Darcy Fogarty’s draft year saw the big-bodied teenager sidelined with a knee injury in July, while surgery ensured he missed the Draft Combine.
Despite the lack of game time, Adelaide had seen enough and had no hesitation of selecting the South Australian at pick No. 12 in last year’s National Draft.
Recruiting Manager Hamish Ogilvie says the Club’s prior knowledge of Fogarty was important when he had an up-and-down season with Glenelg and the Under 18 State Team.
“You’ve got to look at the whole body of work and that’s why it’s important to go and watch the 16’s, to go to the footy and watch it live because something will go wrong for someone,” Ogilvie told the Road to the Draft podcast.
“At some stage they will have an injury or a hiccup or a hurdle so if you travel to the US with them in the AFL Academy you get to know them really well.
“You watch practice games and have got a big enough body of work to make an assessment.”
Following his knee surgery, Fogarty put his effort into rehab and the signs were good. So good that other clubs were showing plenty of interest, but Adelaide wanted its local star.
“We’ve always said if it’s a very even lineball call we’re going to take the local which is pretty obvious,” Ogilvie said.
“We hoped he would [be there at 12] but we had probably prepared for three or four players there.
“Within two days before the draft we thought we were pretty close and there was some chance he would get there.”
Now there is a greater emphasis on how potential draft picks perform in junior footy, beyond just the under 18s, Ogilvie says the Crows can genuinely get to know players and see how they adapt.
“We’d known him and seen him since he was 14, 15. The boys at that sort of level you’ve seen them all through the schoolboys, the 16’s, you know them well,” he said.
“While Darcy’s year wasn’t fantastic we’d seen the very, very good and we’d also seen him play with injury, play some senior footy where he was struggling to find his place in a team which is always a difficult form line.”
