Essendon list manager Adrian Dodoro believes the club achieved what it set out to in the national draft on the Gold Coast on Thursday night.

Dodoro said the club was pleased with all six of the new recruits, including Father/Son selection Joe Daniher at pick 10.

"Because we had late picks and we knew that Joey (Daniher) was banked early, we really put a heavy emphasis on the back end of the draft, and we felt it went quite well,” Dodoro told Bomber TV.

“We thought that our strategy worked really well.”

The Bombers pulled a few surprises at the draft recruiting Dylan Van Unen (pick 51) and Nick Kommer (pick 22).

Kommer is a hard-bodied on-baller who has a strong tackle and Van Unen is expected to add depth to the Bombers defence.

“We’ve just sat on this guy (Van Unen) all year and we think he’ll be ready to play league football next year,” Dodoro said.

“Hi form in the VFL competition has been very good – probably underrate because Frankston haven’t had a great year in terms of wins.

“He’s a flexible type defender, very quick and his agility is really good – he can play either small or tall.”

Dodoro is hopeful both mature aged recruits will play senior football in 2013.

“We targeted players at the back end of the draft and we got the ones that we wanted.”

“We wanted at least two of our draftees to be capable of playing senior footy next year, and that's why we targeted the boys from the VFL and the WAFL."

Essendon used its first live selection in the draft, pick 34, to select Jason Ashby who the club hopes will turn from a running defender into an important part of the club’s future midfield.

The Bombers expect both Martin Gleeson (pick 53) and Sean Gregory (pick 88) to need time to develop their bodies before being ready to play senior football.