Fremantle general manager of player management Brad Lloyd says the club picked the best available player with each of its four picks at Thursday night’s NAB AFL Draft on the Gold Coast.
All Freo’s picks were midfielders - Tasmanian Lachlan Weller (pick 13), West Australians Connor Blakely (34) and Josh Deluca (68) and Victorian Ed Langdon (54).
Many draft experts had predicted the club would seek out key position talent, but Lloyd said Freo came into the draft with no immediate plan to pick talls.
“We would have liked to mix it up a little bit where we could, but we just went the best available player,” he said.
“We’ve added talls over the past couple of years, with Michael Apeness, Matt Taberner and Alex Pearce.
“We’ve gone out of our way to draft talls, so we thought we would start topping up our midfielders now.”
The club’s first pick was Weller, who moved to Queensland as a 15-year-old and last year played for Southport in the NEAFL.
He is the younger brother of Maverick Weller, who plays for St Kilda.
“Lachlan’s really athletic with good speed and good endurance and he can go overhead,” Lloyd said.
“He’s got a classy finish and a good sidestep, and on top of that he’s a really quality person, so we’re excited to bolster our midfield with someone of Lachie’s character, both on and off the field.”
Lloyd said Blakely, a 189cm midfielder from Swan Districts, has the ability to impact quickly in the AFL.
“We were really excited to see Connor there at pick 34,” he said.
“He’s a good tall midfielder and he had good impact at senior WAFL level for Swan Districts.
“He’s a good stoppage clearance player so we feel that he can come in there and add to our big midfielders.”
Langdon was the second brother of a current AFL player drafted by Freo on Thursday night, with Tom at Collingwood.
“Ed’s played mainly a running midfield role but he’s got elite endurance,” Lloyd said.
“He really covers the ground with speed and he has big running capacity, so he’s going to come across and enjoy the big grounds and add run to the side.”
Deluca was the club’s final selection. He excelled in Subiaco’s WAFL premiership this season.
Highlights: Josh Deluca
“Josh has got strong running capacity, as well,” Lloyd said.
“He has strong endurance, good speed, work ethic and attack on the footy.
“He can come in and have some presence around the club with the way he goes about his footy, from an attitude and football point of view.”
