The club will select three players with picks 17, 37 and 58 on the Gold Coast.
Lloyd’s recruiting team has cast an Australia-wide net in search of the best football talent in the land.
“We’ve got full-time staff all over the country who have all worked diligently throughout the year, following all the national competitions to get to this point,” he said.
“I’m really proud of the work the recruiting team has put in, not just our full-time staff, but also our part-time staff.
“They do an enormous amount of hours and travel throughout the year to ensure the best possible outcome for the club in the Draft and Trade periods.”
Lloyd said Freo would enter Thursday’s Draft with a specific list management model, which doesn’t only cover positional players.
“We’ll be looking at different types of players who may have specific attributes that we think could play roles for the side,” he said.
“With our recruiting, be it through trade and free agency or through the draft, we’re always looking to fill specific requirements in our list management model, so we’ll be working along those lines once again on Thursday.”
Many draft experts believe the club will aim to secure key position players in the draft period, given stars Matthew Pavlich and Luke McPharlin are in the twilight of their brilliant careers.
Lloyd said Freo would look to fill needs at Thursday’s Draft, but that didn’t stop at tall players.
“I think you would have found last year that we went really tall through the Draft period,” he said.
“We brought in Tanner Smith, Jack Hannath, Matt Taberner and Craig Moller.
“We also added Danyle Pearce through free agency and this year we were able to acquire Colin Sylvia through free agency, which adds to our midfield depth, and we added a key forward in Scott Gumbleton.
“Obviously we’ll be filling some specific needs for certain types throughout the Draft, but you can’t be silly about it with each pick. You need to make sure the talent matches that pick as you go.”
The club’s general manager of player management, Lloyd joined Freo in 2008, making this his sixth National Draft.
“At this point it’s more about looking forward to seeing how it unfolds,” Lloyd said.
“The recruiting team has spent a number of days with Chris Bond, Ross Lyon and the list management committee going through all the players we’re looking at.
“We’re looking forward to taking our seats at the Draft table and it’s nice to get a bit of luck along the way with players we rate highly falling to our picks.”
Make sure you stay tuned to fremantlefc.com.au on Thursday for comprehensive coverage of the 2013 NAB AFL Draft. We’ll be there giving you live social media updates from the Gold Coast. Then following each one of our three selections, a bio and pictures of each draftee will be posted on the club’s website and social media channels. We’ve got the Draft covered at fremantlefc.com.au
