Sydney wanted the Giants’ future first-round pick tied to Richmond as part of the Tim Tarranto trade.

The Giants turned it down. The Swans did bid for Rowston and GWS matched the bid. The Swans then less surprisingly bid on Adelaide father-son prospect Max Michalanney and the bid was matched.

Swans recruiter Simon Dalrymple defended the provocative move on Rowston, saying it was reasonable as they rated him about pick 12.

“He was on our talent list, we named him because he was on our list and we were disappointed we didn’t get him in the end,” Dalrymple said.

“So which other club was involved was irrelevant – it was more the player and where we rated him. We told them we are going to do it, so a trade was available.

“I thought it was reasonable, it was options open, it was their call whether they take part in that potential transaction, so that’s their decision and it didn’t go any further.”

After GWS and Adelaide matched the bids, the Swans traded with Hawthorn and moved back in the draft and still got a player they wanted: Hawthorn-tied Vickery.

“Once again we rated him (Vickery) really highly. He was in our mix at the 18-20 mark, so it validated the slide back to 27. He was in that group of players we thought would be still available,” Dalrymple said.

“I have been consistent throughout with our list management that from basically picks 11-30 they were very even and not much between them, so we thought ‘don’t use an earlier pick on an asset that you could get potentially cheaper and get some capital for next year.’”

The Swans then chose Caleb Mitchell at pick 40 – another player they rated much earlier in the draft, validating their decisions to trade back in an even draft.

“We are thrilled to get three boys we rated in the top 20 with our picks,” Dalrymple said.

“We were ambitious and well-planned and Chris Kean who runs that side of it for us did a great job. Very well organised, of the 20 potential deals one came off and we are happy with that.”

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