After countless cups of tea and coffee, all that remains for Brad Lloyd and his Fremantle recruiting team is to call out four names at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre at Thursday night’s NAB AFL National Draft.
Fremantle’s general manager of player management, Lloyd said travel and interviewing was an everyday part of recruiting.
“We’ve been all around the country, some local, some up in Darwin or country Victoria,” he said.
“It’s important to get inside the home and meet the families, not just for making a draft decision but also from a development point of view.
“Once the player comes in, we know the family, we know the parents and the player that little bit better.
“It’s an important part of our recruiting program.”
Fremantle will go into Thursday’s draft armed with picks 13, 34, 54 and 72.
Lloyd said the club had a “good idea” which players would be available at the club’s first selection.
“At pick 13, we’ve got four or five guys we’re hoping will get through,” he said.
And while he admitted a tall defender was on the agenda, Lloyd said the club would approach each pick with list management firmly in mind.
“It’s always a discussion of best available versus list needs,” he said.
“There’s some good talls around the mark at pick 13, potentially, but there’s also some good midfielders as well.
“It’s really just the way it falls now. We’re not going to go too far out of our way to try and manufacture something for a tall.”
Lloyd believed this year’s draft was very strong and even.
“There’s a good half-a-dozen at the top end and then it really evens out,” he said.
Fremantle did not make any trades in the off-season and managed its list to gain an extra pick at the National Draft.
Lloyd said the potential depth of this year’s draft as well as the club’s recent history with late picks left it extremely pleased to have four selections in 2014.
“We saw in 2011, Lachie Neale was our fourth pick and Cam Sutcliffe our fifth, and then Lee Spurr in the rookie draft, so I think the draft’s deep enough to have some picks,” he said.
“There’s some players we’re really excited about that should be there later in the draft.
“We were also really careful with pick 13. We didn’t want to tamper with that pick at all.
“It was either try and improve our position from 13 or hang on to it.
“We go into Thursday night really excited about the players we’re looking at with that pick.”
