NATIONAL recruiting manager Barry Prendergast says a change in coaching staff also altered the recruiting department’s focus entering this year’s drafting period.
Speaking after Melbourne’s NAB AFL Rookie Draft, where Melbourne added four players to its list, Prendergast said it resulted in an adjustment to his team’s plans.
“It was a completely different focus, and you can say that it’s probably more coach driven in terms of players to complement the specific role of the game plan,” he said.
“So it was a different rookie draft - there’s no question about that. From a recruiting perspective, we’ve been out looking for a game plan in one sense and then we had a change over in coaching staff. So that changes our focus a little bit in the direction that we wanted to head.
“But that’s part of our job, and we’re really pleased with how it’s all turned out.”
Prendergast said this year’s Rookie Draft was not as deep as previously, which meant mature-age players came into the equation.
“I think this year was a bit harder,” he said.
“We’ve very much been trying to get as much talent as we could into the place.
“We were very excited by the potential, especially of [Daniel] Nicholson, [Michael] Evans and [Kelvin] Lawrence last year, who we’ve retained on our rookie list.
“This year we had a bit of a different focus. We didn’t think that that sort of talent ran so deep in this particular Rookie Draft.”
Prendergast said that mature-age rookies Tom Couch, James Magner and Leigh Williams add strength to the list.
“With the game plan that we’re going to see put in place, we just needed to prop up the areas that we propped up today,” he said.
“Those guys have been competing against AFL-listed players and their stoppage work is first class, especially the two mature-age guys.”
Overall, Prendergast said this year’s drafting period addressed a genuine need to add some maturity to the list.
“We got James Sellar at No.54, so that falls into with some of the picks today, and we’re really trying to balance up the demographic of our list - [we focused on] mature players ready to play,” he said.
“I’m sure Mark [Neeld] will tell you that you’ve got to keep the young blokes honest and make sure they earn their game, which is only a good thing.”
Speaking after Melbourne’s NAB AFL Rookie Draft, where Melbourne added four players to its list, Prendergast said it resulted in an adjustment to his team’s plans.
“It was a completely different focus, and you can say that it’s probably more coach driven in terms of players to complement the specific role of the game plan,” he said.
“So it was a different rookie draft - there’s no question about that. From a recruiting perspective, we’ve been out looking for a game plan in one sense and then we had a change over in coaching staff. So that changes our focus a little bit in the direction that we wanted to head.
“But that’s part of our job, and we’re really pleased with how it’s all turned out.”
Prendergast said this year’s Rookie Draft was not as deep as previously, which meant mature-age players came into the equation.
“I think this year was a bit harder,” he said.
“We’ve very much been trying to get as much talent as we could into the place.
“We were very excited by the potential, especially of [Daniel] Nicholson, [Michael] Evans and [Kelvin] Lawrence last year, who we’ve retained on our rookie list.
“This year we had a bit of a different focus. We didn’t think that that sort of talent ran so deep in this particular Rookie Draft.”
Prendergast said that mature-age rookies Tom Couch, James Magner and Leigh Williams add strength to the list.
“With the game plan that we’re going to see put in place, we just needed to prop up the areas that we propped up today,” he said.
“Those guys have been competing against AFL-listed players and their stoppage work is first class, especially the two mature-age guys.”
Overall, Prendergast said this year’s drafting period addressed a genuine need to add some maturity to the list.
“We got James Sellar at No.54, so that falls into with some of the picks today, and we’re really trying to balance up the demographic of our list - [we focused on] mature players ready to play,” he said.
“I’m sure Mark [Neeld] will tell you that you’ve got to keep the young blokes honest and make sure they earn their game, which is only a good thing.”
