While Essendon’s current playing group focus on getting their season back on track, recruiting staff are casting an eye to the future.

The under 18 National Championships are well underway giving young hopefuls the chance to impress talent spotters.

Essendon has a vast network of recruiting staff charged with finding the next Dyson Heppell or Michael Hurley.

“The key criteria for us I think is competitiveness,” Essendon List and Recruiting Manager Adrian Dodoro said. 

“It can be a brutal game and you’ve got to be a competitor, you’ve got to be resilient and you’ve got to have great constitution to survive for ten or eleven years.”

South Australia has been the leading side in the Championships so far with two rounds still to play.

“A lot of people are saying it’s going to be a shallow draft this year,” Dodoro said. 

“There is probably not the huge numbers of absolute talent that you’d normally see at the beginning of drafts, but we’re comfortable that we’ll have a good draft.”

List and recruiting staff are constantly monitoring the list to work out what holes need to be filled.

Dodoro has an experienced team stationed across the country with some recruiters watching up to six games each weekend. 

“We’re pretty realistic with where we’re at,” Dodoro said. 

“There is a lot of work done with the coaches, particularly ‘Hirdy’ – he’s fantastic, he’s great to work with. 

“We, along with our list management team are fairly aware that there are some areas of our list that we want to address.”

Essendon will have its full compliment of draft selections available this year after losing picks in the last two drafts. 

“It’s crucial for us.  We haven’t shied away form the fact it really disturbed our strategy,” Dodoro said.

“We’re a club that likes to recruit and develop – that’s our philosophy. 

“The last two years our philosophy had to change given that we had sanctions and restrictions imposed.

“Getting back to uncompromised drafting is going to be fantastic for the club this year.”