Thursday, 27 October 2005
for essendonfc.com.au
Page 1 of 1

With the trade period now over, the focus for Essendon recruiting manager Adrian Dodoro along with the football department has shifted to the impending National AFL Draft selection meeting on Sunday November 26. This season, the Bombers sit in a strong position with two first round draft picks, the first time since 2003 they have been in that situation.

"At the moment we are just evaluating the top twenty players in the draft and making sure we make the best choices at pick seven and 19," Dodoro explained.

"Pick 19 was the selection we got from Sydney for Ted Richards, so we are happy we are going to pick up a really good player there. Unfortunately we don’t have pick 23 anymore, but the upside of that is we got Richard Cole and he was a first round draft pick. So the way we are looking at it is that we are actually introducing three first round draft picks into the club this year."

With a mixture of player types in this year’s draft, the Bombers will select the best player that presents themselves at the respective selections.

"We will be choosing the best available players and given there is a mixture of talls and smalls, the criteria is best available. We are not going to be having any pre-conceived ideas about picking a ruckman or midfielder or a defender," Dodoro said.

Essendon’s selection 39 will be used for Jay Neagle who will join the Bombers under the father and son rule, leaving selection 51 as the final pick.

"With 59 it will be a matter of looking and seeing what is left in the draft and we may have a smoky up our sleeves, that is always a possibility."

The AFL pre-season draft selection will be held on Tuesday December 13.

"We have pick four in the pre-season draft, we will use two selections in that draft, but we will just wait and see what is available.

"Obviously there are three clubs that have picks ahead of us, so we aren’t counting our chickens before they hatch, there are probably three or four options for us at this stage and we will work through them," Dodoro explained.

One player who has been linked to the Bombers, is former Carlton player Scott Camporeale.

"Obviously he has expressed a strong desire to come to Essendon, but again it is an uncompromised draft process and if he ends up at another club we can’t do anything about it."

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