able to trade directly with GWS because Morris had previously nominated for the draft (he has just finished a very good season in the SANFL). It was an odd trade, the Tigers gave up pick number 14 in return for pick number 15 and Morris – such are the quirks of trade week.
Collingwood was able to get returning Irishman Marty Clarke, for the price of its round one pick, meaning GWS now has picks 14 and 25 to add to its existing stock of high selections: one, two, three, five, seven, nine, 11 and 13, having lost only number 15 in the process.
Trade continues for the remainder of this week.
In the meantime, Sheeds has knocked on the head speculation that GWS were in the hunt for Barry Hall, Cameron Mooney and Jason Akermanis, revealing that GWS are already in the process of signing four veterans, namely James MacDonald, Luke Power, Chad Cornes and Dean Brogan.
In the case of the latter three, having initially retired from the game, their former clubs are now seeking compensation because their retirements were so short-lived.
This is all entree to the main course, the national draft to be held on November 24, where GWS will have the pick of the crop.
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