The leadership capabilities of new recruit Kyle Langford were a key element in Essendon selecting the 17-year-old with their first selection in the National Draft.

The 190cm versatile forward underwent a number of interviews and psych testing with the club before being taken at pick 17.

List manager Adrian Dodoro said the positive results from that testing was an important factor in selecting the youngster from the Northern Knights.

“In Kyle Langford’s case we did a lot of work on his psych and what impressed us about him is that he has a lot of leadership qualities,” Dodoro said.

“He is a young man with a really good head on his shoudlers who speaks well, presents well and will come into our club and grow with Dyson Heppell, David Zaharakis, Joe (Daniher) and all those young leaders.”

“He won’t be in awe, he will speak up in meetings and grow with us, that was a very important part of selecting him.”

The Bombers also selected 18-year-old Jayden Laverede in Thursday night’s draft at selection 20.

Dodoro said he was not putting any limitations on what the pair could achieve during the 2015 season.

“It is amazing what AFL clubs can do,” he said.

“If you told me that Marcus Bontempelli would have had an outstanding year last year, I would have said he will be an outstanding player but he won’t impact immediately.

“These two boys are the same body shape, height and weight so you would think that with one good pre-season and talent that they may be able to push up for senior games.

“We certainly don’t want to push them, that is not what tonight is about, it is about finding two players that can play ten years at our club and that is what makes it an exciting night for us.”