Adrian Dodoro has worked full-time as recruiting and welfare manager since 1998, but his working relationship with the Essendon Football Club spans over 20 years. He met Kevin Sheedy as an 18-year-old through training with a scholarship squad. When Dodoro realised he wasn’t good enough to play at the elite level, he decided he still wanted to be involved in a professional football environment, and targeted the club he had supported all his life.

""I had a chat to Sheeds and he offered me the opportunity to do some work with him and do some forward scouting. From there the relationship just developed. It was never a plan that one day I would work full-time, Sheeds propably had other ideas. I am indebted to Sheeds for the opportunity – I have huge respect for him."" Dodoro said.

Over time, Dodoro got involved with assisting the reserves coaches, and then worked in the senior box with Sheedy doing board match-ups and match notes. In 1998, there was a restructure at the club, and Peter Jackson and Sheedy proposed Dodoro work full-time on recruiting. Dodoro officially started in January 1998 and he already had a wildcard up his sleeve for his first draft – the Rookie Draft in March.

In his previous job as an administration manager for Air Services Australia, he flew around the country quite a bit, so he got to see a lot of footy in South Australia and West Australia. That is how he stumbled across Dean Rioli. ""I went and watched the Peel Thunder and South Fremantle match one day and Dean caught my eye and stuck in my mind. I was just fortunate that my first draft was that Rookie Draft and we had a low pick,"" Dodoro said.

""Sheeds and I spoke to Dean prior to the draft, and he made it perfectly clear that he wanted to play for Essendon. We were very, very lucky to get him in a Rookie Draft – I couldn’t believe it. In the same Rookie Draft we were able to get Mark Johnson. To look back on that draft and get Rioli and Johnson – it was a good start!""

Dodoro gets a lot of satisfaction from recruiting and bringing talent to the club and watching these players progress. ""If people in my position say anything to the contrary, I think they are lying a little bit, because you do play a part in the decision-making process, and you have a special relationship with all of them.

""You look back at some of the players you draft, and you think, ‘How lucky were we?’. Then you look at some that don’t develop as you might have thought and you wonder why, and think about whether we could have done something different or whether we just made the wrong decision. It is on your mind all the time. It is such a cut-throat industry, and there is always pressure.""

Click here to read part one of ""Planning for success.""