Walsh is not the only person to be excited by his arrival at Windy Hill, so is Bomber coach Kevin Sheedy. Sheedy was surprised the wingman was still around at pick 27. “He is a pretty exciting type of player, so we were pleased to draft him. It is difficult to lose players like Heffernan and Blumfield, so I suppose you could say Jason Laycock was for Heffernan's choice and Tristan Cartledge was for Blumfield and we got Cupido and McPhee for Caracella. We needed the opportunity to pick players at the right time in the draft and I think we did. I also think the rookie draft is going to be very exciting, because there is a lot of players left over from this draft. I think that is why we picked one more experienced player at the end of it and this will be the first time we will have six rookies at Essendon for quite a long time. “
Q. Will Walsh be capable of playing straight away?
A. I tell you what - I love to hope he would. But it is all about him coming to training and puts his hand up and says coach that you need mid-field speed and I have got it.
Q. Were you surprised when you heard Gary Moorcroft's name read out by Melbourne?
A. No not really. I thought Melbourne would get in ahead of Carlton. Denis (Pagan) has always liked Moorcroft.
Q. Do you still think he has what it takes?
A. Definitely. Good luck to Gary, he has been a terrific player for us. We have a situation where we are expecting to get a good year out of Mercuri and expecting to get a good year out of a new player called Cupido. Plus, we have Joel Reynolds to play forward pocket.
Q. With your interest in the top end, you must have been delighted to see a number of kids get selected from the Northern Territory?
A. Absolutely fantastic.
Q. There was quite a delay in making your final draft selection, where you considering going for someone younger rather than re-drafting Steve Alessio?
A. We have been through a pretty tough time of clearing out premiership players and I think just having an experienced ruckman around to back-up Hille is still important for us, as well as for Henneman.
Q. What do you think Steve Alessio's morale will be like, after being delisted and then re-drafted?
A. Well that happened to Gary Moorcroft once and he came back and played in two grand finals for Essendon. It also happened to John Barnes and Paul Salmon, so we have been down this path before. I suppose in the end, probably Alessio could look out there and think no one else in the AFL wanted me and maybe Essendon is giving me the opportunity to play a good year or two at a cheaper rate!
Q. Did you speak to Ricky Mott?
A. Well in the end we picked up two others - Cartledge and Alessio. Mott is still there, which is a great opportunity. He is still young enough to be a rookie. So we will have to assess where we are before the next draft.
Q. What are your thoughts on the situation at Carlton?
A. It is a pretty big penalty, but it is very difficult because you don't actually know what has happened, only the AFL really know. But they were always going to cop a bit of a hiding like we did. The main thing in the end is that you can come back. After our penalty, which was half a million plus our first two draft picks and then not competing in the draft, you can still get back there.
Q. How long did it take you to recover?
A. Well we won a premiership within four years.
Q. Do you agree there is no room for cheats in sport?
A. Not in any sport. The Olympics are always going through it with drugs, that is just another problem in sport. I think in the end, the message is going to come through to everyone at an AFL level and I think full credit to the AFL on that issue - lets get it right as we head into the year 2000 and beyond.
