Another Essendon whiteboard conspiracy emerges before AFL Draft

It wouldn't be Draft night without a conspiracy involving Essendon and whiteboards and the Bombers delivered again in 2020.

Is Essendon having some fun at its rivals’ expense?

Essendon may be playing mind games with its rivals ahead of tonight’s AFL Draft.

The event will take place virtually because of COVID-19 restrictions and there was something fishy about the Bombers’ connection when list managers and recruitment specialists took part in a trial run on Tuesday.

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Fox Footy reports in the background of Essendon’s screen in that meeting was a whiteboard with circles around potential draftees, as well as the names of current Bombers players.

Some might think it was a blunder revealing a little too much of the club’s Draft strategy, but others — including Sydney recruitment boss Kinnear Beatson — believe it was a joke played by Essendon’s veteran list guru Adrian Dodoro.

“Adrian’s got a wicked sense of humour despite what people might think,” Beatson told SEN’s Whateley. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that was just a set-up, deliberately done so people start to think, ‘Oh they’re going to take these players’.

“I’m not exactly sure what happened. I saw it — knowing Adrian as well as I do, I’ve known him for a long time in this caper, that could’ve easily been a set-up so I wouldn’t be reading too much into that.”

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Adrian Dodoro may just be mucking around.

Essendon is no stranger to whiteboard “scandals”. Ahead of this year’s Trade Period young gun Irving Mosquito posted a photo to Instagram in front of a whiteboard with Bombers legends Kevin Sheedy and Mark Harvey.

Mosquito quickly deleted the picture, but not before eagle-eyed spotters on social media noticed it had the name of Geelong’s Sam Menegola with “13 + 20” written next to him, apparently referring to the Cats’ Draft picks.

Delisted Kangaroo Majak Daw was also written on the whiteboard, alongside a question mark.

However, Carlton legend and former list manager Stephen Silvagni said at the time he thought it was a stitch-up.

“There was Kevin Sheedy in it … that’s enough to say I’ve got no doubt that was a set-up,” he told SEN.

There was a similar incident in 2018 when a selfie of Dodoro and recruit Dylan Shiel appeared to show a whiteboard full of names revealing Essendon’s draft strategy for that year.