NATIONAL recruiting manager Jason Taylor says there is some genuine promise in this year’s NAB AFL Draft pool.

Taylor said the Melbourne recruiting team, including general manager of player personnel Todd Viney, pro scout Kelly O’Donnell, national recruiting officer Tim Lamb and recruiting technology coordinator Darren Farrugia, had just completed a two-day conference shifting through this year’s talent.

He said the general consensus was that there is some good talent emerging in this year’s group.

“We’re working through it and we’ve just come out the back of our conference from the past two days out at Casey Fields,” Taylor told melbournefc.com.au.

“I reckon there is a good group there and it’s about the same amount of number you’re look at most years, where you think you can get a decent number of players out of a group of 35 to 45 players.

“I still think, like most years, it’s got some strength about it.”

Taylor said the No.1 pick wasn’t yet locked in, but added that there were several talls in contention, including Jacob Weitering (Dandenong Stingrays) and Josh Schache (Murray Bushrangers).

“What’s become evident this year is that there are a lot of tall players in contention. Some haven’t so much jumped up, but there have been some others that have jumped up, so there might be some tall players that figure in the top dozen that may not have been as evident at the start of the year,” he said.

“As far as clear cut No.1, there probably isn’t [at this stage]. There have been some dominant performances by a couple of taller players throughout the championships and earlier in the year with their TAC Cup clubs – guys like [Josh] Schache and [Jacob] Weitering and the like.

“But there have also been some other players who have put up their hands for various reasons, and some guys who have had some injuries, who have shown some early season form as well.

“It’s a pretty open field, but there has been those two, who I mentioned, that have stood out with their performances to date.”

Taylor said this year’s recent NAB AFL under 18 championships – won by Vic Country in division one and Queensland in division two – had provided plenty of opportunities for recruiting to assess the talent.

“It was good. It was the same format as last year, so we got a really good look at the whole pool,” he said.

“There are no excuses for not knowing a fair bit about how they played. We saw them a number of times in high quality contests, so it was good.

“To come out of that and into the next phase of the year – there is a good number of players to follow. I wouldn’t say it’s a strong group, but it’s got some promise in there.”

Taylor added that the NAB AFL under 16 championships – also won by Vic Country in division one and Queensland in division two – provided a taste of things to come.

“You get a bit of an insight into the players coming through and with future picks coming through, it will become more prominent,” he said.

“But it’s more just to get a bit of a look at the group collectively, so you can say in two years’ time ‘it’s going to be a fairly strong group coming through or it’s not as strong’.

“The group this year, I thought there was a little bit in it, in both division one and division two.”