RFC recruiting manager Francis Jackson comments on the draft (at the bottom of the article):
Top prospects stand tall
Emma Quayle
The Age
October 8, 2006
Five players remain in contention to be chosen with Carlton's No. 1 draft choice next month, after this year's draft class lived up to its hype at the AFL draft camp in Canberra.
None of the top contenders did anything to dampen their chances in the athletic tests, with the Blues expected to choose from onballers Bryce Gibbs and Joel Selwood, key-position prospects Lachlan Hansen and Scott Gumbleton, and Perth ruckman Matthew Leuenberger.
Blues recruiting manager Wayne Hughes said that, while the club already had settled on selecting Marc Murphy this time last year, he had more work to do this time.
"Last year, it was a pretty even group, but we obviously pursued Marc fairly hard once it was clear he wanted to stay here in Melbourne. We needed to commit to that because we knew he wouldn't last until our second pick," Hughes said.
"This year is a bit different. It's fair to say it's very difficult. There's four players who have been talked about, and have been right up there, and Joel Selwood is the other one we're looking very closely at.
"Last year, he captained the Australian under-17 team, and Marc Murphy was in that team, so that says a lot of him. He's had some knee problems but seems to be on track to recover from that, so he's right in contention."
Geelong recruiting manager Stephen Wells said every club would have access to very talented players in the first and second rounds of the draft, while his Collingwood counterpart, Derek Hine, expected a number of tall players to be picked early.
Leuenberger and other ruck prospects Jesse White, Shaun Hampson and Brent Renouf were among the talking points of the draft camp after notching impressive sprint times. Nathan Brown, a 194-centimetre defender, was the third-fastest player tested over 20 metres.
"The taller boys probably stand out," Hine said. "It's a good draft for the taller fellas, and that's quite unique. You might usually see one or two of them in the first half dozen, but this year, they could run right through to late in the first round or even early in the second round.
"No one did much to let themselves down at draft camp and I'm pretty excited about this draft. It doesn't matter where you're picking in the first or the second round, you're going to get a player."
Richmond recruiter Francis Jackson expected the recognised top four — Gibbs, Leuenberger, Gumbleton and Hansen — to become "outstanding" players, and agreed that the draft pool was deep.
"We sat down and did our best team from this draft. It's an interesting task and it only took five minutes," he said. "As soon as we'd finished, we started to say, 'Well, what about this guy, and what about him?', which suggests that there's a lot of good players in there.
"We'll put that away somewhere and it will be interesting to look back on in five years, to see where they're all at. I'd be pretty confident they'll be playing very good AFL footy somewhere.
"There has been a lot of hype, but I think it lives up to it. The top four should be outstanding players and there will be a lot of excellent players come out of this draft, I'm certain of that."http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2006/10/07/1159641576857.html
