General manager of football Peter Bell expects the upcoming NAB AFL National Draft and Rookie Draft to present some exciting opportunities for Fremantle to add to their emerging playing list.
The draft team, headed by national draft manager David Walls, will have four selections in Thursday and Friday’s National Draft and are set to take three players in Friday’s Rookie Draft.
With selections in every round of the draft, Bell said Fremantle would have four opportunities at selecting high-end talent.
“It’s really exciting for us. Obviously, David Walls, who heads up our recruiting and drafting team, has been working incredibly hard, like all the clubs have,” Bell said.
“There’s so much talent on display, so it is very much a case of either taking the best available talent or filling the club’s needs.
“There’s a lot of high-end talent there and we’re looking for guys who are athletic, who clearly have strong aspects to their football and good characters as well.
“We think there’s a lot of that type of talent available to be selected. On the primary list, we have four selections 14, 31, 43 and 65 so it will be really exciting to bring in some new players to Fremantle.”
Fremantle’s first pick will be taken during the prime-time broadcast of the first round on Thursday night at Marvel Stadium.
The pick currently stands at no.14 but Bell expects Fremantle to slide to as far as 17 with their opening pick.
“At this stage, it’s 14 but there’s every possibility that there will be some father-son selections or Next Generation Academy selections,” Bell said.
“There are three players who are being talked about as potential top-10 picks. Nick Blakey is eligible for the Sydney Swans, Tarryn Thomas for North Melbourne and Issac Quanor with Collingwood.”
For Friday’s rookie draft, Bell said Fremantle will look to add one new name to Fremantle’s list from their three selections.
“Looking at the rookie draft, we’ve committed to redrafting Ethan Hughes and Ryan Nyhuis,” Bell said.
“With the retirement of Michael Apeness on Wednesday, who we had also committed to taking in the rookie draft, it means we have another choice to make in the rookie draft so our recruiters are obviously looking at that.”
