Essendon is completing its final preparations just two days out from the 2014 National Draft on the Gold Coast.
Over the course of the next few days the club’s recruiting team led by list manager Adrian Dodoro will complete last minute plans for the evening.
The final preparations include last minute player interviews as well as getting as much knowledge as possible on prospective draftees and the way the draft is likely to pan out.
“It is about trying to get as much intelligence as possible about where things may fall,” Dodoro told essendonfc.com.au
“Most clubs are very guarded so you don’t get much information but we are speaking to players with last minute conversations and basically just ticking things off.
“Basically everything is in readiness for what we hope is a good draft for us.”
Many experts are tipping the talent pool for Thursday night’s draft to be one of the most even in recent years with a depth of quality among the youngsters.
That is good news for the Bombers who are set to enter the evening with two live selections at 17 and 20.
“It is an interesting draft,” Dodoro said.
“When you only have the two selections, we have probably ended up putting more work into these two then we have ever done before.
“It is interesting because we will be waiting to see what falls out, we have rated our players one to twenty and we will be determined by what other clubs do in the draft.”
Despite having a list of the top rated individuals in the talent pool, it is a challenge to ensure the club doesn’t select two identical players.
“It will come down to the combination as well because you don’t want to take two of the same type of players,” he said.
“We might want to take a small and a tall or different types of players.
“Predominately we have them rated in a best player scenario but we have a bit of flexibility given that our first player might be a certain type then we change the next one up a little bit.”
Make sure you don’t miss anything from the 2014 National Draft with live coverage on essendonfc.com.au from 7pm.
