Essendon will target versatility rather than load up on a specific position with its first-round selections at the 2020 NAB AFL Draft, according to national recruiting manager Rob Forster-Knight. 

The Bombers enter Wednesday night’s virtual draft armed with picks Nos. 6, 7, 8, 44, 77, 85, 87 and 99, holding three top-10 selections for the first time in their history. 

Those picks will slide once Academy bids are matched, while Essendon is also open to live trading.

DRAFT HUB: Latest news and videos

Forster-Knight said the club was confident of emerging with a mix of quality youngsters invested in new senior coach Ben Rutten’s vision. 

“We’re really satisfied with the depth and quality of the pool,” Forster-Knight said.

“It’s going to be a combination (of needs and best available). We don’t want to walk away with the same type of player. We’ve got some areas that we want to address in this draft, but we’re confident we’ll walk away with some long-term Essendon players.

“A big focus this year is bringing in players who are really aligned to Ben Rutten’s game plan and (general manager of list and recruiting) Adrian Dodoro’s vision for the list as well. We’re going to bring in players aligned with that who have particular values. We just want players to come in and contribute to our on-field success for a long time.” 

There’s been much intrigue surrounding this year’s draft, with a lack of football due to COVID-19 (mainly in Victoria) and state border closures forcing recruiters to watch games from afar.

Forster-Knight said the Bombers’ recruiters had worked hard across the country to adapt to the changes, with many taking up volunteer roles.

“It has been a challenge. We’ve had to adapt to a new way of working to dig deep on those Victorian players. What it’s meant for us is making sure we’ve retrieved as much vision as possible from their school year and last year, and get a bit more intelligence on the players by speaking to coaches and other people on the peripheral so we can build a strong case for these guys,” he said.

“Fortunately the Victorian players have had the opportunity to do some testing at the Combine recently and do some training, so we’ve had the chance to lay our eyes on them and see how they’ve presented physically. That combined with interviews has given us confidence about where they are in their development.

“We’ve been fortunate. All our spotters have stepped up for us this year. When the COVID scenario first hit, we had to cease employment for everyone, including our spotters. Most of them put their hands up to work in a volunteer capacity and really help the club. We’ve got experienced recruiters in the different states, so we felt that we weren’t missing too much.”

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While Essendon is unlikely to use all eight selections on Wednesday, it has Next Generation Academy prospects Josh Eyre and Cody Brand in its thinking.

The Calder Cannons talls have impressed since joining the club’s James Hird Academy (JHA) in 2018, where they've developed under the tutelage of JHA head coach Heath Hocking. 

“We’ve put a lot of work into Cody and Josh. They’re fantastic young men,” Forster-Knight said.

“Heath Hocking has been working with those guys for a couple of years through our Academy program. They’re very good learners and developing talls. It would have been great to see them play this year, but they’ve really applied themselves off the field to give themselves the best chance of getting on to an AFL list.” 

The 2020 NAB AFL Draft will be held virtually on Wednesday night, with coverage starting from 6:30pm AEDT on AFL.com.au, the AFL Live Official App and Fox Footy. 

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