The Swans-Giants rivalry has some added spice after the AFL’s newest club snared Sydney’s premiership ruckman Shane Mumford on a three year deal.
It took the Giants less than 24 hours to hit back after the Swans snatched Lance Franklin from under their noses with a staggering nine year, $10 million deal.
Mumford becomes the first player to move between Sydney’s rival clubs and sets up the tantalising prospect of the round-one clash between the Swans and Giants featuring Franklin on one side and Mumford playing his first game against his former club.
“The Giants are an exciting club with a great future and I couldn’t be happier to be moving across Sydney to join them,” Mumford said.
“They have a talented young midfield and it’s a great opportunity to help them go to the next level and achieve on-field success.”
Hawthorn were very interested in Mumford as part of a rebuild of their ruck stocks in the post Buddy Franklin era.
The move to the Giants and not the Hawks could cause problems for the deal with Franklin as Mumford was seen as a sweetener to help the move go through with less pain for Hawthorn.
The $1.2 million freed up by Franklin passing on the Giants has allowed them to get exactly the sort of player they need a ruckman in his prime.
Mumford, 27, has plenty of good footballing years in front of him and will help the Giants super talented group of young midfielders develop at an accelerated rate.
The 198cm, 104kg big man has been a key ingredient of the Swans’ outstanding midfield and has helped Josh Kennedy, Dan Hannebery, Kieren Jack , Ryan O’Keefe and Jarrad McVeigh become one of the best clearance teams in the competition.
Mumford’s manager, Anthony McConville, said Franklin’s decision to choose the Swans highlighted that the Swans ruckman would no longer fit into John Longmire’s equation.
He said negotiations heated up this week and it was Mumford’s call to make the switch.
“The Giants are an exciting club with a great future and I couldn’t be happier to be moving across Sydney to join them” Mumford said.
“They have a talented young midfield and it’s a great opportunity to help them go to the next level and achieve on-field success.”
New Giants coach Leon Cameron said Mumford would fill the ruck void nicely.
“As our No. 1 ruckman he will take some of the pressure off Jon Giles while we continue to develop Andrew Phillips and Tom Downie and gives us depth in our ruck stocks.
“We have every confidence in our list management strategy and will continue to be aggressive in the trade period to acquire the experienced players we need at the Giants.’’
The Giants kept close tabs on No. 1 pick-in-waiting Tom Boyd at the draft combine yesterday with rival clubs expecting they will keep the first pick and land the hulking full-forward despite declarations it is up for trade.
The Giants will be Mumford’s third AFL club after playing 21 games for Geelong and 79 games for the Swans including the 2012 premiership.