This is a simple trade – Sydney had five draft picks and with several rookie upgrades coming were unlikely to use them. GWS make a slight gain in Academy points plus they split their value across two picks which gives more flexibility in trades today and then for bid-matching after that.
As live picks, Sydney’s 39 and 52 would have been expected to produce more output than pick 31 alone. We can infer the Swans were never in a position to use a fifth live pick.
GWS currently have picks 2, 15, 37, 39, 52, 55, 60, 69, meaning 1577 bid-matching points after pick 15, which will inflate to maybe nearly 2000 in actual matching due to discounts and picks sliding up.
This is not quite enough for their potential Academy players, but they’ve got several pending player trades with which to gain more value.
Verdict: Notionally quite unfair but Sydney only lose value they weren’t going to use.