Sydney Swans General Manager of List Strategy and Recruitment and Kinnear Beatson spoke to SEN this morning as he and his team prepare for a big 48 hours with the AFL Draft and Rookie Draft.

Here’s the key quotes from his interview. 

On what he does today, pre-draft:

We have our players in order but what’s happening this morning is covering the ‘what ifs’. You have to be careful you don’t overthink this process now. You have done all the work, the last thing you can do is second guess yourself.

On the ‘what-if’ scenarios

Our ‘what if’s’ are a bit different this year. We have Academy kids in this draft that we would like to secure if we can. The ‘what ifs’ are more when the bid comes for the player, what does that mean for your points? Can you match the bid? And if you can’t , what sort of damage that will have on your 2021 draft status. We would have worked through those scenarios and know what we will do at various stages.

On Pick 3:

We have settled on a player order. Whichever player is there still at pick 3 we will take that player. We have worked through that with the List Management Committee which comprises. of myself, John Longmire, Tom Harley and Charlie Gardiner. Sometimes it’s a balance of looking at talent and what your list needs.

On bidding for the QBE Sydney Swans Academy players

We anticipate Braeden Campbell in the first 8. Errol not quite as clear. I would image he will fall very late first round-middle second round. We have structured so we can cover the points for them when they are called. But if there’s a real surprise, we will have worked through what the looks like and whether we are prepared to match the bid.

On Draft player strategy

It’s not always clear cut being able to compare a midfielder to a key position player, traditionally key positional players and ruckmen will mature later than midfielders. It’s a difficult process. When it gets to your selection and there’s multiple players you like, it can be really difficult, sometimes you’re splitting them by hairs really.