Popular former Port Adelaide player has found a new AFL home on the first day of free agency
He was delisted by Port Adelaide, but small forward Sam Gray has found a new home almost immediately.
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Sam Gray has joined the Sydney Swans on a two-year deal, one day after he was delisted by Port Adelaide.
Despite kicking more than 20 goals a year in recent seasons, and popular because of him being one of the last Port players from the club’s traditional SANFL country recruiting zone on the Eyre Peninsula, Gray was delisted by the Power on Thursday.
This came after the 27-year-old small forward and the club could not agree on a new deal.
The Power would only offer him a one-year contract at less money than he was on in 2019.
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On Friday afternoon Gray, along with fellow South Australian Kaiden Brand, was announced by the Swans as new recruits.
Sydney head of football Charlie Gardiner said they would add to the Swans’ forward and defensive stocks.
“We’re excited about adding Sam and Kaiden to our squad and look forward to them continuing their careers at Sydney,” Gardiner said.
“Sam and Kaiden have both shown an ability to perform at AFL level and we think they will both be great additions to our team.”
They will start pre-season training with the Swans on November 18.
Carlton, St Kilda and the Gold Coast had also shown interest in Gray after it became apparent he was not staying at Alberton.
The Power have been criticised for letting a player of Gray’s consistency go for nothing, Port Adelaide’s 2005 Magarey Medallist Jeremy Clayton tweeted that Gray had been treated with “absolute disdain”.
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On Thursday Power football operations manager Chris Davies said the club had several younger, similar players that it wanted to give opportunities to.
“We have significant depth in the group of players that we think can come through and we’ve got to give some of those guys an opportunity in order for the team to get better,’’ Davies said.
“That’s an important point here, we want to aim higher than what we’ve been and we need to get some players into the team that we think have the talent to take us to those positions.
“If you start to think about (Zak) Butters playing next year and Kane Farrell and Jake Patmore coming back from injury, we’ve got to make sure that they’ve got spots to come into at AFL level, because if they are held at SANFL level for too long, they become SANFL-type players.
“That’s what we need to make sure doesn’t happen. We’ve got to give those spots to some guys who we think have got the talent to not only to perform now, but also have the talent to be really good players for us into the future.
“We know we’ve got to make some decisions in order to get better.’’