The 27th National Draft will be held on Thursday at the Gold Coast Convention Centre and Collingwood enjoys the luxury of entering Thursday’s meeting with three of the first 21 selections.
Derek Hine, the club’s National Recruiting Manager, was enthusiastic about what Thursday night has in store when he spoke to CTV during the week.
“It’s like all new drafts, when you bring in new players into your club that you potentially watch for a substantial period of time whether it be two years, three years, and then you’re able to call their name out, it is an exciting time,” Hine said.
Watch Derek Hine’s National Draft preview on CTV in the video above.
“We’ve made a lot of changes to the list in a reasonably short period of time, so that in itself gives us an opportunity to address different areas within the list and hopefully we’re going to have a little bit of luck on the day.
“I think with this particular draft, it’s going to open up quite quickly.
“I think there’s a good dozen or so that are probably a little bit ahead of the rest of the field. There’s going to be some needs-based selections in front of us, examples being clubs may need a taller player and they’re not picking until later in the draft. It might potentially spit some players back to us.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how it unfolds on the day.”
Each draft invites conjecture as to how it measures up with its predecessors and Hine says that, while he believes the draft is not overly deep, it provides an opportunity for clubs to be afforded a nice surprise, just as Collingwood was when Alex Fasolo and Jackson Paine landed in its lap midway through recent National Drafts.
Recap Collingwood's off-season list changes here.
“We’ve felt, and it’s probably a testament to the way that we went about our trading and the Free Agency period, that we were pretty keen to get in as early as we possibly could and we were fortunate in that we were able to do that (with three selections inside the top 21).”
“I don’t think it’s a particularly deep draft but, having said that, going back two or three years ago I didn’t think that it was an overly deep draft as well but it proved to have quite a good depth.
“What that does for us is that players that we may rate highly could potentially be back with our later picks.”
All players recruited to the Westpac Centre will need to arrive with their suitcases packed. The club intends for all draftees to travel with the current players and coaches to Utah for a high altitude camp.
“I’ve spoken at length to Nathan Buckley about it and we’ve already secured the spots on the trip so certainly the first question we’ll be asking any player that comes into the club next week is “have you got your passport ready?” because they will be on the plane to Utah with the rest of the team,” said Hine.
“We really see that as a great opportunity (for the draftees) to, not only assimilate themselves into AFL football but to be able to integrate within the list and get to know their peers.
How has Collingwood fared in past National Drafts? Find out with our comprehensive list.
“We feel this particular period in Utah of two or three weeks is going to be a fantastic step towards their 2013 season and really will fast-track them in a few different areas.
“Not so much the physical sense, but more the way that they will interact within the playing group itself and get to know their teammates and their staff.”
Several years of research by Hine and his resourceful recruiting team will finally come to life when up to five new players pull on a Collingwood polo for the first time when their names are read out on Thursday night.
After nearly a decade at the helm, Hine is ready to roll.
“We think we’ve covered all scenarios and we’re still working towards the day, but I think we should be fine.”
