The pre-season draft isn’t held until December 14th and there is still a lot to unfold in terms of who becomes available. There have been suggestions that one, or even two, Brisbane players could yet nominate for the draft. Richmond and Ty Zantuck look set to part company while Patrick Bowden and the Western Bulldogs are yet to agree to terms. Then you have the players de-listed by other clubs such as former Geelong midfielder David Spriggs.
""We can get involved this year if we wish - it is just a matter of seeing who becomes available in the pre-season draft,"" Essendon recruiting manager Adrian Dodoro said.
""There are a number of uncontracted players who may nominate and there are some who may have nominated but are now contracted. It is a bit of a waiting game – you really don’t know this far out but as in trade week, we are not going to pick someone up for the sake of it. If we think they can add to our list we won’t hesitate.""
Prior to the pre-season draft, the Bombers will take part in the National draft on November 20th. Dodoro said the 2005 version will be very different to that of previous seasons.
""It is an unusual draft in that the talent pool is full of key position / project players. There are a lot of players who are about six foot three and six foot four and that is different to most drafts which are a bit more lop-sided with smaller midfielders,"" Dodoro said.
""While there is an abundance of taller players I don’t think there is a lot of depth in the midfielders. The first few are obviously standouts but it falls away reasonably quickly.
""With our first selection at 14, we are pretty much at the mercy of the other clubs. We will do our homework and know which players fit in best with what we want to do but just which of them are still available when it gets to us remains to be seen.""
