\n National Recruiting Manager previews draft night.\n <\/p>\n
Essendon find themselves in a solid position approaching the Telstra AFL Draft on November 19-20.<\/p>\n
Equipped with five picks inside the top 30 (as well as picks No.5 and 6 in succession), the Bombers have plenty of opportunity to acquire exciting talent on the night and bolster a list already brewing with promising youth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
National Recruiting Manager Rob Forster-Knight said the Club will still take a wide lens into the event, opting for a \u2018best available\u2019-themed approach to each scenario as it presents itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel really energised by the position we\u2019re in approaching the draft. To have two first-round picks and five selections inside the 30 offers terrific flexibility for us,\u201d Forster-Knight said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the last couple of years, we\u2019ve obviously followed these boys really closely so we feel we have a really good handle on what\u2019s going to be presented to us when the night comes.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrad Scott and Daniel McPherson have been extremely invested in this process and we all feel aligned on the level of talent and character we\u2019re looking to bring into our program.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019ll always be different things to play out in the build-up to \u2013 and on \u2013 draft night itself, so we\u2019ll remain open to advancing our hand and maintaining good communication with other Clubs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Dons also have a couple of NGA prospects to consider on the night, with familiar faces in Adam Sweid and Hussein El Achkar shaping as potential picks for opposition Clubs to place bids on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still early in the process, Forster-Knight said the Club is unable to make any guarantees and will stay steadfast in assessing each pick on its own merit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been so impressed by Adam, \u2018Huss\u2019 and our wider NGA talent this year. Even with that development considered, we aren\u2019t in a position right now to make guarantees around how that bid-matching process looks,\u201d Forster-Knight said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we feel adding both players to our list would be great for our program, their inclusion ultimately has to be determined when ranked against what\u2019s available in their cohort at the time of each bid.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth of those boys are quality young men and we\u2019d love to have them on board, but the bottom line is that we won\u2019t compromise on making the best possible selection for our Club with every pick as it comes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking at the draft holistically, Forster-Knight feels a great deal of confidence in what lies ahead for the Bombers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition to our recruiting in the last couple of drafts, we feel that this year\u2019s crop gives us a great chance at bringing in more elite talent,\u201d Forster-Knight said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever it looks, we feel really prepared for what\u2019s in front of us. It\u2019s an exciting period for the wider Club.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"National Recruiting Manager previews draft night. Essendon find themselves in a solid position approaching the Telstra AFL Draft…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,85,83],"class_list":["post-275034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}