Gold Coast’s GM – List & Strategy Craig Cameron has given his overview of the SUNS’ 2019 draft bounty, securing five talented players in the national draft.
It was an active two nights for Cameron and his team, taking the top two players in the draft before orchestrating live pick swaps to secure another two of the draftees.
“Obviously getting Matt (Rowell) and Noah (Anderson) in the first two selections was fairly well-known a fair way out but nevertheless we’re really excited for them to join us,” Cameron told SUNS Media.
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“Sam Flanders was a player we rated really highly so again (we’re) excited to secure him last night.”
Flanders was the first player Gold Coast jumped up the order to nab, packaging up picks 17 and 22 to Carlton for pick 11 and 62 in return, with 11 used to secure Flanders – a potential top-five talent going into the night.
On night two of the draft, the SUNS were keen to grab another player on their radar, and again performed a move to get a hold of pick 27 off Geelong.
“Jeremy Sharp was someone that we would have selected in the first round until we traded up so again we were really happy that he was at selection 27 and we did that trade specifically for him,” Cameron told SUNS Media.
“Overnight we knew that he was around and we looked to try secure him through a trade which we did so we’re really happy about that.”
Finally the club landed Jy Farrar with pick 60, a raw but exciting talent originating out of WA.
“Jy Farrar from Old Scotch in Adelaide, played for the Adelaide Crows in the SANFL and also comes from Halls Creek so he’s a more mature-age player,” Cameron explained.
“He’s got exciting speed, he’s a good size so it’s good to have him come on board as well.”
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In Friday’s Rookie Draft, the club rubber-stamped its three Academy pre-selections; Connor Budarick, Matt Conroy and Malcolm Rosas Jnr, and also drafted 196cm key position SUNS Academy player Patrick Murtagh as a Queensland zone selection.
Cameron said the efforts this week are culmination of a long-term strategy two years in the making.
“We presented to the board 15 months ago when we had some players leave us that we needed to go and restock and reset the list,” he said.
“Part of that was that the 2018 and 2019 national drafts would be really important to us and that we would go heavy in these two drafts.
“So last year we obviously had four selections and we went down the line of selecting key position players.
“This year we knew there would be a really good stock of midfielders and a good mix of different types of mids and that’s what we’ve found.
“We’re really happy that it’s worked out the way we planned.”
Gold Coast’s six new draftees and three Academy pre-selections will assemble on the Gold Coast on Sunday in time for pre-season training on Monday.
