National Recruiting Manager Hamish Ogilvie delves into the Recruiting Files again, this time recalling the story of how Jarryd Lyons came to be a Crow … 

Lyons flew under the radar of recruiters to an extent in 2010, but he had a huge fan on the Crows recruiting team …

One of our Melbourne recruiters, Rob Reid basically watched every game that Jarryd played in 2010. I remember Rob driving all the way to Lavington to watch Jarryd play one day and he came back raving about him. He was just adamant that he wanted us to pick him. Rob’s our most experienced recruiter - he’s been with the Crows for 20-odd years. Rob doesn’t rate too many players that highly, so when he really rates one and keeps pushing week-after-week, you know they’re going to be pretty good.

The inside midfielder was overlooked for selection in the Victoria Metro team, but continued to impress at school and TAC Cup level …

Jarryd played pretty good school footy for De La Salle, and he slotted into Sandringham pretty easily. The Sandringham guys were a big rap for him. Jarryd just played well and performed really consistently at the level. We always thought that he was going to be a bigger-bodied midfielder to, maybe, take Scotty Thompson’s spot one day but Jarryd also played a lot of really high-quality footy as a forward for Sandringham. We saw him kick bags of three, four or five in the TAC Cup. He played a bit like ‘Porps’ (Jason Porplyzia) as a medium forward. He was good overhead on similar-sized opponents and good at ground-level as well. So, we weren’t really surprised to see him kick four goals against Collingwood earlier this year. 

Ogilvie and his recruiting team interviewed Lyons at home prior to the AFL National Draft …

We interviewed Jarryd at home. His dad was actually away fishing at the time, but his mum was super. She was fantastic; really enthusiastic and keen. It was a pretty straight-forward interview with no issues. Jarryd’s a quiet sort of kid, but he spoke very well and thoughtfully. The only slight query was over his speed, but he tested okay from memory. He wasn’t the most athletic bloke going around, but he was a pure footballer and a good sportsman all-round. He could turn his hand to most things he played and was a talented cricketer. Usually the cricketers that bat pretty well can concentrate in a football game.

Adelaide only had two selections in the 2010 AFL National Draft. The Club was thrilled to secure Brodie Smith at No.14 and then Lyons all the way down at No.61 …

We rated Jarryd pretty highly, so we were sort of surprised he was there so late in the draft. It was a big win to get him at No.61. All the recruiting guys in Melbourne liked him. Usually, you don’t all agree. There’s might be five or six of you and three will really like a player, while the other two might be a bit unsure, but everyone was all really sure about Jarryd. Jarryd’s just a fraction unfortunate that we’ve got a few guys battling for the same position in the team. But the extra string to his bow, being a good forward as a kid, has given him a chance to play as just a forward or a bit of an extra midfielder at times. He forced his way into the side and he’ll get more opportunities if he continues to work hard.