Crows and Port prepare to raid the national draft and are looking beyond just their top picks to bolster the list
As Adelaide prepares for an unprecedented raid on the first round of next week’s national draft its recruiters are looking for a player with Rory Sloane’s competitiveness, knowing he could well be found late like the All-Australian midfielder.
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AS ADELAIDE prepares for an unprecedented raid on the first round of next week’s national draft its recruiters are looking for a player with Rory Sloane’s competitiveness, knowing he could well be found late like the All-Australian midfielder.
The Crows have four picks inside the first 21 selections (8, 13, 16 and 21) and are open to a deal to get inside the top four for access to SA’s top-end talent.
But are just as comfortable with their current hand which could set the list up for the next decade.
The Crows are quick to remind draftees that their selection is just a number and they can also hit the jackpot with late order calls in the 70s and 80s.
Sloane is considered one of SA’s greatest ever draft steals when he was overlooked as a 17-year-old in the 2007 draft and slid to pick 44 in 2008.
“We reference him a lot because we’ve been looking for another player like him for 10 years and haven’t quite found one yet … maybe this year,” recruiting manager Hamish Ogilvie said.
“He’s a brilliant benchmark for us because competitiveness and intensity — you line them up against him and hope there’s another one like him.
“You just don’t get them like that very often, we’re just lucky he’s with us.
“He hasn’t changed one bit, the person is still the same kid, and plays every second like it’s the last second he’s ever going to play. He was like that as a 17-year-old and he won their best-and-fairest both years.
“It’s the age old thing, talent versus competitiveness, and when you get late in the draft and there’s a really talented player still there, there’s a reason why he hasn’t got picked, a character flaw or an issue.
“But the really competitive blokes who might not be as talented, you look at a Sloaney or a Rory Laird (in the rookie draft), they just get there in the end.
“We knew Lairdy would be good but he’s probably even exceeded where we thought he would be.”
Port Adelaide has just as strong a hand at the draft with picks 5, 10, 15 and a pick in the 80s which it knows may well allow it to land another Justin Westhoff who was pick 71 or Robbie Gray who was 55 in 2006.
“Yeah all the time,” Port’s recruiting manager Geoff Parker said of referencing those two late order gems.
“When we draft player later on we say ‘all you need is a chance and once you’re in, you’ve just got to work hard and look at Robbie Gray and Justin Westhoff’.
“Tom Jonas is another one we use, he was passed over into the rookie draft and all that.”
As the AFL prepares for live trading during the draft for the first time this year, Parker said clubs had closed ranks and had been less inclined to share intel.
“There’s been less information, clubs have been less willing to give up information because you tend to hear ‘this club likes this player or that player’ but because clubs can now trade up there’s not as much information getting out,” Parker said.
“There’s more speculating about ‘well we think this might happen in front of us’ and I’m hoping as it gets closer we get a firmer idea of what we might be looking at with 5, 10 and 15.
“You need to sit down and work out not only which players you want to pick but whether you want to trade, and where do you trade up or back to, there’s a lot of things to think about.
“Where as in previous years you get through trade week, you know what picks you’ve got, you do the work, set up on draft night and you’re all go.
“But now that could change so it’s a different dynamic, but I’ve enjoyed the process.
“The recruiting team is excited because we haven’t had these high picks for a long time so we’re really keen to get them right and make sure they’re good long term players for the club.”