AFL Draft 2020: Sydney Swans open to Paddy McCartin second chance

The AFL says it won't stand in the way of Sydney giving Paddy McCartin a second chance on an AFL list. But there’s a catch.

Sydney is free to select former No.1 pick Paddy McCartin as a free agent as he moves a step closer to a contentious return from severe concussion symptoms.

But the AFL would consult with Sydney’s doctors over his medical fitness and the league would need to give the final tick of approval before he was able to play an AFL game.

Swans coach John Longmire said on Monday “all options are open” for the club to select McCartin despite a spate of concussions that ended his time at St Kilda.

The Herald Sun understands the league would not stand in the way of him being drafted or selected as a rookie, but would closely monitor his progress.

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Rival clubs believe the most likely option would be the Swans securing the delisted free agent as a supplementary selection who would train with the club from January 6 next year before a decision to elevate him to their list ahead of Round 1.

It would allow Sydney to assess his progress and ramp up his training even further after the league approved his return to training after detailed concussion tests at the Epworth Hospital early this year.

Geelong and St Kilda had some early interest in McCartin but have moved on, with Sydney the only club to declare its interest.

Paddy McCartin is edging closer to an AFL comeback.

The league has carefully assessed his progress and is supportive of him returning to football at the AFL or lower levels while also being fully aware of his history and the severity of his symptoms.

It means they would work in concert with the Swans over the course of a pre-season and would give the final tick-off if he got through several months of training.

Clubs are aware that for all his wondrous potential, McCartin might be only one more severe concussion away from ending his career.

So they are reluctant to give up a guaranteed list spot on him, with many AFL club figures keen to see him succeed but scared for his long-term health given his history.

A league spokesman told the Herald Sun last month: “Given Paddy’s previous concussion history, the AFL will work with him and any potential club that he may play for, in assessing his fitness to return to play in the AFL or at another level of football.”

He has been training all season and is in career-best shape.

Longmire said on Monday his club remained interested in bringing the former Saint to the harbour city to join his brother Tom at the Swans.

“We’ve looked at him,” he told SEN.

“Going into the draft and the rookie draft in the next couple of weeks, we’ve certainly got all options open.

“There’s been no guarantees made.

“We just need to make sure we keep everything open for us and that’s what we’re doing.

“Obviously, we love what Tommy’s been able to do with us and the McCartin family are fantastic and we’ll see what happens on draft night.

“We have to make sure we keep all our options open and we’ll see what happens.”

McCartin training at St Joseph’s earlier this year. Picture: Glenn Ferguson

Former AFL researcher Alan Pearce told the Herald Sunclubs would have to consider their duty of care to McCartin if they were to recruit him.

“Players like Shaun Smith have already told him he shouldn’t do it. I am sure John Barnes would be the same. Barnesy has only just turned 50 and he has said his quality of life isn’t great,” he said.

“That could be 25 years away for Paddy but it comes around quickly. There is the short-term pain in not playing but the long-term gain in your brain health.”

McCartin said in an emotional radio interview after he left St Kilda he was a “shell of the person” he had once been.

But after a panel of concussion experts gave him permission to return to training in February he has ramped up that program.

He said recently he believed he could make a successful return to AFL football despite the concussion history.

“I feel really fit. I feel motivated and I feel like I am going to be fine,” McCartin said.

“It has not been one of those things where I think I have to do it, I really want to do it … and that is all off the back of the medical clearance that I was given about 10 months ago.”

SAINTS TARGET KEY FORWARD IN DRAFT

— Jon Ralph

St Kilda will leave a list spot open for a summer train-on rookie or mid-season pick early next year as it prioritises another key forward in December 9’s national draft.

Saints recruiting boss Chris Liberatore and his team will take two or three picks into the draft, with the club currently holding selections 21, 64, 67, 74 and 93.

That team has just finished the most extraordinary season of their careers, having put together a draft order from thousands of hours of footage, zoom interviews and a handful of games they watched live.

The Saints are in the envious position of having a talent-laden list in the right age demographic with few list holes, which is why they can favour the search for a key-forward if the right one is still available at their call.

Nicholas Coffield and Hunter Clark after being picked by the Saints at the 2017 AFL Draft. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

As Liberatore said on Sunday, while this year’s version of junior prodigy Hunter Clark would always be selected on the back of strong Under-16 form, Nick Coffield might not have been given he was a late-developing top-10 pick.

The Saint list management team will enter the draft confident they have done enough work to secure quality talent despite all of Victoria’s NAB League kids missing an entire season of football.

But as Liberatore admitted, every list manager has had to think on their feet while recruiting in the age of COVID.

“It’s been bizarre. In the first few months of the year, you prepared as usual and then in the space of a week it changed quickly. We were stood down and everyone had individual circumstances. My wife is a physio and we have two little boys so she worked more and I looked after the kids.

“We weren’t even sure if there was going to be a draft and then we thought they might raise the draft age to 19 which would have wiped out all the kids turning 18 this year. Then we get a sense it was going to be 18-year-olds, then the South Australian and WA boys came back.

“Then we all came back to work and it was basically trying to find a way to get the best results we could in the circumstances.”

Liberatore watched several weeks of NAB League trials early in the year and mid-season was able to watch a handful of draft contenders play scratch matches in country leagues.

He even got to watch some top draft contenders, including Ollie Henry in a Geelong College-St Josephs hitout.

Geelong Falcon’s forward Oliver Henry is one of this year’s top AFL Draft prospects. Picture: Glenn Ferguson

“I remember walking away from the ground with (Dogs recruiter) Dom Milesi and it looked like we were about to go back into heavy lockdown and we said to each other, ‘we might need to put a fair bit of weight onto that game’. The next day we were locked down.”

The Saints had part-time recruiters watching WAFL and SANFL games and full-time recruiter Chris Toche went through quarantine to watch the back-end of the SANFL season.

Liberatore says recruiters can still form an accurate picture of a player’s talent through watching footage and combining it with statistics.

“The accuracy of coding (a player’s highlights) is pretty good, but it’s not perfect,” he said.

“What it does show doesn’t lie. It’s more what it doesn’t show which is what you miss. So they don’t code it if a kid fumbles. It doesn’t show the lazy effort where a kid can’t be bothered chasing.

“So it can still miss things, but you can also back yourself in. If you have seen a kid enough you can show the coaches 25 clips of him winning really clean contested balls.

“If he is clean and tough it’s pretty rare to miss little moments where he might be scared.

“We had a few months where we watched 25 to 30 hours a week of footage and it’s all we were doing. That was our life for a month or two in August and September but all the recruiters are in the same boat.”

SAINTS GO COLD ON PADDY

Patrick McCartin’s return to AFL football will not come at Moorabbin, as Sydney considers whether to take a risk on the No. 1 overall selection.

McCartin would need to receive AFL medical clearance to return to football after a series of concussion that he admits turned his life upside down.

He has been training all season and is in career-best shape, with Swans football boss Charlie Gardiner saying Sydney was still considering whether he might fit their needs.

But despite St Kilda monitoring his situation, and McCartin spending plenty of time at the club early in the year, they are almost certain not to bring him back onto their list.

St Kilda’s decision is not based around his medical issues but rather shrinking list sizes and the number of development players they will carry on their list.

They will have about 32 established players on their list plus draftees and rookies so will need them to be ready to play in Round 1.

The Saints have also added ruck-forward Shaun McKernan to a list that also has key forwards Max King, Tim Membrey, swingman Josh Battle and a raft of mid-sizers that includes new recruit Jack Higgins.

Clubs can add players like McCartin in the next delisted free agent window, as a rookie on December or even if he trained with them as a supplemental selection from January onwards.

But while McCartin showed glimpses of the brilliant junior form that saw him taken at pick one by St Kilda, those concussions saw him leave the club in late 2019 to concentrate on his recovery.

Former AFL researcher Alan Pearce told the Herald Sun clubs would have to consider their duty of care to McCartin if they were to recruit him.

“Players like Shaun Smith have already told him he shouldn’t do it. I am sure John Barnes would be the same. Barnesy has only just turned 50 and he has said his quality of life isn’t great.

“That could be 25 years away for Paddy but it comes around quickly. There is the short-term pain in not playing but the long-term gain in your brain health.”

McCartin, the brother of Sydney swingman Tom McCartin, said in an emotional radio interview after he left St Kilda he was a “shell of the person” he had once been.

But after a panel of concussion experts gave him permission to return to training in February he has ramped up that program.

He said recently he believe he could make a successful return to AFL football despite the concussion history.

“I feel really fit. I feel motivated and I feel like I am going to be fine,“ McCartin said.

“It has not been one of those things where I think I have to do it, I really want to do it … and that is all off the back of the medical clearance that I was given about 10 months ago.”