NATIONAL recruiting manager Jason Taylor says he’s confident this year’s talent pool is better than some believe.
Taylor, speaking at the NAB AFL Draft Combine at Etihad Stadium on Saturday, said he was positive about the players on offer in this year’s NAB AFL Draft – although there has been some speculation among the football fraternity that the talent pool is not as deep as recent years.
“[Manager of player personnel] Todd [Viney] says I’m always optimistic, but I think there is a pretty good range of player in there,” he told Dee TV with a smile.
“There are some talls and some decent midfield types and utility types, so there is a bit there for everyone.
“I think in certain circles it’s questioned, but it’s pretty similar to most years. It might be a bit more shallow, but I still feel confident that we’ll be able to get some players at the back end.”
At the moment, Melbourne’s first selection in the NAB AFL Draft is No.6.
Although that could change after the upcoming trade period is completed, Taylor said there were about “three or four” players in contention for No.6 and that he hadn’t settled on one player.
“You’ve got to go through all of the medicals now with the doctors and the psychological reports. Then we’ll go away and have our [draft] conference and we’ll go through all of the players again and the order will shuffle a little bit,” he said.
“There might be some slight tweaks, but we’ve got it down to three or four players that we’re looking at for that pick and then you’ve got to go away and see what comes through.
“But we’re getting closer – put it that way.”
Taylor said the club will conduct “around 30” player interviews over the four days at the Combine.
“There will be a few more here and there, and there will be some follow up post here [at the Combine], because we’ve been pretty good this year again and we’ve got most of our work done now,” he said.
“We can now go through everything now and sit down with the recruiting team and see if we can’t come up with a good order.”
Taylor said it varies from year to year how they go about conducting the interviews.
“We’ve grown in what we did and review everything at the end of the year and how we can do things better,” he said.
“There are certain things that we stick with that we think are working, so it varies a little bit.”
Taylor said the Combine remained an integral part of the recruiting process.
“When you start from your early interviews and then you view the players in different competitions – you come to this part of it,” he said.
“Then you go away from here and we’ve got the medical reviews to go through and the psychological reports. Every part of the process has its own importance.”
Taylor said this year’s Combine had been condensed, due to being held a week later than usual. But he said there was still plenty of important information gained from the four days.
“It’s a little bit of a different format. It’s been pushed back a little bit through the AFL Grand Final being a week later [this year], so everything’s been squeezed in a little bit, so it’s a challenge for not only us, but certainly a challenge for the athlete,” he said.
“There are some pieces of the puzzle that we still need to put in place for certain players that we’re looking at that we’re unsure of – as far as the physical testing. While it’s only a small component of what we look at, it’s important in some facets for certain players.
“Also, the interview process [is important] and we want to get some of the players in front of the coaches – the ones that we’re looking at heavily. We also just want to tick off a few little things in our own mind. [It also helps] if you haven’t seen them (the players) in recent times as well.”
