DANIEL Bradshaw has finally become a Sydney Swans player, almost two months after walking out on the Brisbane Lions.
The Swans took Bradshaw at selection No.4 in Tuesday’s NAB AFL Pre-Season Draft after he was overlooked by Melbourne, Richmond and Fremantle.
Bradshaw, 31, quit the Lions in mid-October following a tumultuous trade week in which he was offered to Carlton with Michael Rischitelli in a proposed exchange for Brendan Fevola.
While that deal fell through after Rischitelli turned down the move, Bradshaw refused to accept a new deal at the club where he played in two premierships.
He opted to seek a long-term contract elsewhere and held talks with both the Swans and Carlton before accepting a three-year deal to see out his career in Sydney.
Bradshaw began training with the Swans in early November and he said it had been a stressful wait to confirm his playing future.
“I was a bit nervous this morning because you never really know until your name gets called out,” he said.
“I felt like I was 17 again, waiting for the draft. It would have been a surprise if another team had picked me up but I’m just over the moon to be able to play footy with the Swans.”
Bradshaw, who has a wife and four children, said he could finally make firm plans to settle his family in Sydney.
Having endured a torturous wait to reach his destination, he indicated his willingness to see some form of free agency brought in to assist experienced players to move clubs.
“I guess it would help, being able to go wherever you want, but the way the system is at the moment, you go in the draft and whichever team picks you up, you’ve just got to go there,” he said.
“Some day down the track, it would be nice to be able to get where you want to go.”
With a record of 496 goals from 219 games, Bradshaw looms as an ideal choice to bolster the Swans’ new look forward line in 2010.
Swans coach Paul Roos said he would help to fill the considerable void left by departed 2005 premiership stars Michael O’Loughlin and Barry Hall.
O’Loughlin retired after a stellar career spanning 15 years and 303 games, while Hall will play at the Western Bulldogs in 2010 after another violent on-field incident forced him to leave the Swans.
“We probably didn’t expect, going into last year, to lose both Mick and Hally so getting Braddy continues with that plan we originally had going into 2009,” Roos said.
“It gives us a chance to continue, more than anything else, that development path with Jesse White in that key forward role.
“With [Adam] Goodes, Jesse White and Braddy, it’s a pretty good forward line going into 2010."
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