Tom Mitchell has finally requested a trade to Hawthorn, putting an end to the near season-long soap, that rivalled the likes of Days of our Lives. Mitchell was strongly linked with Carlton before his previous 1 year extension was signed in 2015, and was again strongly linked with Carlton earlier this season.
However, in a completely unsurprising turn of events, Hawthorn popped up as the likeliest destination, with their rich history, sporting success and enough cap space to offer just a tiny bit more than the Swans.
With the news that Hawthorn have acquired restricted free agent Ty Vickery from Richmond, worth $1m over two years, Mitchell's declaration is sure to be music for their ears.
Last week, Phil Mullen, Mitchell's manager, denied that a deal had been struck between Mitchell and the Hawks.
“People know more than we do,” Mullen said.
“We’re still in negotiations, we’re meeting with Sydney (Monday).
“We made an agreement that we would talk to Sydney at the end of the season, and we will do that.”
When quizzed about a potential Mitchell trade earlier today, Sydney's football manager, Tom Harley provided an update to the Sydney Swans site.
“We spoke late last week and are expecting to hear from his manager Phil Mullen later on today so until we have that conversation there is nothing further to progress. I expect there will be further news later on. There is a bit of water to go under the bridge at this point so we will know a bit more later on.”
Later in the afternoon, once Mitchell had announced his desire to be traded to Hawthorn, Harley spoke with Triple M.
"We learnt of Tom's preference today, so now we will discuss as a list management team what the next steps look like.”
Mitchell, a father-son selection, has played 65 games and kicked 38 goals since debuting for Sydney in 2013. He finished 8th in the best and fairest, his highest ever result.
Good luck Tom, you've been a good and important player for us and I hope that you do well, except against the Swans. A nice turn of events would land you at Carlton, not Hawthorn.
Like what you’re getting? Want more Swans Blog, and the chance to have your input into our site and what we create? We have additional content weekly on our Patreon Service. This is your avenue, what are you waiting for? Sign up today and get more content like this.
If you'd like to support us, you can head over to our Red Bubble Swans Blog Shop, and purchase one of our hideously overpriced mugs, stickers or notebooks. Help keep The Swans Blog alive.
Since you're here...
... we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading The Swans Blog than ever, but we don't accept advertising, and don't want to do so in the future. Unlike many other news and media organisations, fan forums and fan media, we haven't put up a paywall, or displayed ads - we want to keep our content as open as possible.
The Swans Blog is an independent fan blog and community platform. Our content takes a lot of time and hard work to produce. We do it because we love what we do and we believe our perspective matters - because it may be your perspective too.
If everyone who reads our blog, who likes it, is supporting it, our future would be much more secure.
Want instant access to the latest blog and news content from The Swans Blog?
Download our Android App from Google Play today.