Q – What do the recruiting staff do now – obviously you look towards the next draft. What does the next few weeks entail?
A – It is only half time for us. At the moment we are looking at the Rookie Draft. I don’t think we have totally been discounted out of the December draft – we still have two spots on our list. Obviously Peter Jackson will let us know in due course if we can participate in that – hopefully we can. If we can’t, we still have the Rookie Draft. It is just as important as the National Draft. It is an extension of that process. We have three selections because Marcus Kenny is retained. We will take three more players. We have had success lately with the Rookie system. If you look at the Johnson’s, the Rioli’s they have all come off the Rookie list. It has grown significantly in importance. I think Peverill was the one last year who has set the benchmark as far as Rookie’s are concerned. He came on the list and it would have been great to have Damien Peverill in the finals last year. I think it is great he is on the list. The rookie innovation is something that Sheedy was on about for many years and I think all clubs can thank people like Sheeds for pushing that. It would be nice if you could have eight or nine rookies on AFL lists and hopefully we can find one this year that is just as good as Peverill.
Q – If Damien Peverill had of been in the National Draft, there is every chance he would have gone number one – in effective we have got the number one draft pick anyway.
A – Well we hope so. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened but fortunately it didn’t occur. He is a proven player and he is only 21 years of age. He took eight or nine scalps last year of top quality players. So surely he would have been right there in the mix if he was in the draft. He is a bonus and I think the exciting thing for our club is to have Peverill and Misiti playing in the mid-field together. Something that we didn’t have last year – so it is going to be a big improvement.
