Adelaide will head to Friday night’s AFL National Draft with its longest talent list in a decade, says National Recruiting Manager Hamish Ogilvie.
The Crows currently hold pick Nos.13, 43, 53, 66, 82 and 90 at the national meet in Sydney.
Read our quick guide to the draft
Ogilvie indicated Adelaide would use “four or five” live picks on Friday night, with ruckman Reilly O’Brien’s promotion to the senior list to be confirmed with the Club’s last pick. Another “two or three” players will join the Crows in the Rookie Draft on Monday afternoon.
Last year, Adelaide took only two picks in the National Draft, selecting Central District midfielder/forward Wayne Milera Junior (No.11) and Geelong Falcons defender Tom Doedee (No.17) in the first round.
Crows recruiters have had to do more research across the entire talent pool this year, and Ogilvie was confident the Club could capitalise on its late picks.
“Because of the depth, we’ll go to this draft with more players than we’ve ever had on our list in the 10 years I’ve been doing it,” Ogilvie told FIVEaa.
“And that’s good because we need to go and have some picks late in the draft.
“The talent right at the very top, is it at as high a level as other years? Maybe not, but there’s four or five (standouts) at the very top and then a group of another 10-15 who are very even.”
North Adelaide forward Ben Jarman remains part of the talent list despite not being nominated as a father-son selection ahead of the National Draft.
Ogilvie said there was still a chance Jarman, the son of two-time Crows premiership player Darren, could join the Club on Friday night, or possibly as a rookie if he's not selected in the national meet.
“It’s certainly not a decision we made lightly … and we don’t want to put Ben or the family through the pressure he’s been through,” he said.
“I understand the emotion … but we’re trying to do what’s right and make the best decisions for our Club. It’s tricky for us too … because we’ve worked with Ben for a long time and been discussing this, but we just can’t make decisions on personal feelings. We’ve got to weigh everyone up the same.
“Rory Atkins was pick 81. I’m not saying we’ll get a Rory Atkins in the 80s (in this draft) … but who knows. We understand where you’re coming from and the supporters are (too) but hang with us, and we’ll see how things pan out on the night.
“Ben’s certainly in our talent order. We’ll make those decisions along with all the others. He’s a good lad and we’ll see how it goes.”
The midfield is viewed as an area of need following the departures of Patrick Dangerfield and Jarryd Lyons in recent years, and with two-time Club Champion Scott Thompson being in the latter stages of his career.
The 2016 talent pool has been described as a ‘midfielders’ draft, but Ogilvie said that didn’t guarantee the Crows would focus solely on onballers.
“The general philosophy is always to trade for needs and draft for the future, so we’re going to stay really true to the talent order and pick the next-best available (player),” he said.
“Having said that, if you pick two talls (with your early picks) you need to start balance off later in the draft with a bit of need.”
Speed has also been identified as possible need to address, but Ogilvie was confident the Club had already gone a way towards adding pace to the playing group.
“We brought in some speed last year with Hampton, Seedsman, Menzel and Milera, so speed is not the be all and end all,” he said.
“If you can get a mid with speed or a tall who can play forward or back with speed that would be a bonus, but we’re not hell bent on speed – we’re hell bent on great players and people.”