As Collingwood prepares to select its next batch of players, General Manager of List Management Derek Hine spoke to Collingwood Media about his recruiting team’s plans for Friday’s National Draft.

Collingwood’s draft picks
No. 28, No. 44, No. 51, No. 61, No. 64

What makes this year’s draft crop unique?
“This year’s draft is really a draft like no other, because there are so many variables. There’s the fact that we’ve got the two father-son boys and we’ve got to make an assessment on where they stack up in the draft, in terms of if a club bids on the players forward of where we potentially rank them. We’ve been open and transparent to both families and parents about how all that looks.

“That’s one distinct variable, but also that the depth of this particular draft, it’s certainly a draft that’s more heavily weighted towards the medium and smaller types of players.

“In previous years we entered into a draft in the most simplistic of terms and had our number one player ranked back to our 65^th ranked player and then we ticked them off as we went.

“But I think in this particular draft, we’re going to have to be a lot more calculated and have a lot more discussion around the pick and how it may impact on what we do later in the draft, or if something happens forward in the draft we would obviously be prepared for it, but it would certainly have an impact on what we do later in the draft. There’s going to be a lot more discussion in this year’s draft compared to others.

How will the night operate for recruiters?
“We’ll be in the room. It’s a little bit different to last year, but it’s still a long process where we put in the name via the computer and so on.

“All drafts are the same; we all get a little bit edgy at this time of the year and particularly when it’s a culmination of two years’ work in some sense.

“We’re really fortunate that we’ve got a great group of part time staff all the way across the country and with (full time staff) Dom Milesi, Matthew Rendell and Adam Shepard, they’re very good at what they do and we have the utmost confidence in the decisions they’re going to make and in the preparation and research we’ve made on those decisions and of the players both on and off the field. It’s certainly a tense time but at the same time, it’s exciting.”



Matthew Rendell and Derek Hine are members of the club's full-time recruiting team.

What’s our stance on our father-son prospects, Callum Brown and Josh Daicos?
“We have both communicated with Callum and Josh and the fact that we have nominated them as father-sons shows we have a strong interest in both players.

“In terms of their families, we’ve discussed the different scenarios if a club was to bid forward of where we would potentially rank them. Everyone is aware and it has been very important for us to be open and transparent to both families and players. We’ll just wait and see how it all rolls out.”

What’s our approach to our first pick, No. 28?
“We really don’t know what’s going to be there at No. 28. This draft runs really deep, particularly in that first round and a half. I was talking to someone this week, and said if a player was potentially going to go at pick No. 22-23-24 in previous drafts, he would fit comfortably at pick No. 10-11-12, so that gives you a bit of an indication of where we see the evenness in this particular draft, which is unique in itself. It’s just too hard to predict what’s going to be there. We’ll just have to see how it all unfolds. There will be a little bit of discussion at all picks, not just No. 28.”

How many picks will we use?
“We’ve got five live picks, if you like. We’ll use four of those picks and it’s likely that we’ll pass on our last selection so as to have a nominated rookie.”

What happens next?
“The draft being on a Friday night means we’ll be back early Saturday morning and working all weekend, not only on the Rookie Draft but also bringing in the players that we select on the Friday and making sure that they’re communicated with about times and so on. Brent Macaffer (new welfare officer) is all over that and we’ll be assisting him with it.

"Then the Rookie Draft is on Monday afternoon and on Monday night we fly to Darwin for the Level Two Academy looking at next year’s players, so it’s not much of a break.”