Draft "critical" to club
Crows recruiting manager James Fantasia believes that Saturday’s NAB AFL Draft is “critical” for the Adelaide Football Club.
Crows recruiting manager James Fantasia believes that Saturday’s NAB AFL Draft is “critical” for the Adelaide Football Club.With a number of senior players entering the twilight period of their careers, Fantasia and his team have the responsibility of securing the future of the club for the years to come.“There’s always a lot of pressure on you, to make sure that we get those early picks that will support the football club and move forward,” Fantasia said.With youngsters such as van Berlo, Maric, Porplyzia, Knights and Vince showing early potential at AFL level, Fantasia is looking forward to adding to the list of quality young players in the Crows squad.“We have been reasonably successful over the last couple of years with some of our young players moving in to AFL footy reasonably early in their careers,” he said. “Here’s an opportunity for us to add a few more quality players of developing standards who will be ready to go in the next 12 months to 24 months.”Adelaide will enter the draft with picks 14, 32, 48 and 64. With Adelaide’s first pick being near the end of the first round, the Crows recruitment team cannot be sure of who will be available when their turn arrives.“We’re going through a very diligent process at the moment, going through our (list) of players, as you do, and on the day we’re going to have to make a decision, no doubt,” Fantasia said.“What we’ve got to do is estimate some scenarios, in terms of who we might be able to pick or who might be there. And in doing that, it’s taking in the tall type players, it’s taking in the midfield players, and if that happens I think the rest of the draft gets dictated to as well.“Once you’ve been able to take one type of player, you might be able to focus in on another type.”Fantasia, who will be entering his 12th national draft this weekend, expects greater value from the later picks than in previous years.“People have talked about this being a super draft, and from my experiences you would think that it is probably reasonably deep, numbers wise,” Fantasia said. “And when you talk about those numbers, it’s probably fair to say that this year’s second round draft picks, would most likely to be first round draft picks in other years. So if you do your numbers, it’s probably pretty deep.”Adelaide’s preference will be to add height to its list, however Fantasia believes that, like most other AFL clubs, the best player available will be drafted.“If we’re in a situation where players are pretty similar, arguably we’ll go for the taller player, at this stage,” he said. “But like most clubs will tell you, we’re after the best players possible.“We have a range of players who we believe will come into our top 14, if you like. And being number 14, we’re not sure which players will be there, but we believe that it will be a very good player.”Fantasia believes that many South Australian youngsters could potentially find themselves at an AFL club following Saturday’s draft.“I think South Australia stacks up very well in relation to the quality of talent that’s here (in the draft),” he said. “It’s never easy to know what that would equate to in numbers; first round, second round draft picks and things like that. I think it holds us in good stead, because down the track (in the draft), when it does get a bit closer, if there is a South Australian player or an interstate player it certainly gives us the advantage to go for a local player.”