During the interview, Schwab opened up about some of the machinations surrounding a hugely successful trade period for the Brisbane Lions, which saw the Club land midfield stars Dayne Beams and Allen Christensen.
Schwab will go into even more detail about the inner-workings of the Trade Period in a series of exclusive interviews with Lions TV from next week.
In the meantime, please see below a snapshot of what Schwab said during his chat with the Fancast boys.
FANCAST: Can you give us some insight into how the Dayne Beams trade evolved?
SCHWAB: Collingwood had set a deadline and I guess (picks) 5 and 25 wasn’t going to make the deal happen.
Jack Crisp had spoken with us last week, and was happy to stay, but said if we could do a deal that would get him to Melbourne, he would prefer that option. Once Jack indicated that, we took it to Collingwood and went from there.
How early had the Club started talking with Beams’ management about a potential move back home to Queensland?
I’m not exactly sure of the period of time, but it was around a month (ago).
(CEO) Greg Swann was the one that first found out that Dayne was keen to come to Brisbane for family reasons, and it was a possibility if Collingwood was prepared to deal. As soon as we knew that, we started working to help make that occur.
It wasn’t a year in the making…
Was there a time when you thought the Beams deal wasn’t going to happen? Or were you always confident of getting it done?
Historically, deals tend to get done and I felt that would be the case, but you’re never super confident – particularly when the Club you’re dealing with gives you an ultimatum or deadline.
The recruitment of Beams and Christensen will obviously help the team on the field, but do you feel it will have an impact for the Club off the field as well?
It creates excitement. Hopefully our supporters become member and our attendance gets driven by it.
I think when you create excitement with the quality of players we’ve brought in, it’s good for the people who follow our footy club.
It should generate a lot more interest. That’s the positive from an off-field aspect.
How serious was Allen Christensen’s injury? Was it considered a risk?
Geelong were going to offer him an extended contract, so they were confident from a medical point of view.
Then when we checked him out ourselves, our medical staff were confident that it wouldn’t be an issue going forward.
But like anything, you just need to be on top of it, and I’m sure Allen will be wary of that and will be sure he’s always in good shape with it.
There are still a few list spots left open. What’s the intention to fill those?
We currently have 36 listed players, so we’ve got a minimum of two spots to fill.
One of those will definitely come from the Draft (Pick No.67), the other ones are still being discussed as to whether we use it on an elevated rookie or a free agent or we go for another young player. We haven’t quite settled on what we’re doing there.
How do the recruiting staff feel about potentially only having one live pick at next month’s 2014 NAB AFL Draft?
I told them that it ebbs and flows.
Last year they probably had more than they should’ve, and more than we wanted. But having said that, they did a great job in selecting the players they did last year.
Leppa’s been on record in saying that the influx of players last year was almost two drafts in one.
They’ve still got to work hard and select a player late, or maybe two players late. We’ve also got rookie spots to fill so they’ve got work to do in that regard.
Will the recruitment focus now shift to finding a key forward to fill the void of Jonathan Brown?
The challenge is there for Jono Freeman and Michael Close, in particular, to grab that position, and maybe Jackson Paine.
So players who are currently on our list have a great opportunity to lay claim to that role. I look forward to seeing that.
At the same time, we’ll target particular players when we’re observing the next influx of young talent as to who could possibly play in that role, and we’ll keep our eyes on other AFL lists and monitor them as well.
But they’re hard to get, aren’t they? That’s why Tom Boyd got the offer he got.
