Richmond recruiting officer Matthew Clarke provides an interesting insight into the AFL’s annual draft combine, held at Etihad Stadium over the weekend, in this ‘Roar Vision’ special feature.

How the players get there

“The players get invited to the national combine by the clubs.  The clubs have to submit lists of 50, and nominate the players in that.  I think if they get four nominations they come to the national combine, and if they get at least one nomination they go to the state combines . . .”

Testing time

“They have a lot of medical testing over the first two days . . . Our doctor and physio, (Greg) ‘Reg’ Hickey and (Anthony) Schache are here, checking out the boys . . . They’ll (the players) do some psychomotor testing to test reaction times of peripheral vision and those types of things.  And they’ll do a lot of interviews with the clubs.  They’ll probably speak to most clubs here.  We’ve probably got around 30 kids that we’ll talk to.  And then they’ve got the physical testing – beep test, 3km sprint times . . . as well as some skills testing – kicking, handballing, clean hands, and those types of things.  So it’s a pretty full-on four days for the boys.”

Searching for suitable types

“It’s difficult to know exactly every kid, and what we want to get out of each one, but we’re trying to find the boys who are really driven and resilient, mindful of the fact these are 17 and 18-year-olds.  So they’ve got a lot going on in their lives, but we’re trying to find those guys who we think will be able to adapt to an AFL environment.  A lot of the time we’re trying to find out that little bit more about their personalities and backgrounds, to have an understanding of what we need to provide them with if they do come into the AFL environment.  We’re not necessarily ruling out kids on certain things, but trying to work out what support mechanisms we need to give them if we do draft them and they come into the footy club.”

Honesty is the best policy

“Most of these boys have very different personalities.  If you put a mark next to their name because they’re different at this, and different at that, I think we’re going to make some mistakes.  So we need all different types.  We want guys with personality and also some quiet guys as well.  It’s about the mix . . . You want to see kids who are honest.  Most of the time, we tell the boys that we know the answers to the questions we’re asking.  We want them to be honest with us.  So we’re trying to get those guys who are actually honest, to be themselves, and have a good understanding of who they are . . .  Some boys at 17-18 probably don’t have an understanding, but we’re after kids who are also prepared to ask questions of us like, “What do I need to get better at, and what do you want to see from me?  They’re only 15-minute interviews, and we’ve interviewed a lot of the boys in detail already, but they’re very important to our model.”

Piecing all the information together

“Some of these guys have been lucky enough to have been in a lot of programs – the AFL Academy, national/state programs.  Some boys haven’t. They may have played a little bit of TAC Cup, a lot of school footy.  It is difficult, so a lot of the questioning from us is around their resilience and what they’ve been able to do.  Are they organised enough to get through their year, given that a lot of the boys are in a lot of programs?  They’re trying to do Year 12, they may be working.  They may be apprentice electricians, or plumbers that are getting up at 4am.  So we’re actually trying to find out all the background, to work out why some of their football was really good, and maybe why some of it was poor . . . We’ll try and take as much information as we can away, and then put it all together in a few weeks’ time . . .”

Drafting philosophy

“Best available talent probably early in the draft, but then we’ll try and balance our list probably later in the draft.  It is a balancing act . . . You could probably try and pick the best available talent at each pick, but you might become very unbalanced in one position.  We’ve got a pretty good list management/recruiting team, and we have a really good understanding where our list is at and what we need to fill it with.”

Rioli’s rapid rise

“One that jumps to mind was last year’s (first) pick, Daniel Rioli.  Daniel was a little bit under-exposed probably, playing at North Ballarat Rebels and for Northern Territory.  He was playing as a small forward and a little bit in the midfield, but we hadn’t seen him do a lot of running.  Then he came out here and blitzed the combine with an outstanding 3km run and beep test, and he won the repeat sprint.  He really did put it all together.  So he was one of those boys that we were hoping could do a few of those things, and he really ticked a few boxes for us . . .”