did the Swans %$^£$%^&%% us?

[kurtman24]

FFS get over it - ND is gone and NO the Swans didn't put one over us. We got pick 21 (their second round pick) and he was definitely not worth their first round pick (pick 5). If Carey is worth a first round selection and Woewodin is worth pick 17 then Davis is appropriately valued at pick 21. Carey is allegedly as good as anyone who has played in the last ten years and Woewodin is a midfielder and a Brownlow medallist. Davis is a HFF and he can't, doesn't and won't play midfield. Apply your economics theory on the laws of supply and demand and work it out for yourself - and don't forget he wanted to go home to mummy.

[Lockyer24]

They gave us an absolute rogering.

[Blanch]

I have to say that some of the discussion on this board is getting to the point where negativity rules. ND left, so did they give us a rogering? one question on that: does it matter? let's explore:

Yes: ok they did give us a rogering. ND is at the swans, we got pick 21 for him and are now developing other players.

No: no they did not give us a rogering. ND is at the swans, we got pick 21 for him and are now developing other players.

Can someone please explain to me (in abc language for this dummy) what difference it makes?

Surely the emergence of Lokan, Shaw in preseason excites us much more than ND leaving or is that just me?

[Nicholas]

I refute the idea that ND cannot play midfield. He only was used as a forward last year because of injury. He did late 2000 and in 2001 when he was fit and showed more skill than anyone. Wind back the tape to some of the games late 2000, he even won the ball from the middle on occasions. Woey was worth #14 in the end not 17. He might have won a Brownlow but his last two years have been ordinary and he is four years older. Remember we are also paying him a lot of money. Why shouldn't the fact that the Swans might have farked us be a topic. It is all part of our wider recruiting strategy and so on just like I am still bemoaning the fact that we ended up with McKee and Roach instead of Pavlich. I think you will find Davis will end up in the midfield and he has the skill to play there when he is fit. People forget he did pretty well injured last year. I just can't believe you overlook he is a loss to our big picture. Shaw would have developed whether he stayed or went. I didn't want subsitutes, I wanted both and then see how much depth we have. Nixon is the player who has effectively replaced Davis. We will have improved our depth if he proves better than Nick, which means he probably will have to at least play during his first year.

[angel]

Well Tessa do you throw tomatoes at Willo who left us for mercenary reasons and he was screwing the club for money over and above his contract? Do we throw tomatoes at Mal Michael who was behaving with impropriety and also screwed us for money and still messages Jarrod about losing Grand Finals etc.? Do we throw tomatoes at Ricky Barham a Collingwood fan for being complicit in screwing us in the Davis deal? Or at Chipper for refusing to re-sign a new contract and threatening to go in the draft and get us nothing in return? Or do we accept that Davis behaved immaturely but gave us some pretty good service even while he couldn't train much due to injury? Wouldn't that be more dignified? I am not saying this is softly, softly, I am just not into the eye for an eye business. Anyway the guy changed his mind because a certain Natalie came back from England and put the hard word on us, he wasn't lying all year.

[MarkT]

There is no doubt the Swans did us over. They wanted Nick, they knew how good he was and they knew they had the bargaining power.

I've said it before but we were weak. We should have called his bluff right from the start and said there was no way we would trade him to the Swans. We should have given him a good contract and said sign it or go into the draft. IMO he would have signed and all you who keep bagging him wopuild be wetting your opabnts as he kicked goals and ran wild in the midfield half way though 2003. Worst case is that he went into the draft and we missed out on the second pick. Big deal!

[kurtman24]

Nicholas you seem to have forgotten the fact that Davis desperately wanted to leave Collingwood and go home to Sydney - see AFL.com today if you don't believe me. If he was going to go anyway surely the club did the right thing getting something for him ie pick 21 or Sydney's second round selection. They were never, and I repeat never going to give up their first round selection - pick 5 - for him. Collingwood bargained hard and in the end got the best it could for a player who would have gone anyway for nothing. Did Sydney bargain hard? Shit yeah! Did they screw Collingwood? Hell no - they could have wound up with nothing and I know for sure Sydney were prepared to take their chances of securing him in the pre-season draft.
My comments on his lack of desire to play midfield stem from my involvement with the U/18 team he played for. Even then he was basically a HFF (very similar to his old man actually) who was used in bursts in the midfield. Whilst his natural talent would find him the ball his real value to the team, as it was at Collingwood, was in the forward line as a finisher.
As for the relevance of this post - I guess there is some point talking about players who have chosen to leave the 'Pies - I'm not sure what exactly but we can talk about Carman, Moore, Williams (Mark & Paul), Michael, Schauble or go way back and discuss why Ron Todd chose to leave the VFL and play in the VFA. I guess I just think that there are plenty of other more exciting things to debate in relation to the 'Pies.
Also remember that ND isn't the only player who wished to return home and moved from one AFL club to another and we've actually done OK out of it - O'Bree, Rocca, Licuria, Williams, Molloy. Perhaps that's why recruiters now try so hard to get an accurate psychological profile of players before they recruit them.