The Sydney Swans have covered all bases at the AFL Draft in Sydney, adding a midfielder, a forward, a defender and a ruckman to their stocks ahead of 2017.
Oliver Florent (pick 11), Will Hayward (pick 21), Jack Maibaum (pick 45), and Darcy Cameron (pick 48) will all don the red and white next year.
Swans Manager of Recruiting and List Strategy Kinnear Beatson said the Club is excited to welcome four new recruits.
“We’re happy with the mix of players we selected. We’ve got a couple of players who can play through the midfield and forward (Florent and Hayward) and we were keen to get another key position player into our club, which we were able to do (in Maibaum),” Beatson said.
“We were also keen to find a suitable replacement for Toby (Nankervis), and Darcy (Cameron) is a more mature guy from Claremont who is just coming into his prime as a footballer.
“We will now look at what we need to address on our list at the rookie draft, where we use four more picks and a category b rookie selection.”
Creative midfielder Oliver Florent was Sydney’s first selection, with the Sandringham Dragons product joining the Swans through pick 11.
The vibrant hybrid midfielder/forward has a great ability to make things happen on the field, an evasive side step and is crafty inside 50.
In the recent under-18 AFL All Stars game, Florent had 29 disposals and seven clearances. He backed up that performance with an impressive AFL Combine that saw him record the equal highest beep test (15.1).
With their second selection, pick 21 overall, the Swans swooped on medium-sized forward Will Hayward.
The South Australian, whose primary school teacher was Sydney assistant coach Josh Francou, enjoyed a stellar season this year, booting 33 goals in nine games in the SANFL under-18 competition.
Hayward is quick off the mark, reads the play well and provides plenty of forward pressure inside 50.
Key defender Jack Maibaum became the third player to join the Swans, with the under-18 All Australian full-back selected with pick 45.
Maibaum had an impressive under-18 carnival, shutting down some of the better tall forwards in the competition.
Agile and quick off the mark, the Eastern Ranges product is calm and collected when in possession of the ball.
With their final selection, the Swans secured 203cm, 101kg ruckman Darcy Cameron.
The 21-year-old, who was overlooked in his draft year in 2013, had a breakout season playing for Claremont in the WAFL.
Cameron booted 36 goals, while averaging 11 disposals and nearly six marks per game and he backed that form up by recording a personal-best 13.1 beep test at the WA state combine.
