HAVING created a stir on night one of the 2022 NAB AFL Draft, Sydney pulled another surprise on night two by pinching a player from Hawthorn's Next Generation Academy.
The Swans placed a bid on Giants academy graduate Harry Rowston at pick No.16 on Monday night, the bid coming much earlier than most pundits had expected, leading to a memorable reaction from GWS recruiting boss Adrian Caruso as the Giants matched the bid and welcomed Rowston to western Sydney.
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It was Hawthorn's turn to cop the brunt of another bold play by Sydney on night two as the Swans selected Gippsland Power defender Cooper Vickery at pick No.27, 13 picks before the Hawks could have matched the bid under NGA rules.
The Hawks were hoping Vickery would still be on the board after pick No.40, but missed out on the Vic Country representative during a draft where they landed two first-round picks having started with only one.
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The Vickery move came after Sydney traded out of the first round with the Hawks on Monday, sliding back from No.18 to No.27 in a deal that netted the Swans a future second and third-round pick, making the Vickery selection even more intriguing.
Sydney national recruiting manager Simon Dalrymple said Vickery was one of a handful of players they had earmarked when they decided to make the trade, after considering him at pick No.18, the pick after Sydney forced Adelaide to match a bid on father-son prospect Max Michalanney.
"He was one of a group of players we thought would be in that group and still be available," Dalrymple said Tuesday night.
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"You don't just have one, you have multiple options. He was one of them.
"We rated him really highly. He was in our mix at the 18 or 20 mark, so that validated the slide back to (pick) 27.
"(He was) obviously not eligible for Hawthorn until post-40. They are in the open market and we are happy to have him."
No.16 pick Rowston wasn't expecting to be selected on Monday night and was preparing for friends and family to gather on Tuesday, but the early bid pleasantly disrupted those plans.
Dalrymple defended the strategy and said the move to bid on Rowston wasn't designed to make the Giants overpay for their academy product.
"I thought it was (reasonable). The option was open; it was their call whether they take part in that transaction. That's their decision and it didn’t go any further," he said.
"You never bid on a player unless you're prepared to accept them. We probably thought that they would match it, but we were disappointed we didn't get him.
"We did a lot of work on him and rated him really highly. He was there on our talent list. We only bid on him because he was on our talent list and we rated him there. The club is pretty irrelevant in the end. It is more the player and where we rate him."