Crows National Recruiting Manager Hamish Ogilvie has described this year’s draft class as “very even”, saying the top 10 remains open to debate following the completion of the Under-18 National Championships.
On Thursday, South Australia narrowly beat Vic Metro to claim back-to-back Championship titles.
In contrast to recent years where the No.1 pick has been identified months (or years) out from the draft, it’s commonly suggested there is still no definitive standout in this year’s talent pool.
Each (Division One) team played six games across the extended Under-18 National Championships this year, giving players ample opportunity to impress. Ogilvie said a number of players had been “up and down” across the carnival, making it tougher for recruiters to assess.
“It’s very even. Normally, by this time of year there’s a clear top 5-8 players and everyone pretty much knows what the top 10 is going to look like, but this year it’s not as clear,” Ogilvie said.
“It’s very open and it’ll vary team by team. What we like might be different to what another team likes, so there will be plenty of surprises. Even the top 10-15 is still really open. What we might have at No.3, another club might have at 10. There are a couple of standouts on performances, but it’s really tricky.
“I think the depth is good. There are 30-40 really solid contenders.”
Despite SA’s success, AFL.com.au’searly PhantomDraft form guide has only one Croweater, West Adelaide tall Sam Durdin,in the top 20.
The Crows will have a full complement of picks for the first time in three years.
Despite draft sanctions, Adelaide was able to unearth the likes of Charlie Cameron and Kyle Hartigan, who have already played AFL football. The Club successfully lured in-form forward Eddie Betts to West Lakes as a Free Agent and traded to secure promising young midfielder Matt Crouch.
Ogilvie said it was important the Crows recruiting staff maintained a ruthless approach to the draft.
“It’s really important we attack this draft with the vigour that we attacked the past two drafts,” Ogilvie said.
“The minute we sit back and say, ‘What a relief, we’ve got our picks back’ is the minute we’ll go backwards and won’t do a good job. We’re going to work as hard as we did when we didn’t have our early picks to try to get them all right.”
The Crows will stick to their mantra of taking the best available player with their picks.
“We need good players. If there’s a really great player and person available at our pick, it doesn’t really matter the size or shape,” Ogilvie said.
“You might address your talent order a little bit down the back with needs. If you’ve got early picks, you’ve got to take the best talent. People don’t get first-rounders wrong much anymore.
“Our experience with Brodie Smith, Daniel Talia and Patrick Dangerfield tells us you can’t muck around with that sort of procedure.”
Recruiters will head to the Gold Coast for the Under-16 National Championships next week before approaching the business end of the draft process, which culminates in the national meet on November 27.
“We’ll go really hard with interviews for a good couple of months,” Ogilvie said.
“Our recruiting staff will go away now and be really specific with target players and refine their lists. They’ll lockdown on 10-15 players in each state, who they’ll watch really closely and then come back and present to us.”
