Sydney Swans general manager of list strategy Kinnear Beatson admits the Swans had a crack at luring Western Bulldogs forward Aaron Naughton to the harbour city.
Naughton recently signed on at the Whitten Oval on an eight-year extension through to the end of 2032. That deal was signed off the back of intense rival interest from the Swans among other clubs.
Reports following Naughton’s re-signing suggested Sydney tabled a deal worth more than $11 million over 10 years, and Beatson did concede the Swans certainly “had a go” at recruiting the 23-year-old.
While they missed out on Naughton, Beatson said the Swans simply had to have a look at bringing a player of his calibre into the club.
“Oh, well, you've just got to have a go at trying to get really good players into your club,” Beatson said on SEN Sportsday.
“We've got three young forwards in Logan, Joel Amartey and Hayden McLean our talls.
“We’re not quite sure yet what happening with Sammy Reid, that’s still a work in progress.
“Losing Buddy of course too, there’s big shoes to fill. So, if you can get an A-grader in, you've got to look at it.
“We had a crack at it, he’s elected to stay, so we move on.”
One reason why some believe the Swans went so hard for Naughton is because Sydney has typically had a superstar forward in their line-up to bring crowds to the SCG.
While there’s no doubt that’s been a tactic used by the Swans across the last few decades, Beatson says they’re moving away from that template and that the Naughton interest wasn’t purely on the back of having a marquee forward.
“I think in the past, the Swans’ supporters loved seeing big forwards whether they be (Tony) Lockett, (Barry) Hall or more recently ‘Bud’ (Lance Franklin),” Beatson said.
“But I think the maturity of our members and supporters that come to the games have moved on a bit from that now.
“My feeling of it is that they really enjoy seeing our young Academy players come through, you know, (Isaac) Heeney, (Callum) Mills, (Nick) Blakey and now Errol (Gulden) and Braeden Campbell, they get a lot of joy out of that.
“But there's no doubt in our market that they still do like the key forward.”
One Swan that could turn into the club’s marquee player inside 50 is former No. 4 draft pick Logan McDonald.
The 21-year-old has played 44 games for the Swans and has booted 56 goals.
Hailing from WA, McDonald has already linked to a move back home when his contract expires at the end of next season and Beatson was asked whether the Swans fear losing their young spearhead.
“No, we're not (worried),” Beatson replied.
“He's contracted for next year. He seems really close with the player group.
“We've already expressed our interest to his manager that we want to extend him and we'll be working on that at the start of the year.
“All indications are that he's really tight with that young group and they see a future together.
“We're comfortable with that at the moment.”
After missing out on Naughton, Sydney have been one of the busiest teams across the trade period so far bringing in Taylor Adams, Brodie Grundy and James Jordon while letting go of Dylan Stephens.