Trade secrets: Why the Western Bulldogs wanted to snap up Aaron Naughton

His Western Bulldogs teammates call him ‘Duckling’ because he has the makings of the next Wayne Carey, but recruiters at rival clubs weren’t sure about Aaron Naughton. Here’s how he landed at the kennel in a brilliant draft play.

As Luke Beveridge held aloft the premiership trophy on October 1, 2016, Aaron Naughton sat in the stands as a skinny defender from the Rockingham Rams fresh from that morning’s All Star game.

The Bulldogs were about to embark upon a premiership dynasty that would discount them from securing the cream of the draft and its top-10 selections for the foreseeable future.

Tom Boyd’s game-sealing goal, called so graphically by Brian Taylor, was surely the mark of a champion on the rise for the next decade.

And while Naughton’s freakish marking abilities had caught the eye of every AFL recruiter he had barely played as a key position forward.

So you could have written your own ticket on the odds of Naughton being plucked as the Dogs No.9 draft pick 12 months later and then replacing the retired Boyd as the game’s brightest pack-marking prospect.

Teammate Sam Lloyd says teammates have already compared a 20-year-old Naughton with one of the greats of the game.

“I have never seen anything like it at his age,” Lloyd said,

“We call him young Duck or the Duckling, he has got a bit of Carey about him and he’s got the swagger too. He’s built for the game.”

Naughton, contracted through to 2024, kicked 27 goals and took 53 contested marks last year.

But he isn’t bulletproof – this year’s rocky start has seen him starved of opportunities and having kicked 1.2 from his three contests so far.

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Aaron Naughton was secured by the Bulldogs at pick 9 in the 2017 draft. Picture: Getty Images

ROCK SOLID

Naughton became recruiting boss Simon Dalrymple’s parting gift to Whitten Oval.

Dalrymple, now a Sydney recruiter after moving on only months after the 2017 trade period’s rookie draft, can remember the first time he saw Naughton dominate a game.

Even then it seemed unlikely he would become the player he has grown into.

Naughton was a young defender from Rockingham — a suburb south of Fremantle — who had emerged as a key defender.

“I can clearly remember going to a game at Peel Thunder. Peel was Fremantle’s WAFL team and it was just his ability to compete and show his strength in that standard of competition that really stood out,” Dalrymple said.

“He was prepared to have a crack rather than some kids who play a little bit reserved when they are playing against AFL players.

“It was his ability to really go for his marks that stood out. He played with real poise and composure you don’t always see in a young talent.”

Recruiters tracked Naughton’s progress through his under-age and final junior season, aware he might be the 2017’s national draft’s best marking talent.

But the Dogs were the 2016 premiers, likely to have a pick in the dregs of the first-round given how they would so quickly adapt to life at the top.

Aaron Naughton spoils for WA in an under-18 match against the Allies. Picture: Getty Images

Then came the delayed hangover, as a Beveridge-coached team that started 5-2 hit a wall with a mid-year skid that saw them losing six of eight matches then eventually the final three games to finish 11-11.

“It was just one of those years when the team didn’t go as well as expected and your pick starts to get closer to the top end of the draft than the bottom,” said Dalrymple.

“Then you just want to make the most of each selection. It’s always been my philosophy that you don’t want to have too many early picks because it means you are a poor team. Get them right and then get out of the draft.”

DEEPER ANALYSIS

Dalrymple has always drafted early for the best selection with those early picks instead of needs, and at pick 9 knew so many curve-balls would be thrown ahead of the Dogs’ selection.

Dandenong Stingrays midfielder Luke Davies-Uniacke looked a likely No.1 prospect, young Bendigo Pioneer Paddy Dow was a born ball-winner and Sandringham’s Andrew Brayshaw was the draft’s smooth mover.

Western Jet Cam Rayner had a bit of Dusty Martin spunk, while Eastern Ranges midfielder Jaidyn Stephensen had pace and lateral movement and a nose to sniff out goals with ease.

Naughton had a glorious set of hands and a rock-solid character, but other recruiters worried if his mechanical kicking style might be exposed at AFL level.

Like all recruiters as the national draft drew nearer, Dalrymple went digging.

“We would have interviewed him three times and the third one was the family visit,” he said.

“The family were great people, good knockabout people, his dad initially grew up in Frankston so they were a really good family and really good people.

“It’s a big investment so you put in a lot of analysis from a stats point and a psychological point of view.

“It was more of an awkward kicking action and in general play the decisions he made were pretty basic. He hit up the obvious pass, didn’t try to bite off too much. He looked a bit slow hand-to-foot.”

Aaron Naughton soars for a mark against Richmond in Round 7 last year. Picture: Michael Klein

But Dalrymple said their analysis showed that he would be effective as a defender.

“The numbers actually came up OK. You base it on a lot of Champion Data stuff and a lot of coding of every kick he had, a really deep dive into it, the easy kick versus the high-risk kick, looking at the difficult of all those kicks and in the end it’s a balance of highlighting too much what he can’t do versus what he can,” he said.

WAITING GAME

By the national draft, the top 10 order had been finalised: Brisbane (1), Fremantle (2), Carlton (3), North Melbourne (4), Fremantle (5), Collingwood (6), St Kilda (7 and 8) then the Western Bulldogs at nine.

“At pick nine I knew that St Kilda was very keen on him and I can remember going to the family home and talking to mum and dad about the Saints and Tony Elshaug has their chief recruiter and how they had been there and thinking they had picks seven and eight and would likely get a key position player,” Dalrymple said.

“So it was a low-percentage play for him to get through to pick nine.

“Collingwood had pick six. Jaidyn Stephenson was up in the air for clubs with how he sat medically with his heart condition.

“He was right up there on talent but he was ruled out (for the Bulldogs) for medical reasons. And that was the medical team who were fantastic in their deep analysis of it and we took on board their analysis.

“I can’t remember now exactly where we ranked (Naughton) but he was inside the top three or four, definitively top five. Ahead of Dow and Uniacke, Stephenson was out, so probably about pick three.”

The Bulldogs rated the talent of Jaidyn Stephenson, who went to Collingwood at pick 5. Picture: Getty Images

The draft unfolded perfectly for the Dogs, the elite mids taken off the board by pick five, before Collingwood backed in their medical team on Stephenson.

The Herald Sun’s Sam Landsberger had dropped a draft bombshell not long before that draft when he revealed AFL club wariness about that condition.

Yet thankfully for Stephenson and Collingwood he has managed the condition with medication and could yet rival Naughton as the draft’s best player.

FAREWELL GIFT

Seven selections later Dalrymple again hit paydirt with Lou Richards’ grandson Ed, a hard-running left-footer with a shock of red hair.

Beveridge would later overrule Dalrymple and select ex-Blues forward Billy Gowers in the rookie draft.

But as a legacy to leave the club after he and former recruiter Scott Clayton helped build the 2016 premiership list it was a perfect parting gift.

If the 2018 national draft now shapes as a bona fide superdraft, the 2019 version is at this stage taking its time to flourish.

Cam Rayner shows flashes of brilliance, Andrew Brayshaw and Adam Cerra are slowly improving for Fremantle, Dow’s kicking has let him down at times and Luke Davies-Uniacke is battling injury issues.

Hunter Clark is finally providing bang for buck at St Kilda and Nick Coffield has shown glimpses at half-back in the same side.

Dalrymple isn’t gloating over unearthing the glistening diamond, aware every recruiter has masterful selections and players who just end up as duds.

“We were happy to get him because we had him well ahead of some of those other boys and you have got a player with real aerial presence and they are hard to find,” he said.

“They are pretty rare, boys who attack the ball in the air and have that real athleticism to get the ball at the highest point and have the courage to keep their eyes on the ball, not just mark it because they are bigger than everyone else.

“(When you miss) you feel really disappointed you have let the club down but you also know it’s a difficult job and you are not always going to get them right. You want to learn from your errors, you review and look at reasons why players failed and wonder if you gave enough wait to certain indicators, is there a gap in your process, did you overrate a certain trait, do you have a bias towards certain players.

“But you also can’t lose your nerve. Don’t dismiss it offhand, you are disappointed but don’t sit in the corner and kick the cat for two days.”

Ed Richards. Picture: Getty Images

Billy Gowers. Picture: AAP

Dalrymple was gone by that summer, quickly snapped up by Sydney.

A year into his football apprenticeship Beveridge threw Naughton into attack despite heavy criticism from the commentariat.

Yet by Round 7 of 2019 Dalrymple got a first-hand view of Naughton’s prodigious talent when he hauled in nine contested marks against Richmond in a five-goal outing.

“We could have had Jesus Christ playing down there tonight and I reckon he would have struggled on him to be fair,” Richmond coach Damien Hardwick quipped afterwards.

Says Dalrymple: “Yeah, was there that night. My two boys are mad Bulldogs supporters so it was just fantastic to watch. Just a really dominant aerial display. I was just super pleased.”

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The inside story of how star forward Ben Brown came onto North Melbourne’s radar

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Originally published as Trade secrets: Why the Western Bulldogs wanted to snap up Aaron Naughton