The Sydney Swans completed three deals on the third day of the 2018 AFL Trade Period with the addition of a new player, farewelling another and strengthening the club's overall draft position.

In the first deal of the day the Club improved its draft position to assist in the pursuit of Sydney Swans Academy player Nick Blakey by trading pick 13 for Carlton’s picks 26 and 28 and Adelaide’s selection 40 as part of a three way trade that sent Mitch McGovern to Carlton.

Forward Gary Rohan found his way home to Victoria when he was traded to Geelong in exchange for pick 61 in the upcoming draft.

That selection was then on-traded to North Melbourne in exchange for emerging midfielder Ryan Clarke.

Head of Football Tom Harley provided an update on all the happenings around the 2018 AFL Trade Period when he joined Trade Radio on afl.com.au. 

Tom Langdon
“We conducted a medical yesterday and he headed off overseas shortly after that with his brother Ed who obviously plays at Fremantle to spend a bit of time in Africa. We have an interest there but there are no further developments. He is certainly a player of interest. We think he can add to our back half which enables a bit more flexibility with some of our half-backs to get some more time through the middle of the ground which is a targeted area for required depth. We are looking forward to seeing how that progresses but nothing rock solid at the minute. All clubs have the list of contracted and out of contract players and we monitored him as a result of him being an uncontracted player. It progressed a bit more in the last two or three weeks. It is important to do all your due diligence with medicals, interviews and the like and we have done that in the last couple of days.” 

Dan Hannebery
“We would like to think it is pretty close to being done. I know Kinnear Beatson and James Gallagher, the respective list managers met again this afternoon. The Saints have had a bit on the go with the Hickey deal to West Coast and we had a bit to do with Gary Rohan, Ryan Clarke and some pick swaps as well. We absolutely turn our attention to that now and would expect something to get done for sure.” 

Ryan Clarke
“We liked him as a kid three years ago when he went to North at pick 31 and we have tracked him since. He has played 40 games and has started to rack up some pretty good numbers towards the end of the year and averages about 21 disposals over the season. He has a big tank, learnt a bit of craft down back as well and the game obviously requires you to play multiple positions. We see him playing and playing in our side straight away.” 

Gary Rohan
“We have spoken a lot about Gary over the last couple of weeks. I think it has been a really well-handled transaction between Geelong, Sydney and Gary. That enabled us to do the Ryan Clarke deal so we see it as effectively a swap being Gary for Ryan. Gary has an opportunity to finish his career in Geelong and more importantly have the family support.” 

Nic Newman
“Nic doesn’t have a contract with us at this stage, he is an out-of-contract player, that doesn’t mean he won’t come back to the footy club. Both parties agreed to explore options, North Melbourne looked like a live one there for a period of time and it was looking like the straight swap. From what we understand it is not going to work with North Melbourne. We will look at what numbers we have got, who we bring in, what needs we still need to satisfy and keep an open mind in regards to Nic.”

Trade deal to strengthen draft position
“This time of year I refer to it as two different economies and there is an economy for picks and there is an economy for points. When you have a father/son or academy prospect on your horizon you have to work in both. We would like to think that we are a good chance of nabbing Nick (Blakey) and that deal landed us an extra 600+ points which is the equivalent of about pick 32. We now as it stands have four second round picks and the first pick in the third round. So we have a strong hand in a strong draft and we will work out what we do with those whether we pass those on for trades or take them to the draft. We are happy that we have been able to strengthen our draft position and landing Nick at the right price.” 

Dan Menzel
“We haven’t had any discussions about Dan and we won’t be a player for him.”