Essendon has forecast the need to target a young opposition star in the next two years to replenish and balance its list after two years of draft penalties.
The Bombers, who are preparing to embark on an extensive analysis of their list management operations following their wider football department review, have recruited just two players at each of the past two NAB AFL Drafts.
As a result they entered 2015 with only four teenagers on their senior list and three 20-year-olds. St Kilda by comparison had 11 players aged 20 or under.
"If you look at our list profile, there is a little bit of damage in those years where we had two picks instead of four picks," football manager Rob Kerr said.
"So a part of our strategy is looking forward and saying we probably have to go and find a 22, 23-year-old at some point when the group’s about to go to add to our group."
The Bombers identified list management as an area for further analysis during their extensive football department review, which was unveiled at a members' forum on Thursday night.
Other outcomes of the review were:
- The club's two general manager positions (one of which was held by Neil Craig in 2015) will be condensed into one role, which Kerr will hold.
- Mark Neeld will be moved into a new role of game performance manager, which the club compared to the role the late Phil Walsh played alongside John Worsfold at West Coast.
- The Bombers will introduce a yet to be appointed external leadership consultant.
- A new position – head of people, learning and growth – will be introduced to the football department to ensure efficiency in teaching methods.
CEO Xavier Campbell conducted the review alongside Neale Daniher, meeting with almost all football department staff.
He said the role played by Craig as general manager of football performance was no longer required after a tumultuous period for the club, which is expecting closure to its doping saga before Christmas.
Neeld will take on some of Craig's previous responsibilities in the game performance manager role, which will have a strategy focus.
The club is interviewing for Neeld's replacement as head of player development.
The Bombers also have one assistant coach position to fill after Hayden Skipworth was elevated to full-time line coach.
List manager Adrian Dodoro will remain in his position.
Kerr's review of list management operations is in response to the introduction of free agency, total player payments banking and club zones and academies within a short space of time.
"Those sorts of developments have come into play in the past three to four years and knowing these trends that have hit the game, the old style of recruiting structure is going to have to change," Kerr said.
“’Moneyball’ gets thrown around a little bit, but clubs are spending more time and investing in their player analysis and analytics with a view to bringing players in from other clubs."
Kerr said the club had been slow to pick up on those trends, such as the Aphex technology, which can work out the dollar value of a player based on the amount of wins he is predicted to deliver an AFL club.
The software, which uses competition-wide data based on a complex formula, is a tool being used by clubs to navigate the less restrictive player movement era.
Essendon's football department review took the Bombers 10 weeks and the club plans to review its operations in a similar fashion regularly to maintain what it hopes is now best practice.
