MELBOURNE will enter Friday night's NAB AFL Draft armed with 47 names, as the club finalises its 2018 list with four new players.
National recruiting manager Jason Taylor said he was ready for a host of options to unfold on Friday night, when the NAB AFL Draft is held in Sydney.
“We’ve got [pick] 47 as our last selection, so to be confident, we really need to go in there with 47 [names] on our board, otherwise you might get some nervous moments,” he told melbournefc.com.au.
“We haven’t got a rookie selection this year, so in more recent times we’ve had to go in with a lot more than 47 [names].
“It hasn’t changed our preparation and it’s probably given us a little bit more time to be more thorough on a certain group of players.”
Taylor said the fact that Melbourne will have only added six new players to its list was a good sign of the club’s direction. In the NAB AFL Trade Period, Melbourne added Jake Lever (Adelaide Crows) and Harley Balic (Fremantle), while it will secure four players on Friday night.
“I think the list starting to take shape and we’re getting some depth in most areas of the ground now,” Taylor said.
“Hopefully we can just bring in some young talent – players with the right attitude – on Friday night and add some more depth to the squad.
“I think we’ll take the best available player and if we can shape it with those closer picks together, we might be able to fit a need in, here or there.”
With picks No.29, No.31, No.36 and No.47, Taylor said the Melbourne recruiting team had considered several options, which could unfold.
“You work through scenarios like that and potentially gather some information, but at the end of the day, we’re not in the business of outsmarting ourselves, so we’ll try and stay true to our order,” he said.
“It gives you some opportunities – there are four clubs in front of us that have got multiple picks in the second round. We’ll be dictated a little bit by that, but hopefully in a good way.
“We’ve looked at a few different scenarios that may play out and we’re confident that we might get one of those scenarios and that’d be a good result for the club.”
Taylor said the upcoming meeting was the culmination of plenty of hard work achieved by the recruiting team this year.
“Hopefully the fruits of our work over the year comes together on the night,” he said.
“We’re really looking forward to it and we’re pretty close to finalising things in the next day or so.
“We’ll have a little refresher up there [in Sydney] and have another look. We think we’re in a pretty good position with some picks bunched together. There are only 18 selections between 29 and 47, so we’re hopeful for a bit of luck.”
