Essendon’s List and Recruiting Manager Adrian Dodoro says ‘exciting times’ are ahead after one of the Club’s most fruitful trade periods.
The Bombers netted their third big recruit, Jake Stringer, on the final day of the trade period.
His acquisition followed the signing of former Giant Devon Smith and ex-Sun Adam Saad.
“I think we’re well placed … adding three guys that are in that demographic of 23 – 24 years of age, coming into their best years with the group we’ve currently got should improve us,” Dodoro said.
“Our depth, our quality ... we’ve picked blokes that have got speed and power so it’s exciting times ahead.”
Stringer is an All Australian and premiership player, while Smith and Saad were regular features for their former sides.
Dodoro is pleased the Bombers were able to strengthen key areas across the ground throughout the trade period.
“There is a lot of work that goes into it, behind the scenes there is a lot of analytics that go into making the decision,” he said.
“We strategically looked at three areas of the ground that we wanted to improve.
“Adam Saad - with his run and rebound and the ability to put Andy McGrath in the midfield.
“Devon Smith was an outstanding midfielder before he got to GWS, who are loaded with midfielders. So he’ll play in the midfield for us – an area of our team demographics that we wanted to improve on.
“Obviously with Jake Stringer – the sky is the limit in terms of ability and talent … we think he can play midfield as well.
“We think we’ve been smart and diligent in the way we’ve gone about it and we’ve had a good outcome.”
Number six draft pick Aaron Francis expressed a desire to explore the prospect of returning home to a South Australian club, but Dodoro is pleased the versatile 20 year old will remain with the Bombers.
“We value Aaron Francis quite highly here at the Essendon Football Club,’ he said.
“We think he’ll be a fabulous player for our Club, he’s much loved by everybody.
“He did express a desire at one point to possibly look at going home and we at the end of the day decided to keep him here at Essendon and he’s got a two year commitment to run on his contract.
“We really look forward to him blossoming into a good player next year for us.”
The Dons will enter next month’s National Draft with the 48th overall selection.
Cale Hooker, Martin Gleeson, Michael Hartley and Orazio Fantasia were all secured with late picks while the Club also landed Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti in the Rookie Draft.
Dodoro said his team would be looking to unearth some more exciting talent with the Club’s late picks.
“I’ve got full confidence in my team,” he said.
“Rob Forster-Knight and Merv Keane do a great job and work extremely hard, along with our spotters.
“We’ll be looking for some gems later in the draft.”
