While this year’s National Draftees are busy finishing off their school exams, GC SUNS recruiters Scott Clayton and Dom Ambrogio have taken the opportunity to catch their breath after the recent AFL Combines to gather their thoughts ahead of the NAB National Draft on 18 November.
“We’re not allowed to talk to the draftees while they’re finishing off their studies so it’s a good time for us to try to come to terms with all the information that’s been coming through from the AFL Combine and associated state-based testing,” Clayton said.
The NAB AFL Draft Combine - formerly known as the Draft Camp - sees all draftees undergo a host of tests to measure their football skills, athleticism and attitude. There’s also a series of lower profile state-based Combines.
Clayton said he and Ambrogio apply a simple filtering process to help them reduce the number of potential candidates.
“If we don’t like their style of footy, we won’t take it any further,” he said.
Even so, he said there was a massive pool of talent to sift through. Given the quantity of player statistics coming in, the enforced break has been a timely one.
“We’ve already seen plenty of data, but some of the recent stuff is very new to us. There’s psycho-motor test results and results from psychological profiling. There’s still a lot physical test results to think about. There’s medical results. All-in-all there’s a hell of a lot of information.”
It’s Ambrogio’s job to help disseminate all incoming information to help profile potential draftees. Clayton said his offsider’s almost scientific contribution was critical.
“Dom collates everything into a format that we like and that everyone can understand. So now we’ve got our heads across all the numbers and we’re playing around with them.”
Although much of the work has already been done, there’s still plenty in store.
“A lot of what we’re doing’s confirming what we’ve already known in relation to the blokes we’ve been watching all year, but we’ll continue to keep our eyes open and there’s still some interviewing to be done once the guy’s have finished their exams. There’s a couple we want to go back to.”
“So once we do all that, we’ll come up with our recommendations for a pick order, run through it all with the coaching group and speak to the footy department more broadly about it. Otherwise we watch the calendar and count down the days.”
Clayton said this year’s Draft offered up a new but enviable challenge for the GC SUNS recruitment team.
“We’re in a unique position. Ordinarily you go to a draft with one pick in each round whereas we have it laid out neatly in front of us and obviously have the cream of the crop. Still, we want to make sure we’re choosing the right people in the right order. They’re big decisions in the context of what lies ahead.”
The NAB National Draft will take place at the Gold Coast Convention Centre on 18 November.
