2014 national draft one of most even in history

THURSDAY’S draft could be the most even talent pool ever, according to Collingwood’s recruiting boss.

Vic Country v Vic Metro Trevor Barker Oval Sandringham . Metro's Jayden Laverde in action. May 18th 2014. Picture : Colleen Petch

THURSDAY’S draft could be the most even talent pool ever, according to Collingwood’s recruiting boss.

Derek Hine says predicting who will go where is almost impossible and every club is likely to walk away happy.

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“It’s a really unique draft this year and certainly in my short time in the role I’ve never seen a draft where it’s been so open, pretty much from pick 1 all the way through to 101, if you like,” he told the Magpies website.

The draft pool includes exciting talls such as Paddy McCartin and Peter Wright, key defenders like Hugh Goddard and Caleb Marchbank and long list of outstanding midfielders.

There are even gun small forwards in Jack Lonie and South Australian Caleb Daniel.

Peter Wright could go anywhere in the first round. Picture: Colleen Petch

“Not just our club but all clubs can attack the draft with some real certainty, the spread of players is really unique,” Hine said.

“More the types of players, be it talls, smalls and mediums and obviously the positional scope of for each player. Make no mistake, we’re going to be able to bring in a player (with pick 5) that really fills our needs and is hopefully going to be a long-term player.”

The Magpies enter the draft with five selections — 5, 9 (committed to father-son selection Darcy Moore), 30, 48 and 85.

While most clubs pass on any pick after 80 or use them to upgrade rookies, Hine said Collingwood was keeping its options open.

“Our last pick, 85, we’ll decide on the day what we potentially do with it, we’ve been successful in the past in grabbing a couple of players late, eg Tom Langdon and (Jonathon) Marsh.”

After Thursday night the Pies will have had four top-10 picks in the past two years, with Hine describing Matthew Scharenberg (pick 6 last year) and Nathan Freeman (pick 10) as unwrapped Christmas presents.

Originally published as 2014 national draft one of most even in history