NATIONAL recruiting manager Barry Prendergast speaks to melbournefc.com.au editor Matt Burgan in the lead-up to Thursday’s NAB AFL Draft.
MB: Barry, this will be your fourth NAB AFL Draft as national recruiting manager for Melbourne on Thursday. How do you view this year’s draft pool?
BP: This year’s draft pool I wouldn’t think is anywhere near as strong as the previous three, but we’ll just wait and see what happens on the day. We’re really just looking for players who fit in the current model.
MB: You have just the required three picks this year: No.36, No.52 and No.54. How do you find picking in the 50s again, considering you’ve previously selected four players there - Jack Fitzpatrick (2009), Troy Davis (2010), Neville Jetta (2008) and Tom McDonald (2010)?
BP: Every year we’ve had a pick between 30 and 34, and 50 and 54, so it’s pretty familiar ground in picking those players. In fact, last year we had 50 and 53. So, we’ve got two picks in the 50s again. It is tricky at the end, because you’ve just got to wait and see what happens.
MB: Do you expect any players to ‘slide through’ to you at No.36, No.52 or No.54?
BP: You can get a little bit of luck, where you think that blokes might have gone [earlier], but they come through. It’s pretty dependent on the draft pool itself, quite often.
MB: You and your recruiting team have put in a mountain of work for this year’s Draft. As part of that, you had a Draft Seminar Day last Thursday. Can you talk about that?
BP: We have it every year. It was a successful day, as they generally are. We brought together all the information, and ran a mock draft, where we get our recruiting staff to allocate picks. We ran through the draft order as it will appear on draft day. The recruiting team selected players in order, and we looked at why they selected those players.
MB: You also picked the brains of some talent identifiers outside of the club during the Draft Seminar. Can you talk about that?
BP: We got Anton Grbac and Leon Harris in, who are the high performance managers at Football Victoria, and have worked with all the under 18s at the State Championships and beyond. They gave us a good insight into the players they’ve worked with. Victoria’s got a really strong hand in this year’s draft, which they generally do - but probably this year more than others. From there, we looked at the medical parts - our doctors have done medicals, and after that we took apart the draft. We tried to predict what would be available to us at 36, analysed it and came up with some opinions, ratings and rankings.
MB: Did you come close to finalising your decisions then?
BP: It wasn’t a final decision making day by any means, but it was a great day to bring all the stakeholders together. The coaches were involved with the recruiting staff, so we got to hone in on our picks.
MB: Did a day like that help the decision-making process clearer or cloud a few decisions?
BP: It was an interesting day. We don’t have our first round draft pick this year and we [normally] tend to spend a lot of time on that. At that pick you don’t have quite so many options. We don’t [normally] spend as much time on the later picks, purely through the time factor. So this year we got to spend a lot of time on picks 36, 52 and 54. There’s no doubt that it narrows your mind and gets you closer to the final decision and how you think it will all happen.
MB: And naturally there are differing opinions among the recruiters and coaches at times.
BP: And there’s no doubt that there was a diverse amount of opinions in the room about what we should be taking at those picks. You reflect and wade through the information that’s come forward, and the things that might have changed your mind a little bit. It certainly is a big part of the decision making process.
MB: There are always challenges for recruiters involved in the draft. But this year, with a fresh coaching staff, it adds another dimension, doesn’t it?
BP: There’s no doubt about that. The focus of this coaching staff is much different to the previous one, in the way that they look at the game, and the things that they see as important in the game - there’s no question about that. So, as a recruiter, you’ve got to adapt to that, and you’ve got to say, ‘Well, OK, we might have been looking for this kind of attribute, or that kind of player previously, and that was important in the game plan, but with this coach, and this coaching group, you’ve got to look for other things.’ Irrespective of what your biases might be, we need to plug players into our list who are going to develop into the side we want to be.
MB: I’m sure you’ve had plenty of late nights working on the draft, so best wishes for Thursday.
BP: You tend to work around the clock as you get closer, making sure that you’re dotting your ‘i’s and crossing your ‘t’s, so [once that’s done], that’s when you walk in … [and you know] you’re happy with what you’re going to do.
MB: Barry, this will be your fourth NAB AFL Draft as national recruiting manager for Melbourne on Thursday. How do you view this year’s draft pool?
BP: This year’s draft pool I wouldn’t think is anywhere near as strong as the previous three, but we’ll just wait and see what happens on the day. We’re really just looking for players who fit in the current model.
MB: You have just the required three picks this year: No.36, No.52 and No.54. How do you find picking in the 50s again, considering you’ve previously selected four players there - Jack Fitzpatrick (2009), Troy Davis (2010), Neville Jetta (2008) and Tom McDonald (2010)?
BP: Every year we’ve had a pick between 30 and 34, and 50 and 54, so it’s pretty familiar ground in picking those players. In fact, last year we had 50 and 53. So, we’ve got two picks in the 50s again. It is tricky at the end, because you’ve just got to wait and see what happens.
MB: Do you expect any players to ‘slide through’ to you at No.36, No.52 or No.54?
BP: You can get a little bit of luck, where you think that blokes might have gone [earlier], but they come through. It’s pretty dependent on the draft pool itself, quite often.
MB: You and your recruiting team have put in a mountain of work for this year’s Draft. As part of that, you had a Draft Seminar Day last Thursday. Can you talk about that?
BP: We have it every year. It was a successful day, as they generally are. We brought together all the information, and ran a mock draft, where we get our recruiting staff to allocate picks. We ran through the draft order as it will appear on draft day. The recruiting team selected players in order, and we looked at why they selected those players.
MB: You also picked the brains of some talent identifiers outside of the club during the Draft Seminar. Can you talk about that?
BP: We got Anton Grbac and Leon Harris in, who are the high performance managers at Football Victoria, and have worked with all the under 18s at the State Championships and beyond. They gave us a good insight into the players they’ve worked with. Victoria’s got a really strong hand in this year’s draft, which they generally do - but probably this year more than others. From there, we looked at the medical parts - our doctors have done medicals, and after that we took apart the draft. We tried to predict what would be available to us at 36, analysed it and came up with some opinions, ratings and rankings.
MB: Did you come close to finalising your decisions then?
BP: It wasn’t a final decision making day by any means, but it was a great day to bring all the stakeholders together. The coaches were involved with the recruiting staff, so we got to hone in on our picks.
MB: Did a day like that help the decision-making process clearer or cloud a few decisions?
BP: It was an interesting day. We don’t have our first round draft pick this year and we [normally] tend to spend a lot of time on that. At that pick you don’t have quite so many options. We don’t [normally] spend as much time on the later picks, purely through the time factor. So this year we got to spend a lot of time on picks 36, 52 and 54. There’s no doubt that it narrows your mind and gets you closer to the final decision and how you think it will all happen.
MB: And naturally there are differing opinions among the recruiters and coaches at times.
BP: And there’s no doubt that there was a diverse amount of opinions in the room about what we should be taking at those picks. You reflect and wade through the information that’s come forward, and the things that might have changed your mind a little bit. It certainly is a big part of the decision making process.
MB: There are always challenges for recruiters involved in the draft. But this year, with a fresh coaching staff, it adds another dimension, doesn’t it?
BP: There’s no doubt about that. The focus of this coaching staff is much different to the previous one, in the way that they look at the game, and the things that they see as important in the game - there’s no question about that. So, as a recruiter, you’ve got to adapt to that, and you’ve got to say, ‘Well, OK, we might have been looking for this kind of attribute, or that kind of player previously, and that was important in the game plan, but with this coach, and this coaching group, you’ve got to look for other things.’ Irrespective of what your biases might be, we need to plug players into our list who are going to develop into the side we want to be.
MB: I’m sure you’ve had plenty of late nights working on the draft, so best wishes for Thursday.
BP: You tend to work around the clock as you get closer, making sure that you’re dotting your ‘i’s and crossing your ‘t’s, so [once that’s done], that’s when you walk in … [and you know] you’re happy with what you’re going to do.
