With the COLA scrapped, the time is now for ageing Swans

Lions lost the money and the AFL even changed the draft rules straight after they won their third flag and they didn't buy one player, imagine if the lions went out and brought Loyld ( the best forward at that time). We should had have the big blond guy from the saints too, must change the draft rules we cant have that! Lucky the swans have had it this long? Franklin! Tippett! ( so much for wanting to go home.$$$$$$$$$$$

Very interesesting read, however I can not believe the dockers have the oldest list in the afl. Pavlich, sandilands and mcpharlin are in my knowledge the only players over 30, or am I forgetting some?

Yeah they are all on $5

Virtually mission impossible, eh?

Sydney will no doubt be the team to beat in 2014. They've got the twin towers in Tippett and Franklin (hopefully, they don't backfire like Brown and Fevola did at the Brisbane Lions in 2010), and the second-best defence in the competition behind Fremantle as already mentioned. Alex Johnson, LRT and Adam Goodes are still to come back but when they eventually do, beating Sydney will be virtually mission impossible. Though I like the Swans' chances in 2014, I still feel Hawthorn deserve to be premiership favourites, despite the loss of Buddy during the off-season. But Geelong proved in 2011 that they could move on from Gary Ablett Jr., so there is no reason why Hawthorn can't this year.

@Jack asked the question that, given the player attrition and the loss of the COLA, was obtaining Buddy worth it? I am a diehard Swan but I also pride myself on being an objective writer when it comes to football, so here goes......... COLA was always a dead duck. King Eddie was always going to make sure of that and Colless et al. knew that. They were faced, I believe, with an invidious decision - allow Franklin to go to GWS and give them the publicity boost and high profile marquee player they had lacked, which would be to the ultimate detriment of the Swans, or prevent that scenario at any cost by poaching Franklin and both attracting the wrath of the AFL and accelerating the loss of COLA. I firmly believe the recruitment of Franklin was a business decision, not a footballing one, but that the decision may well have been influenced by the horror run of injuries in 2013. Imagine the Boardroom scenario; aging list, long term serious injuries everywhere you looked and your market share rival about to recruit possibly the highest profiled player in the competition. Will Franklin win Sydney a flag? No, because teams win flags, not players individually. Franklin at his best may indeed assist the team but it is my personal feeling that his heart isn't really in it anymore, and will grow less so as his body ages. Will we lose more 300K players to cover the Franklin contract? This is more difficult to answer. I believe this will be the last season for Adam Goodes as he is forced to accept that his body is unable to meet the standards he demands of it. O'Keefe may go on til 2015 and Shaw and Richards will almost certainly do so, but that should be the last year for all of them. As a Club we must make those two years count - I believe nothing less than two flags will suffice. The retirement of these four will free up a substantial portion of our salary cap and should allow retention of most of our list as well as the recruitment of targeted "project players" such as Deryckx and Laidler into the future. The most crucial task facing the Club is ensuring ongoing player contentment. Some flags and regular finals football should achieve this and keep player losses to a minimum. I think we can expect to see Sydney be very active during the 2014 end of season trade period but much less so in the years following. As a Sydney supporter I am treating the Franklin era similarly to the Edelsten era; a time of glitz and glamour, big name and success that ultimately dragged us into a decade long hole we had to rebuild from. Given time we will return to normality and a place of power but there is pain in our future that we as supporters must be strong enough to endure. None of what is to come, be it success or time of sadness, should be placed at Franklin's feet. He is a commodity, nothing more.

This discussion is running off the rails. Nobody has accused Hawthorn of cheating the salary cap. There's a few people here arguing against points no one has made.

Sour grapes from Colless. Hawthorn have been adept at salary cap management and getting players to take pay cuts and Alistair Clarkson is excellent strategist and the club has an excellent eye for talent development. Sydney shed a lot of talent now and in the future to afford 2 big stars. Hawthorn's "culture" v Sydney's COLA? Hawthorn.

Exactly. - Hale, Gibson and Guerra were mid-tier players at their former clubs. They would have gone cheaply. - Burgoyne and Lake were class players, though well beyond their best (or so people would have thought at the time). - Gunston was promising, but as yet unproven, and ultimately wanted out of Adelaide. Colless has some cheek indeed. Comparing those players to million dollar star forwards like Tippett and Franklin is laughable.

Hawthorn did not cheat at all with their salary cap. I think everyone in the AFL world can agree their recruitment of quality mature players comes down to good list management and recruiting by Clarkson. As a swans fan, i accept that. But people need to realize Sydney aren't any different. We unloaded a whole group of young players and had 2 big players retire so that we could afford Buddy. In fact, Buddy and Tippett are the only two stars we've recruited in years. McGlynn and Kennedy were both struggling to get into the Hawks best 22, so we seized an opportunity. Mumford (who we had to trade to GWS) came from Geelong after only playing a dozen or so games with them. Ted Richards was also not getting much opportunity at the Bombers so we seized him. All of our players that are part of this "star-studded team" everyone is so angry at, have been bred from inside the SCG walls. Kieren jack, Dan Hannebery, Tom Mitchell, Sam Reid, Adam Goodes, Mike Pyke, Dane Rampe, Jarrad McVeigh, Ryan O'keefe, Nick Malceski, Lewis Jetta and Heath Grundy - all started at Sydney. Everyone loves Sydney as their supposed second favourite team but as soon as they emerge from the background and attempt to better their team, the whole AFL world turns on them.

Who are you referring to, SFM? In general, I think the Swans mature recruiting strategy is given more credit than it deserves. In most cases they were able to convince players who had multiple options to come to their club. That's good, but it can't have hurt to have been able to pay 10% more than any other club.

I also read the interview with Colless and his attempt to link the Hawks to salary cap cheating but what I would like to know is which players did the Hawks recruit in consecutive years that would even come close to the coin that was thrown at Tippett and Franklin?

TomC - agree that they were delisted but being told that you are going to spend significant time in the 2's is not what any professional wants to hear. Sydney identified what they wanted and recruited and drafted accordingly. Those players made their reputation at Sydney when they were on the outer at other clubs.

AR I'm not accusing Hawthorn of salary cap cheating, Colless was doing that if I read between the lines. I was only really looking at the fact that they continue to add quality year after year from other Clubs. I believe that Lake was one of the highest paid at the Doggies but took significant unders to go to the Hawks and kudos for doing that. I guess if Sydney didn't "splash the cash" so to speak I wonder how many more finals campaigns it would of taken for the Vic Clubs to get rid of the COLA? Sydney flaunted their extra cap space, picked up two superstars and now there is no more COLA - they must have seen it coming.

In other matters, the 2013 AFL Annual Report was released yesterday. I suspect we'll get a Wookie review, but some key things I picked up... - Total attendance was 6.4M for the year - Average attendance was 32,163 per game - Television viewing audience was 4.7M on average, weekly. - Total club memberships was 756,717 - Total payment to clubs was $209M - Total player earnings was $197.5M - Yearly profit was approx. $17M - Total revenue was $460M (consolidated revenue was $503M)

Swans know that okeefe, goodes, shaw, lrt will retire in a year or two, easing salary cap. Tippett was heavily front loaded and all the others big names were signed last year. Swans had to prove they were able to fit buddy in without the cola allowance before the move was allowed, so no doubt they have already considered it. Interesting that of the old boys in the article, half of them played less than half a season last year. Not sure the swans rely that heavily on goodes, shaw and okeefe as they used to.

Swans know that okeefe, goodes, shaw, lrt will retire in a year or two, easing salary cap. Tippett was heavily front loaded and all the others big names were signed last year. Swans had to prove they were able to fit buddy in without the cola allowance before the move was allowed, so no doubt they have already considered it. Interesting that of the old boys in the article, half of them played less than half a season last year. Not sure the swans rely that heavily on goodes, shaw and okeefe as they used to.

Is that really true about the discards, though? I can't think of too many Swans players over the last few years who were delisted by their former clubs. Most of them, like Richards, Mumford, Kennedy, Tippett, and Rhyce Shaw requested a trade to the Swans, I believe.

Accusing Hawthorn of salary cap cheating...seriously? Gibson, Lake, Burgoyne and Hale - all these players took significant pay cuts to go to Hawthorn. The reason? A chance at a premiership. And with Franklin gone, they have even more cash available at the end of this year. It's no conspiracy theory...Geelong's players did the same thing - sacrafice a little money in order to chase flags. In Sydney's case, they were the reigning premier and yet were the only club in the comp who could afford Kurt Tippett. The next year...a lazy $10M for Franklin.

Hmmm so they lost about 5 players to get buddy now next year they have to drop another 900 k. So 3 300 k a year players..... Was buddy worth it?