This was published 8 years ago
Sydney Swans turn attention to Isaac Heeney after losing Tom Mitchell
Securing the long-term signature of boom midfielder Isaac Heeney is the next major priority for the Sydney Swans after coming through the trade period a couple of players lighter, but with their first top-10 Draft pick since 2009.
Heeney spent most of 2016 playing forward but pushed into the centre late in the season and was one of Sydney's best players throughout the finals, further strengthening a midfield which must now operate without Tom Mitchell after his trade to Hawthorn.
He's contracted until the end of 2017, but the Swans are determined to make that a lot more permanent like they've done with All Australian midfield duo Luke Parker and Dan Hannebery, who are both at the club until at least 2021.
Future star: The Swans are keen to secure Isaac Heeney's long-term future.Credit: Graham Denholm
"Priority number one," Swans head of football Tom Harley said of re-signing Heeney.
"We'll get working on that as soon as possible. That's pretty straight forward, he's not out of contract until the end of next year and we'll continue to work with his manager and Isaac's totally aware of that and comfortable with that.
"If you look at the signings we've committed to in the past 18 months, we've got long-term commitments from Dan Hannebery, Luke Parker and those sorts of players.
"We're more about retaining what we've got at the moment and if we're bringing a talent in it's probably bringing it through the draft.
"If there's a challenge to fit them all in, well it's a welcome challenge. Ultimately, it's where you want to be. We're thankful in a sense that we're in that position so we'll continue to try and get the best talent in and hopefully they all end up having long careers."
In a relatively quiet trade period for the Swans, which also facilitated back-up ruckman Toby Nankervis' move to Richmond, Harley finished deadline day strongly by improving the club's first-round draft position.
He upgraded the No. 14 pick Sydney collected from the Hawks as part of the Mitchell trade in a frantic last-minute deal with Port Adelaide, offloading two first-round selections and a second rounder, to snare picks nine, 19 and 49.
The 19th selection was originally Brisbane's priority pick, granted to the club by the AFL earlier this month after the Lions managed just seven wins over the past two seasons.
Port ended up with pick 19 as part of the three-way deal that moved Pearce Hanley from Brisbane to the Gold Coast before it landed in the Swans' hand.
It means the beaten grand finalists head into next month's draft with two top-20 selections.
"Tommy Mitchell is a quality player that we weren't able to keep so it was important that we made that work for us, it swings and roundabouts and we ended up with pick nine as a result of that," Harley said.
"Now we get to work with our recruiting department to make sure that we bring in the best young talent possible. Certainly, when you're at the pointy end of the draft and the talent's there, you make sure you reach for the talent."
Meanwhile, the fates of out-of-contract pair Xavier Richards and Dean Towers remain up in the air after neither player attracted any significant interest during the trade period.
Richards requested a trade despite a contract offer by the Swans, and his manager Phil Mullen is now in negotiations with the club as to his client's immediate future.
Towers is in Sydney's plans for 2017 and Harley was hopeful he would remain at the club.