History shows why recruiting chiefs, not coaches, make final call at draft table

ON draft night, as clubs make decisions which may well shape their future, it’s the recruiting chiefs, not the coaches in the driver’s seat. And there’s good reason for that, says Michelangelo Rucci.

The Crows picked Laurence Angwin at the coach’s insistence ... and grew to regret the choice. Picture: Ray Titus

PORT Adelaide recruiting chief Geoff Parker will have two calls in the high-focus first round of the AFL national draft on Friday night.

He has not known this luxury — or pressure — since the 2012 player lottery, when Parker claimed Ollie Wines at No.7.

Since then the Power has moved on its first-round draft pick in trades for Jared Polec (Brisbane, 2013), Patrick Ryder (Essendon, 2014) and Charlie Dixon (Gold Coast, last year).

Even this year, Port Adelaide lived the Kevin Costner moment from Hollywood’s “Draft Day” to make its original first-round draft pick, No. 9, into two first-rounders, Nos. 14 and 17, in a creative deal with Sydney.

Inevitably, those who will have the benefit of hindsight will ultimately judge which club — the Swans or Power — made the most of this trade.

There is that line from Port Adelaide list manager Jason Cripps that the Power expects the player Parker would have claimed at No. 9 will still be available at No. 14.

Read that as the draft pool being loaded with highly rated midfielders.

Crows recruiting manager Hamish Ogilvie has first-round pick No. 13, the card that was not enough to satisfy Carlton in the failed trade for contracted Blues midfielder Bryce Gibbs.

It will take some time to judge if the Blues, who call at No. 5, have denied themselves a much-needed player at No. 13 who could change the club’s destiny … or if the Crows find that silver lining from the disappointment of the Gibbs mess.

There’s a big question that will work through the minds of general football fans as they watch their crowded clubs’ tables at the draft in Sydney — who makes the final call?

Parker and Ogilvie hold the keys. The influence of the coaches has fallen. And for good reason, as Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley noted in a radio interview recently.

AFL coaches are not as well-briefed or researched as their recruiting managers — who have an army of talent scouts and spend years (not just the current season) tracking potential draftees through many under-age competitions.

At Geelong, such faith in recruiting manager Stephen Wells is never a point of regret.

At Adelaide, the moment of listening to the coach rather than the recruiting manager leaves that sour memory of the Laurence Angwin selection at pick No. 7 at the insistence of coach Gary Ayres in the 2000 national draft.

The recruiting notes also point to the missed opportunities with local options -, Shaun Burgoyne (No. 12, the pick Adelaide traded to Port Adelaide for Matthew Bode) and Kane Cornes (No. 20).

Six years later, Port Adelaide dodged the same bullet when coach Mark Williams’s preference for local option James Sellar was overruled by the football department to back the recruiting staff’s wish for future captain Travis Boak at No.6.

So Parker and Ogilvie are in the driver’s seat for good reason on Friday night.

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