Essendon sting Hawks by pinching Irving Mosquito

Essendon has sprung one of the biggest surprises of the draft, buzzing in to steal Irving Mosquito from Hawthorn.

Essendon recruit Irving Mosquito playing for Country Victoria in 2016.

Essendon have sprung one of the biggest surprises of the draft, buzzing in to steal Irving Mosquito from Hawthorn.

Mosquito, a member of the Hawks’ Next Generation Academy since 2016, trained at Waverley earlier this month before being nominated by the club.

But when the Bombers bid for the indigenous small forward from Halls Creek, 700km inland from Broome, at pick No 38, Hawthorn baulked at matching the bid.

While the Hawks table appeared dejected, cameras captured a smiling Dons list manager Adrian Dodoro celebrating with a fist pump.

“We got him?” he asked club officials.

The move comes after Dodoro launched a similarly cheeky, but unsuccessful, move for Carlton father-son Jack Silvagni in 2015.

Mosquito, 18, already had one foot in the door at Hawthorn, having trained at the club before being nominated by the Hawks earlier this month. He named Hawthorn legend Cyril Rioli as his idol.

Speaking after the draft, Hawks recruiting manager Mark McKenzie was matter-of-fact.

“We were not surprised. We thought there’d be a few clubs interested,” McKenzie said.

“Overall it’s a great story for Irv to be on an AFL list. Obviously we’ve been working with him for a couple of years.”

Asked if there was regret Irving didn’t land at Hawthorn, McKenzie said: “Whether it’s regret, overall we know what sort of kid he is and that this is his dream.

“We’re very happy for him. If he was at Hawthorn it would have been great, but that’s the way the industry works. It was just the decision we made with the players we had in our talent order.”

Mosquito, who grew up barracking for the Bombers, joined his family on a tour of the Essendon facilities yesterday morning before the draft.

“He’s a young man we targeted and the cards fell our way,” Dodoro said. “He’s got a fair way to go with his footy development. We understand that. But we’ve had a lot of success at Gippsland (Power) and with Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti there’s a lot of similarities there. He’s got a lot of talent and a lot of ability.”

A goalsneak with an electrifying change of pace and an impressive leap, Mosquito moved to Victoria when he was 11 with guardians Mick and Shane Roberts to further his education.

He developed his skills at the Power in the TAC Cup, but missed this year’s under-18 championships through injury.

Carlton kicked off the 2018 draft by taking Sam Walsh at No 1 then set the tone for the two-day event and future drafts with their blockbuster trade with Adelaide.

In a sign of things to come, picks flew left and right yesterday as clubs jockeyed for position following Thursday night’s first round. The introduction of live trading was the major talking point, with club recruiters giving the innovation a thumbs up.

While clubs were excited by the new-found freedom to move up and down the draft order, the majority of trades were for later picks that wouldn’t set the pulse racing for most fans.

But the Blues’ bombshell decision to swap 2019 first-round draft picks with the Crows so they could use Adelaide’s pick No 19 to take Liam Stocker could prove a blueprint for future draft strategy.

“A number of clubs have been overseas and see how the US sports do it … it brings a bit of excitement to the whole thing,” Blues’ list boss Stephen Silvagni said. “We learnt on the run a little bit, I think a number of clubs have, so it was intriguing.”

Carlton are backing themselves to move up the ladder, but if they struggle again next year and Adelaide bounce back into the finals, the deal will be a steal for the Crows. The SA club could conceivably win the flag and have the No 1 pick at the 2019 draft if the Blues take the wooden spoon.

“We understand the risk-reward with the pick we got from Carlton and we’ll see how that goes,” Crows recruiting chief Hamish Ogilvie said.

“We understand there’s risk, we understand there could be reward and Carlton do to.”

After Walsh went first overall, the top five played out as widely expected. Gold Coast claimed South Australian duo Jack Lukosius and Izak Rankine second and third respectively, Sandringham Dragons key forward Max King went to St Kilda at No. 4 and Port Adelaide pounced on local talent Connor Rozee fifth overall.

In father-son moves, Scott West’s boy Rhylee found his way to Whitten Oval in the second round, with Will Kelly, son of Craig and brother of Adelaide’s Jake, making it to Collingwood three picks later.