In the midst of another busy pre-season, Sydney Swans CEO Andrew Ireland took the time to go through some of the club’s biggest talking points with sydneyswans.com.au, including the 2014 fixture, the SCG redevelopment, the club’s incumbent Chairman and the recruitment of Lance Franklin.

Andrew, you’ve now had time to absorb the AFL Fixture. How do you feel about the Sydney Swans’ draw in 2014?

I think it’s a really good fixture. It’s reasonably tough in a football sense but it is a very good commercial fixture for us. We’ve got a lot of big games in Sydney and it allows the club a real opportunity to grow following on from the 2013 fixture.

Our fixture includes eight games at the SCG and three at ANZ Stadium. Is the club happy with that breakdown?

It’s worth mentioning that in the last couple of years the club has played nine games at the SCG and two at ANZ Stadium. The fact is that we’ve got a contract to play three games a year at ANZ Stadium and for the last couple of years we’ve been able to negotiate that back to two games because of our fixture with GWS, which we’ve played at ANZ Stadium. Now, because GWS want to play that game at the Sydney Showgrounds, we weren’t able to stay with the nine games at the SCG.

Is ANZ Stadium an important venue for the club?

ANZ Stadium is still a really important ground for us. We are playing three really big games out there in 2014 with Collingwood, Hawthorn and Richmond, which we hope to draw big crowds to. In terms of the dynamics that exist in the Sydney sporting landscape, the Swans having ANZ Stadium as a second ground has been really critical in terms of the establishment of the club. The deal, as people know, goes until the end of 2016 and in the next little bit we’ll probably get to the stage of sitting down with the SCG and ANZ Stadium to look at post 2016 and what our arrangements look like then.

Are you looking forward to seeing the SCG redevelopment completed in 2014?

It will be really good to get back into the SCG in 2014 with the ground fully operational. It’s always difficult when it’s under redevelopment. We understand that the SCG Trust have tried to work hard with us to assist us whilst the ground has been out of action, but it obviously has been a little bit difficult at times. Hopefully if we’re able to play the type of footy we’ve been able to play over the last couple of years then we’d certainly hope to fill the stadium for some of our bigger games. 

What other changes will be made to the SCG Precinct?

The major change will be the Light Rail and that’s something we’re working closely with the government, the Centennial Park Trust and SCG Trust regarding. Down the track we think there’s going to be some real benefits from the Light Rail in terms of assisting our patrons getting to the ground so it is something we support.

There is, however, a little bit of difficulty in the interim because it does look like it might impact Lakeside Oval, our training ground, but we’re hopeful with the negotiations with the government and the Trusts that we might be able to avoid that. The reality is that the track will be over near Anzac Parade and it could have some impact, but we’re hoping that we can minimise that.

Is the club keen to keep Lakeside Oval as their pre-season training ground?

We do have some other options for training, but we’re not keen to move from Lakeside Oval. The Football Department sees Lakeside as a real advantage for us as it’s a ground that has developed over time and is now in really good condition. It’s also handy to our facilities, so we’re certainly keen to talk to the government and the Trusts, both who have already been very understanding that an elite football team like the Swans need proper training facilities. There certainly seems to be ways that the implementation of the Light Rail can be done without impacting our club dramatically.

The Swans acquired the services of Lance Franklin during the 2013 Trade Period. Just how important was his recruitment?

There isn’t many times where you get the chance to recruit one of the best players in the competition and I think people agree that that’s the case with Lance. I think people should recognise that free agency was something that the AFL Players’ Association chased really hard and the AFL believed it was a right that players were entitled to it. Even though there was some conjecture from the clubs about how many years it should be before you should get that free agency, in the end the rules were established. In this case, Lance was very keen to join the Swans, so that’s how the rule is meant to work in terms of players trying to get to the club of their choice.

For us, we’ve constructed our list over the years in a variety of ways and we’ve always felt that there is no right or wrong way to construct a list. We’re not convinced that just going to the draft, for instance, is the right way to do it and we’ve had success at recruiting players from other clubs to come and fulfil roles for us. The difference in the last couple of years, when we’ve chased Kurt Tippett and now Lance, that it’s probably the first time since Barry Hall came to the club that we actually chased profile players. Most of the other players we have picked up from other clubs were players who were perhaps struggling to play to their capacity and we identified that and were able to get them over to the Swans. Lance comes with a different connotation, but we’re hoping that he can play at the level we’ve seen over the last few years.

The Sydney market seems to like big forwards, and certainly was in love with Tony Lockett and Barry Hall, and we think Lance brings something to the team that we need if we’re going to continue to try and vie for premierships. I have no doubt that he’ll be an exciting player for us.

Buddy has a pretty big public profile and is regularly in the media. Did the club place any guidelines as to what they’d like to see from him during the off-season?

I think one of the things people need to understand in Lance’s case is the time between him playing in the premiership, free agency opening, him actually becoming our player and then him heading to Ireland to play with the Indigenous team was all pretty compact. We’ve obviously had some discussions with Lance, and the reality is that he’s played in the last two grand finals, so if you talk about players in the competition, he’s had a really heavy workload in comparison to most and he deserves some time off. The thing that he knows full well is that the media will look at what he does, and like all AFL players, he’s got to be careful about what that looks like, but our view is that he will settle into this club really well. He’s 26 years old now, he’s not a 19-year-old, and he’s got some really strong views about what he wants to be as a footballer in the time he’s got with the Swans and we’re really confident that that’s his focus.

He will capture coverage on the social pages by the nature of who he is, so at the end of the day, as long as he doesn’t do anything wrong and he comes to the club and trains hard and plays good footy, then we’re happy with that and we’re confident that’s what he wants to do.

How confident are you about the club’s success on field in 2014 and beyond?

The one thing you learn after being involved in a footy club for a long time is that nothing is guaranteed. In saying that, I have no reason to think that we couldn’t play as good a standard of footy as we have played over the last few years. We’ve lost a couple of players who have been regular players in our team through the retirements of Jude Bolton and Marty Mattner, as well as the likes of Shane Mumford who moved on from the club, but we also had a number of players who were injured through the back half of the year who will be welcomed back in 2014, and we’ve also got some young players coming through. You’re always reliant on your players and we’re confident that the players we’ve got here have still got that fire and desire to try to ultimately win a premiership, and whether we’re good enough to do that in the short term, time will tell, but we’ll certainly start the season optimistic.

Finally, what can you tell us about the Swans incumbent Chairman, Andrew Pridham who will replace Richard Colless in the top job next season?

It’s a sad time at the club to have Richard Colless step down as Chairman at the end of the year after 21 years in the role. He’s been a fantastic advocate for the club, a great Chairman and a really good friend. I think we’ve worked well together and I’ve really enjoyed my time with him.

Like all footy clubs, some people like Richard stay a lot longer and make a much bigger mark on clubs, but the inevitability of football clubs is no matter what you’ve contributed, the day comes when you move on and somebody else takes your spot. I know Richard is really confident and the Board are confident that Andrew Pridham will be a really good Chairman to follow on from Richard.

Like any person moving into a new role, it will take Andrew a little while to find his feet, but even when I say that, I know he will be very good in the role right from the start. When you start to do a job, rather than looking and seeing how you think the job is done, you find the right way to do it and I’m confident Andrew will do just that. It’s a bit like the coaches and players; you can’t be what you’re not, so Andrew won’t be Richard and he’ll have other attributes that he will bring to the table as Chairman. As a club, we’re really lucky that we have someone like Andrew who has served on the board for 12 years and is in place to step up and replace someone who in a lot of ways is irreplaceable.