Success Earned By Detail On Draft Day

The Age

Monday November 27, 2006

EMMA QUAYLE

It's been described as a lottery, but if you do your homework there is more chance of hitting the jackpot, writes Emma Quayle

THE AFL's recruiters will spend part of next week in Canberra, watching next year's prospects run around at an AIS-AFL Academy camp. Which tells you how long each draft is in the making.

For the 16 clubs, Saturday's cattle call, which lasted less than 90 minutes, was the culmination of a year spent watching games, watching more games, interviewing players, figuring out what their test results meant and, most of all, deciding which ones they wanted.

The Western Bulldogs made most of their mind up months ago. Like most years, they knew who they were keen on around April; while their order shifts, usually it moves back to what it was.

Recruiting manager Scott Clayton and his sidekick, Dom Ambrogio, went to the draft with a spreadsheet, split into sections for each of their five picks, with their preferred option for each pick at the top of each list.

There were about 50 names, including those the Bulldogs knew would probably be gone. They figured out who they wanted where according, first of all, to their talent, but it also depended on who they knew the other clubs might look at.

"We basically line up our first 11 players, because our first pick is 11," said Ambrogio. "We have to have enough names there so we know categorically that whatever happens in the first 10 picks, we know which way we're going.

"After that, we just work the way down the list. Whoever's the highest player on the list when it comes to our pick will be selected."

In reality, only seven players were really in the Bulldogs thoughts - the rest they expected to be taken by other clubs at much higher selections. When the draft began, Clayton expected he would soon be introducing kids named Andrejs Everitt, Brennan Stack, Josh Hill, Malcolm Lynch and Paul O'Shea to his club.

"That would be a nice result and I reckon it's a 95 per cent chance of coming off," he said. "Experience tells us you can narrow it in that much."

PICK NO. 11

The plan: draft Andrejs Everitt.

The Bulldogs made Everitt their No. 1 priority narrowly ahead of a Claremont midfielder from another well-known football family, Nathan Krakouer. It was a tough call; Everitt's agility, versatility and long kicking gave him the edge.

"He's our sort of player," Clayton said. "What you're basically doing is looking at players, seeing them in a role, and then asking whether they have the attributes to play that role. He has. It was a hard one. We really, really liked Krakouer, but we just liked Everitt a little bit more."

The outcome: Everitt was there, and nabbed.

PICK NO. 45

The plan: pick Brennan Stack, a Mark Williams-ish small forward from Western Australia who, to the Bulldogs' surprise, missed the cut for the WA under-18 team this year. This one was a little tricky. Clayton and Ambrogio were also fans of Geelong onballer Simon Hogan, and almost certain that Stack would be there at their next pick, 61. They didn't nominate him for a state screening session in Perth, but three other clubs did, and those clubs (Essendon, Sydney and Port Adelaide) all had choices between 45 and 61.

"The courageous thing would be to take Hogan and let Stack try and get through. But we really, really want him," said Clayton.

"If we're sitting there and Stack goes at 50, we'll be filthy."

The outcome: Stack was drafted, after Clayton briefly wondered whether Krakouer would be left. He was grabbed by Port Adelaide at No. 39. Hogan was still available.

PICK NO. 61

The plan: choose Josh Hill, another indigenous WA boy. Hill was listed on the spreadsheet under pick 45, but only as a back-up should Stack, Hogan and a few others all be gone.

Had they had to use pick 45 on Hill, a contingency plan would have come into play. The Bulldogs would not have drafted Malcolm Lynch, their next in line, but an interstate onballer. They would have flicked those two over, leaving Lynch for pick 66, because they were sure another club, with a choice in between 61 and 66, would have pinched him.

The outcome: with Stack drafted, the Bulldogs could go for Hill. The unnamed interstate onballer they were looking at was not drafted by them, or by anyone else. Hogan had been picked by Geelong, at No.57.

PICK No. 66

The plan: choose Malcolm Lynch. Lynch, a Tiwi Islander who goes to private school in Sydney, led an indigenous youth team on a tour of South Africa this year.

He played only one game after that, early in the season, before battling back and finger injuries.

The Bulldogs liked his speed; he did a 2.83 second, 20-metre sprint at a state screening session. "We see him in a small forward role," said Ambrogio. "He's a slippery little kid and a really good kick."

The outcome: Lynch was picked.

PICK NO. 76

The plan: pick the draft's smoky, Paul O'Shea, 17, from Rockhampton, O'Shea played one trial game for the Queensland under-18 team, at Coburg this year, but didn't make the final cut. At 17, he's only just of draft age. Drafting, then relocating, a bottom-age player can be risky.

O'Shea (like Lynch, Stack and Hill) had already moved from home for footy, and the Bulldogs were sure that if they left him there, he'd be snapped up early in the 2007 draft. "If he's not there, there's a good chance I'll cry," said Ambrogio.

The outcome: O'Shea is there, and the Bulldogs take him.

"Our judgement is that he'd be right up there next year, so we were prepared to take the punt," Clayton said.

© 2006 The Age

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