Sydney's rookie gold mine, Brisbane's aggressive avenues: Breaking down each 2024 AFL Grand Final side's list build

There are several parallels with how Sydney and Brisbane have built their lists to lead them to the 2024 AFL Grand Final, but both sides have also shown differing strengths in their recruiting over the years.

Academy access and the Rookie Draft has proven most fruitful for Sydney, who will have seven players from the latter avenue featuring on the final Saturday of September this year.

Tom Papley, Jake Lloyd and Dane Rampe are among the septet of Swans who were overlooked by every club before finding a home in the Harbour City, while the same can be said of forward Hayden McLean, who joined the Swans as a Supplemental Selection Period addition in 2018.

14 of the 26 players named in Sydney's squad were recruited through the National Draft, with five of those being members of the Swans Academy and all picks within the opening two rounds of the draft.

Their longest-serving player, Luke Parker, is among the many bargain buys Sydney have accrued over the years, having plucked the three-time best and fairest winner out of Langwarrin, Victoria 14 years ago.

Midfielder Chad Warner has been a sensation since joining the Swans from Western Australia just five years ago as the 39th overall pick, with a re-do of that class likely having the speedy ball-winner near the top.

Priority access has played a major part over the years for both clubs.

The Swans have nurtured and developed stars of the competition from a young age through their Academy, while Brisbane too have key cogs set to take to the field after graduating from theirs in Queensland or joining as father-son additions.

Co-captain Harris Andrews slid to Pick 61 in 2014 as a Lions Academy member, while fellow key position assets Eric Hipwood and Jack Payne came through the same pathways.

Will Ashcroft and Jaspa Fletcher were both first-round picks in the 2022 intake, following in their fathers' footsteps to be taken at Picks 2 and 12, with the former viewed by many as the best prospect in his draft class.

	National Draft	Rookie Draft	Trade	Free Agency	Other
Sydney	14	7	3	1	1
Brisbane	17	0	6	1	2

Both sides are split evenly with three top 10 draft selections each, but Brisbane double Sydney's tally of top 20 draft additions 10 to five.

Arguably the best five players on the Lions' list didn't join the club through the traditional avenue that is an uncompromised National Draft selection, with Lachie Neale (traded), Harris Andrews (Academy selection), Joe Daniher (free agency), Charlie Cameron (traded) and Josh Dunkley (traded) all coming to the club in differing circumstances.

Similar can be said of the Swans though, with Isaac Heeney (Academy), Brodie Grundy (traded), Nick Blakey (Academy), Tom Papley (Rookie Draft) and Errol Gulden (Academy) all landing in Sydney outside of the norms of the National Draft.

Saturday's events will involve a number of sliding doors moments, mostly for the Swans as they see Daniher and Dunkley take to the field in maroon, blue and gold.

Dunkley was eligible as a father-son selection for Sydney as the son of club great Andrew, but the New South Wales club decided against matching the Western Bulldogs' bid at Pick 25 back in 2015.

Daniher came mightily close to joining the Swans in 2020 in a trade deal that fell short of satisfying Essendon's demands. But any deal that would've seen Sydney secure the star forward was expected to come at the cost of Papley, who was seeking a move to Carlton at the time.

List breakdowns:

Sydney

Draft

National Draft
Luke Parker - Pick 40 (2010)
Isaac Heeney - Pick 18* (2014)
Oliver Florent - Pick 11 (2016)
Will Hayward - Pick 21 (2016)
Tom McCartin - Pick 33 (2017)
Nick Blakey - Pick 10* (2018)
James Rowbottom - Pick 25 (2018)
Justin McInerney - Pick 44 (2018)
Chad Warner - Pick 39 (2019)
Logan McDonald - Pick 4 (2020)
Braeden Campbell - Pick 5* (2020)
Errol Gulden - Pick 32* (2020)
Matthew Roberts - Pick 34 (2021)
Caiden Cleary - Pick 24* (2023)

Rookie Draft
Harry Cunningham - Pick 93 (2011)
Jake Lloyd - Pick 16 (2012)
Dane Rampe - Pick 37 (2012)
Lewis Melican - Pick 52 (2014)
Tom Papley - Pick 14 (2015)
Robbie Fox - Pick 34 (2016)
Joel Amartey - Pick 28 - (2017)

Trade

Peter Ladhams - Port Adelaide (2021)
Aaron Francis - Essendon (2022)
Brodie Grundy - Melbourne (2023)

Free Agency

James Jordon - Melbourne (2023)

Other

Hayden McLean - SSP (2018)

Brisbane

Draft

National Draft
Ryan Lester - Pick 28 (2010)
Harris Andrews - Pick 61* (2014)
Eric Hipwood - Pick 14* (2015)
Hugh McCluggage - Pick 3 (2016)
Jarrod Berry - Pick 19 (2016)
Cameron Rayner - Pick 1 (2017)
Zac Bailey - Pick 15 (2017)
Brandon Starcevich - Pick 18 (2017)
Jack Payne - Pick 54* (2017)
Noah Answerth - Pick 55 (2018)
Harry Sharp - Pick 43 (2020)
Henry Smith - Pick 48 (2020)
Darcy Wilmot - Pick 16 (2021)
Kai Lohmann - Pick 20 (2021)
Will Ashcroft - Pick 2** (2022)
Jaspa Fletcher - Pick 12** (2022)
Logan Morris - Pick 31 (2023)