SYDNEY believes a bid for Academy prospect Nick Blakey anywhere between pick No.5 to 12 on NAB AFL Draft night, but says it is well placed to make the talented teenager a Swan.
Blakey had the choice of joining North Melbourne and Brisbane as a father-son where dad John was a champion of both clubs, but earlier this year opted to nominate as an Academy player for the Swans, where John has been a long-time assistant coach.
Injury has interrupted his season again in 2018, but he is still viewed as one of the leading talents in the crop and the Swans are preparing for a rival club to place a bid on him early in the draft.
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"We'll certainly look favourably to taking Nick," Swans list manager Kinnear Beatson told AFL.com.au.
"At the moment our first-round pick is No.12 – whether that slides back to 13 now that [Tom] Lynch has declared he wants to go to Richmond, you imagine that [will happen] – so I think the bid will come somewhere from No.4 or 5 through to our pick.
"But that's not up to us."
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The Swans said they had been planning to build points to match a bid for Blakey under the father-son and Academy bidding system since last year.
"It had a bit to do with last year's Trade Period to be honest, and why we were prepared to take Collingwood's future second-round pick in the Sam Murray deal," Beatson said.
"That a bit to do with it if Nick elected to come to us that we had the points to be able to match a bid and not to go too far back into the draft."
Blakey started the season in strong form for the Swans' Academy before developing some stress reaction in his ankle which interrupted his second half of the year. He is attending this week's NAB AFL Draft Combine.
It shapes as a busy few weeks for the Swans who are set for a list overhaul, with Dan Hannebery, Gary Rohan and Nic Newman all set to leave the club.
Beatson said he wasn't yet sure what the club would get in return for Hannebery, who wants to join St Kilda, but said the club was keen to lure young running Kangaroos midfielder Ryan Clarke to fill the midfield void.
AFL.com.au revealed last week Clarke had toured the Swans' facilities.
"With 'Hanners' leaving, we need to further our depth in our gut-running mids and Ryan is a really strong-running mid. We've certainly got some interest there and we'd like to talk to (North Melbourne list manager) Michael McMahon during this week at the Combine," Beatson said.
The Swans are also interested in Melbourne's Aaron vandenBerg, who was originally from Canberra and is considering a move to the Swans for family reasons.
He lost his father this year and his brother lives in Sydney with the navy and his mother is moving back to Wollongong.
"That's come up reasonably late through his manager. Aaron is pretty torn, he loves the Melbourne Football Club but there is a reason for him to get back up to Sydney to be closer to his family," Beatson said.
"That will be Aaron's call, but if he was available and would like to come to Sydney, then we'd certainly entertain it."
