Essendon defends drafting talls, explains AFL draft strategy

Essendon had already taken two talls when a bid came on one of its academy prospects in the AFL draft — how close did the Bombers come to not matching?

Essendon list boss Adrian Dodoro has rejected any suggestion he took too many talls in this year’s draft pool, insisting the Bombers’ spine is now in place for the foreseeable future.

Over the past two years the Bombers have brought in eight talls in Peter Wright (203cm), Andrew Phillips (201cm), Nick Bryan (202cm), Harry Jones (194cm) and now Josh Eyre (197cm), Cody Brand (195cm), Zach Reid (202cm) and Nik Cox (200cm).

It has led to some questioning whether their list was unbalanced, but Dodoro on Friday pointed to the versatility of many of his recruits.

“We’ve been criticised for a number of years for picking all these little midgets running around, but we changed that perception in a hurry, didn’t we?” Dodoro said on RSN.

“It’s exciting and I think in many ways it was a bit of a blank canvas.

“You look at your list, or your structures, and you think, ‘What is this team going to look like in the future?’.

“There’s a new coach coming in and he has a very distinctive way in which he wants the game to be played.

“We just felt what a great opportunity to get our potential spine in place.

“But the players themselves, they pick themselves.

“Nik Cox, our first selection, may be 200cm but he can run around like a midfielder.

“Josh Eyre’s a phenomenal athlete as well and these guys could play on a wing.”

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Essendons three top-10 draft picks Zach Reid, Archie Perkins and Nik Cox.

At pick 53, the Western Bulldogs placed a bid on Brand, an Essendon Next Generation Academy member.

The Bombers matched it but not before taking a long time in the room to make their decision.

“The issue there was that Cody has been with our NGA and he’s a fabulous player, but we’d taken three talls ahead of him,” Dodoro said.

“That was the discussion about whether we take the pick or not, so we had a discussion but at the end of the day we were unanimous about putting him on our list.

“There was potentially another player we could have taken, but we just thought we’d do the right thing and bring on this young man who’s going to be a fabulous talent.”

At pick 9, the Bombers landed Archie Perkins, who on draft day confessed he’d told non-Victorian clubs he didn’t feel ready to move interstate.

Dodoro said the public declaration did not make the Bombers think twice about nabbing the 188cm midfielder/forward.

“It didn’t turn us off,” Dodoro said.

“He never told us that because obviously we’re a Melbourne club, but what we liked about him was his honesty and that he’s forthright.

“He’s a very headstrong young man and he knows what he wants in life

“We found that really refreshing, that he’s honest, and we think that’s a great trait.

“I think we’re getting a bit precious because over the years I’ve had many young men that have said they’d prefer to stay in their home state.

“And look, clubs are making a massive investment and what you don’t want to do is draft a boy if it’s line ball and then he goes home after two years and you’ve wasted an investment.

“Particularly in the first round of a draft, it’s just a huge call.

“You can look at it a number of ways but had an interstate club picked him up, he would have been the first one on the plane.”

HERO OR VILLAIN? BOMBERS’ DIVISIVE RERUITING BOSS

– Scott Gullan

He’s been called many things and many would happily label him the most divisive man in the AFL.

That may be taking things a bit far, but around this time of the year there certainly isn’t a figure who splits the football world more than Adrian Dodoro.

And on Wednesday night the Essendon recruiting boss will lap up the spotlight given he holds the golden ticket in this year’s national draft — selections six, seven and eight.

Many opposition clubs can’t stand him, certainly rival supporters — and even some Essendon fans — seem to blame Dodoro for everything from the coronavirus pandemic to the state of Australia-China relations.

His knack of getting involved in the big deals, then regularly slowing them up or even blowing them up, has become an annual event.

What can’t be questioned is his passion for the Essendon Football Club, something that was born decades ago.

He was a mad Bombers fan from Keilor when he knocked on Kevin Sheedy’s door and asked for a job.

Former GWS Giants midfielder Devon Smith shakes hands with Adrian Dodoro after joining Essendon. Picture: Supplied

The legendary coach saw something, so he got him in as his message writer and board man on match days.

There was no paycheck involved, it was a voluntary position with no guarantees but for Dodoro it meant he at least had a foot in the door at Windy Hill.

“He wrote everything down for me,” Sheedy explains.

“If I wanted to send a message, he made sure everything was covered and went through.

“He was a very dedicated person and very passionate about Essendon, he did everything for nothing for many, many years.”

The odd jobs kept coming, including opposition scout, before Dodoro finally got on staff and according to his LinkedIn profile he started as recruiting and welfare manager in February 1998.

It was the start of a mini-golden era for the Bombers, with Dodoro quickly earning the trust and respect of the club’s stars including premiership wingman Adam Ramanauskas.

“When I first got there he was recruiting manager, list manager and welfare all rolled into one,” Ramanauskas said.

Adam Ramanauskas high fives the crowd in his last game for Essendon in 2008.

“It was incredible how much work he was doing and he’s given a lot of his life to Essendon.

“From my point of view he’s an outstanding individual. You’ve got to understand the care and empathy he has for people and players.

“When he drafts you he looks after you to the nth degree, he doesn’t just pick a name and then that’s it.”

Despite the pair occasionally clashing given Ramanauskas is now a leading player agent, there are never any lingering issues.

“He’s got a heart of gold. If you ring him and need help, he will help you as much as he possibly can,” he said.

Dodoro forged a strong bond with premiership captain Mark Thompson, becoming business partners and investing in a syndicate which turned a $3.6 million land purchase at Armstrong Creek, just outside of Geelong, into $37 million a decade later.

And it was Dodoro, alongside James Hird, who were the first on Thompson’s doorstep after he was charged with drug trafficking in 2018.

Thompson credits their insistence that he seek help from a psychologist as a crucial moment in turning his life around.

Kevin Sheedy and Dodoro before an Essendon and Western Bulldogs match at Marvel Stadium in August 2019.

Sheedy remains Dodoro’s biggest fan because of his willingness to put it all on the line for his club.

“I only went crook at him once,” Sheedy says.

“It was at that stage when West Coast and Fremantle had secured (Dean) Cox and (Aaron) Sandilands, they were rookies.

“I said to him, ‘How tall do you want them before you can see them?’.

“I said, ‘If they’re hiding them in cages down in the mines then I’ll cop that, but they don’t have to be any taller surely (for you to see them).

“To be fair, every other club in the eastern states made the same mistake, we couldn’t find them and they couldn’t find them either, so I couldn’t go too crook on him.”

Like in every recruiter’s CV there are some big hits and plenty of misses in the Dodoro file.

A couple of high picks he would probably like back include Scott Gumbleton at No. 2 in 2006 and David Myers at No. 6 the following year.

Despite many clubs finding him extremely hard to deal with, Dodoro’s track record of delivering during trade week is impressive.

In recent times he’s targeted and secured Jake Stringer, Adam Saad, Devon Smith and Dylan Shiel although some would argue he gave up a lot with three consecutive years of first-round picks going north.

The Joe Daniher non-event last year hurt Dodoro and while it clearly wasn’t entirely his decision, the stubbornness not to deal with Sydney was a telling mistake in hindsight.

This year he was unsuccessful in trying to lure contracted Bulldog Josh Dunkley but did manage to get former first-round pick Jye Caldwell out of the Giants.

In many ways the Dodoro legacy could be shaped with what he does in this draft.

His club has had a horror 12 months with the coaching handover a mess, question marks over the culture of the place, while senior players Saad, Daniher, Orazio Fantasia and Connor McKenna have all walked.

The stakes are high with the pressure getting turned up from many fronts on the veteran recruiter.

Dodoro watches on at training.

If he nails the draft like Port Adelaide did in 2018 when they had three first-round picks — think Connor Rozee, Zak Butters and Xavier Duursma — the quick rebound can happen.

The alternative is something that might even test the seemingly irreplaceable Dodoro.

Former GWS Giants and Carlton recruiter Stephen Silavagni recently labelled him the “Marlon Brando” of list management teams.

“He walks into a room and he commands respect, sometimes he comes in a bit unshaven,” Silvagni said.

The strut and the smirk will be on full display on Wednesday night with the cameras rolling as he goes about getting the pillars for Essendon’s next premiership team.

And one thing you can count on … he’ll p —s someone off in the process.