Axe Man
31-03-2022, 08:44 AM
Prominent recruiter Simon Dalrymple explains how clubs beat the odds at the draft (https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/news/afl-2022-prominent-recruiter-simon-dalrymple-explains-how-clubs-beat-the-odds-at-the-draft/news-story/1fd26e2ca322ca571cbb45b5b8f3f8a7)
The man who built the Western Bulldogs’ 2016 premiership team has lifted the lid on how to beat the AFL draft - and revealed how they pulled off a draft-day double heist.
Western Bulldogs had back-to-back picks late in the 2015 national draft and selected two players who would become All-Australians.
They took Bailey Dale at pick 45 and Caleb Daniel at No. 46.
Simon Dalrymple, the architect of the club’s 2016 premiership who is now Sydney’s national recruiting manager, called it “beating the odds”.
“You’re trying to get maximum value for each pick,” Dalrymple said.
“For example, Bailey Dale at pick 45 — All-Australian (2021). Caleb Daniel at pick 46 — All-Australian, best-and-fairest winner (2020).
“If you can try to get as many of those types, where for the pick they are they’ve exceeded expectations, is what most recruiters are trying to achieve, and for me how I measure the success of each selection.
“But there needs to be a body of work before you come to that conclusion.”
But after a decade at Whitten Oval he joined forces with revered Sydney Swans list manager Kinnear Beatson in 2018.
Lance Franklin — chasing a fairytale flag — is a fan of their work.
“We’ve drafted really well the last couple of years,” Buddy, 35, told the SCG crowd after kicking his 1000th goal on Friday night.
They’ve used mid-range picks on James Rowbottom (No. 25 in 2018), Justin McInerney (No. 44) and Chad Warner (No. 39 in 2019) to complement academy guns Nick Blakey, Errol Gulden and Braeden Campbell.
Warner, who powers out of stoppages and hunts contested ball, hit up Franklin for that magical milestone.
It should’ve come as little surprise.
In Warner’s career the Swans have scored from 35 per cent of chains that he has been involved in, ranked No. 2 for all AFL midfielders.
Rowbottom helped replenish Sydney’s inside midfielder stocks while McInerney’s rate of improvement has been extraordinary since he missed selection as a 17-year-old at Northern Knights.
HOW DO YOU SPOT AFL TALENT?
"It’s looking at the player’s attributes. Do they fit into the roles that you see them playing at AFL level? And then if they have the attributes, do they have the temperament and the mental approach to be successful? And then do they have the physical attributes as part of that? Will they fit into the way your club plays?'
— Simon Dalrymple
Last year’s top pick, Angus Sheldrick (No. 18), plays in Tom Liberatore’s mould and played in round 1.
Dalrymple was loath to talk about Sydney’s cygnets — they are still finding their feet — but his methods are proven, particularly at the pointy end of the draft.
Selecting Marcus Bontempelli at No. 4 in 2013 changed the course of history for the Bulldogs. Vice-captain Jackson Macrae (No. 6 in 2012) and Aaron Naughton (No. 9 in 2017) are also stars.
“You want to get those early picks right, and history says the majority of the stars are coming from those sort of picks now,” Dalrymple said.
“If there’s someone better and you’ve overlooked that player, even if the player you did pick goes on and has an OK career, well, you’ve overlooked a Brownlow medallist or a five-time All-Australian.
“They’re the ones you regret. I’ve done that, too.”
High picks are estimated as at least a $1.5 million investment and so investigating prospects to gain “total understanding of what you’re purchasing” is critical.
In 2017 Brisbane Lions held the No. 1 pick.
Before selecting Cameron Rayner, recruiter Stephen Conole said: “We’ve watched hundreds of hours of vision. We research medicals, psychs, we speak to clubs, schools (and) where applicable employers.”
Glowing references from Bontempelli’s librarian and pastoral care teachers at Marcellin College helped paint the picture of a cleanskin 17-year-old who became the youngest winning captain in VFL-AFL history in 2016.
“You’re asking about behaviours,” Dalrymple said.
“His ability to mix in with a group, how coachable is he in terms of is he a good listener? How does he take feedback? Is he punctual?
“Often those teachers are really good judges of character. It’s almost got nothing to do with footy, it’s better to speak to teachers that are good judges of character and totally independent.
“Sometimes teachers want to pump up their kids to get them drafted. But if you speak to enough different sources that can help you get the truth and not just a biased view.”
In 2013 the Dogs knew Tom Boyd, Josh Kelly and Jack Billings would be taken with the first three picks and so they focused on ranking the rest of the draft.
“It was Bontempelli, (Matthew) Scharenberg, (James) Aish and Kade Kolodjashnij, and he was clearly top of that group,” Dalrymple said.
“I just thought he’d be really difficult to play against. The ability to release the ball in traffic, decision making, and athletically he ticked a lot of boxes with his endurance and agility and power.
“He really improved in his 18th year, and I really value that.”
The Dogs ranked Naughton at No. 3, ahead of Paddy Dow and Luke Davies-Uniacke, and got him at No. 9.
Some clubs scoffed at Naughton’s kicking action.
But every player on the club’s talent list in the 2017 draft had their kicks analysed by Victoria University.
“You could compare it to our AFL-listed players, it was a complicated project and it was a lot of work,” Dalrymple said before last year’s grand final.
“His kicking was sound enough to not be a negative. The visual didn’t look great, but the effectiveness was fine for that part of the ground (backline).”
In the pre-Covid period some recruiters would attend about 150 games live, where they could listen in to how players used their voice.
Dalrymple would lean against a light pole in the back pocket to study Naughton’s interactions when he played senior WAFL games for Peel Thunder.
“A kid still eligible for under-18s was accepting feedback and giving feedback playing with Fremantle-listed players,” he said.
“What stood out to me was just the maturity. No sense of nerves, still played to his strengths, took intercept marks and if he made an error, he didn’t go into his shell.
“That was a bit of an indicator his self-belief was very strong. That aerial ability made him just a unique player — there’s not many 18-year-olds who have that ability to win the ball in the air.”
Melbourne moulded a premiership team on the back of list manager Jason Taylor peeling off Christian Salem, Christian Petracca, Angus Brayshaw, Clayton Oliver, Luke Jackson and Kozzie Pickett with prized picks.
Rookie-rich Richmond built a dynasty out of the draft’s dumpster under recruiting boss Matthew Clarke.
Kane Lambert, Jayden Short, Liam Baker, Marlion Pickett, Jason Castagna, Ivan Soldo, Dan Butler, Sydney Stack and co-captain Dylan Grimes were all recruited outside of the national draft.
Only Stack is without a premiership medallion — a boozy night breaking the AFL’s Covid protocols on the Gold Coast in 2020 the reason why.
“We have a list of deficiencies that are improvable and another list that are not improvable,” Tigers recruiter Francis Jackson once told the Herald Sun.
Kicking efficiency can be “significantly improved” — often by simply taking safer options — whereas some qualities only shift “marginally”.
“That’s generally speed and contested footy — the ability to halve contests or win contested ball,” Jackson said.
“There’s always outliers, but you should look at what the individual can do — not what they can’t do.”
In 2017 the Swans pieced together the AFL’s No. 1 backline from the rookie draft — Heath Grundy, Nick Smith, Jake Lloyd, Dane Rampe, Nic Newman and Lewis Melican.
Goalkicker Tom Papley, another Beatson beauty, pipped Charlie Cameron to make last year’s All-Australian team as a rookie pick.
“Without giving anything away, we spend as much time on the rookie draft as we would the national draft,” Beatson once said.
Beatson helped discover Brisbane Lions’ 2001-03 premiership team and since making his mark at the Swans they’re on track to play finals for the 11th time in 13 seasons.
Two years out of September. Gee, what a lengthy rebuild.
In the 2010 rookie draft the Dogs didn’t just beat the odds — they hit the jackpot.
After three preliminary final losses they had a need for speed and took a 170cm kid with dreadlocks in Luke Dahlhaus (217 games) and a kid who grew up in South Africa playing rugby union in Jason Johannisen.
No. 1 pick Luke Hodge won two Norm Smiths, No. 3 pick Dustin Martin won three, No. 2 pick Petracca won last year’s medal … and ‘JJ’ the rookie won it in 2016.
Dahlhaus had been training at Geelong and so the Dogs pounced one pick before the Cats.
In 2014 the Dogs took Daniel with their last live selection because their intelligence suggested the only other club interested — the Saints, Demons or Lions — had a pick before them in the rookie draft.
“Obviously, you’re trying to get him as cheap as possible,” Dalrymple said.
“But you always have to ask yourself, are you prepared to miss the player?
“You can’t outsmart yourself. If you want the player and you value him there then you’ve just got to pay the purchase price.”
Carlton regretted ruling a line through Daniel because he stood 167cm.
But Dalrymple said his height was “totally irrelevant” to the way he played.
“He’s not a contested possession player, but a ball user at ground level and not an aerial player,” he said.
“One thing I think is really important is it’s not how they look, it’s more what they do, and the impact of that on the game.”
Like Daniel, Dale relocated to halfback and immediately reached All-Australian status.
“He seemed a natural footballer,” Dalrymple said.
“As a forward his ability to front-and-centre crumb … players who can read the drop of the ball have pretty good footy IQ, I reckon, and he displayed that.”
This year Ed Richards has been repositioned to halfback.
So what’s more important — talent identification or development?
Dalrymple declared finding players with the right attitude helped AFL clubs unlock their potential.
But as three-time premiership coach Damien Hardwick once said: “A coach is only as good as the talent that he has.”
The man who built the Western Bulldogs’ 2016 premiership team has lifted the lid on how to beat the AFL draft - and revealed how they pulled off a draft-day double heist.
Western Bulldogs had back-to-back picks late in the 2015 national draft and selected two players who would become All-Australians.
They took Bailey Dale at pick 45 and Caleb Daniel at No. 46.
Simon Dalrymple, the architect of the club’s 2016 premiership who is now Sydney’s national recruiting manager, called it “beating the odds”.
“You’re trying to get maximum value for each pick,” Dalrymple said.
“For example, Bailey Dale at pick 45 — All-Australian (2021). Caleb Daniel at pick 46 — All-Australian, best-and-fairest winner (2020).
“If you can try to get as many of those types, where for the pick they are they’ve exceeded expectations, is what most recruiters are trying to achieve, and for me how I measure the success of each selection.
“But there needs to be a body of work before you come to that conclusion.”
But after a decade at Whitten Oval he joined forces with revered Sydney Swans list manager Kinnear Beatson in 2018.
Lance Franklin — chasing a fairytale flag — is a fan of their work.
“We’ve drafted really well the last couple of years,” Buddy, 35, told the SCG crowd after kicking his 1000th goal on Friday night.
They’ve used mid-range picks on James Rowbottom (No. 25 in 2018), Justin McInerney (No. 44) and Chad Warner (No. 39 in 2019) to complement academy guns Nick Blakey, Errol Gulden and Braeden Campbell.
Warner, who powers out of stoppages and hunts contested ball, hit up Franklin for that magical milestone.
It should’ve come as little surprise.
In Warner’s career the Swans have scored from 35 per cent of chains that he has been involved in, ranked No. 2 for all AFL midfielders.
Rowbottom helped replenish Sydney’s inside midfielder stocks while McInerney’s rate of improvement has been extraordinary since he missed selection as a 17-year-old at Northern Knights.
HOW DO YOU SPOT AFL TALENT?
"It’s looking at the player’s attributes. Do they fit into the roles that you see them playing at AFL level? And then if they have the attributes, do they have the temperament and the mental approach to be successful? And then do they have the physical attributes as part of that? Will they fit into the way your club plays?'
— Simon Dalrymple
Last year’s top pick, Angus Sheldrick (No. 18), plays in Tom Liberatore’s mould and played in round 1.
Dalrymple was loath to talk about Sydney’s cygnets — they are still finding their feet — but his methods are proven, particularly at the pointy end of the draft.
Selecting Marcus Bontempelli at No. 4 in 2013 changed the course of history for the Bulldogs. Vice-captain Jackson Macrae (No. 6 in 2012) and Aaron Naughton (No. 9 in 2017) are also stars.
“You want to get those early picks right, and history says the majority of the stars are coming from those sort of picks now,” Dalrymple said.
“If there’s someone better and you’ve overlooked that player, even if the player you did pick goes on and has an OK career, well, you’ve overlooked a Brownlow medallist or a five-time All-Australian.
“They’re the ones you regret. I’ve done that, too.”
High picks are estimated as at least a $1.5 million investment and so investigating prospects to gain “total understanding of what you’re purchasing” is critical.
In 2017 Brisbane Lions held the No. 1 pick.
Before selecting Cameron Rayner, recruiter Stephen Conole said: “We’ve watched hundreds of hours of vision. We research medicals, psychs, we speak to clubs, schools (and) where applicable employers.”
Glowing references from Bontempelli’s librarian and pastoral care teachers at Marcellin College helped paint the picture of a cleanskin 17-year-old who became the youngest winning captain in VFL-AFL history in 2016.
“You’re asking about behaviours,” Dalrymple said.
“His ability to mix in with a group, how coachable is he in terms of is he a good listener? How does he take feedback? Is he punctual?
“Often those teachers are really good judges of character. It’s almost got nothing to do with footy, it’s better to speak to teachers that are good judges of character and totally independent.
“Sometimes teachers want to pump up their kids to get them drafted. But if you speak to enough different sources that can help you get the truth and not just a biased view.”
In 2013 the Dogs knew Tom Boyd, Josh Kelly and Jack Billings would be taken with the first three picks and so they focused on ranking the rest of the draft.
“It was Bontempelli, (Matthew) Scharenberg, (James) Aish and Kade Kolodjashnij, and he was clearly top of that group,” Dalrymple said.
“I just thought he’d be really difficult to play against. The ability to release the ball in traffic, decision making, and athletically he ticked a lot of boxes with his endurance and agility and power.
“He really improved in his 18th year, and I really value that.”
The Dogs ranked Naughton at No. 3, ahead of Paddy Dow and Luke Davies-Uniacke, and got him at No. 9.
Some clubs scoffed at Naughton’s kicking action.
But every player on the club’s talent list in the 2017 draft had their kicks analysed by Victoria University.
“You could compare it to our AFL-listed players, it was a complicated project and it was a lot of work,” Dalrymple said before last year’s grand final.
“His kicking was sound enough to not be a negative. The visual didn’t look great, but the effectiveness was fine for that part of the ground (backline).”
In the pre-Covid period some recruiters would attend about 150 games live, where they could listen in to how players used their voice.
Dalrymple would lean against a light pole in the back pocket to study Naughton’s interactions when he played senior WAFL games for Peel Thunder.
“A kid still eligible for under-18s was accepting feedback and giving feedback playing with Fremantle-listed players,” he said.
“What stood out to me was just the maturity. No sense of nerves, still played to his strengths, took intercept marks and if he made an error, he didn’t go into his shell.
“That was a bit of an indicator his self-belief was very strong. That aerial ability made him just a unique player — there’s not many 18-year-olds who have that ability to win the ball in the air.”
Melbourne moulded a premiership team on the back of list manager Jason Taylor peeling off Christian Salem, Christian Petracca, Angus Brayshaw, Clayton Oliver, Luke Jackson and Kozzie Pickett with prized picks.
Rookie-rich Richmond built a dynasty out of the draft’s dumpster under recruiting boss Matthew Clarke.
Kane Lambert, Jayden Short, Liam Baker, Marlion Pickett, Jason Castagna, Ivan Soldo, Dan Butler, Sydney Stack and co-captain Dylan Grimes were all recruited outside of the national draft.
Only Stack is without a premiership medallion — a boozy night breaking the AFL’s Covid protocols on the Gold Coast in 2020 the reason why.
“We have a list of deficiencies that are improvable and another list that are not improvable,” Tigers recruiter Francis Jackson once told the Herald Sun.
Kicking efficiency can be “significantly improved” — often by simply taking safer options — whereas some qualities only shift “marginally”.
“That’s generally speed and contested footy — the ability to halve contests or win contested ball,” Jackson said.
“There’s always outliers, but you should look at what the individual can do — not what they can’t do.”
In 2017 the Swans pieced together the AFL’s No. 1 backline from the rookie draft — Heath Grundy, Nick Smith, Jake Lloyd, Dane Rampe, Nic Newman and Lewis Melican.
Goalkicker Tom Papley, another Beatson beauty, pipped Charlie Cameron to make last year’s All-Australian team as a rookie pick.
“Without giving anything away, we spend as much time on the rookie draft as we would the national draft,” Beatson once said.
Beatson helped discover Brisbane Lions’ 2001-03 premiership team and since making his mark at the Swans they’re on track to play finals for the 11th time in 13 seasons.
Two years out of September. Gee, what a lengthy rebuild.
In the 2010 rookie draft the Dogs didn’t just beat the odds — they hit the jackpot.
After three preliminary final losses they had a need for speed and took a 170cm kid with dreadlocks in Luke Dahlhaus (217 games) and a kid who grew up in South Africa playing rugby union in Jason Johannisen.
No. 1 pick Luke Hodge won two Norm Smiths, No. 3 pick Dustin Martin won three, No. 2 pick Petracca won last year’s medal … and ‘JJ’ the rookie won it in 2016.
Dahlhaus had been training at Geelong and so the Dogs pounced one pick before the Cats.
In 2014 the Dogs took Daniel with their last live selection because their intelligence suggested the only other club interested — the Saints, Demons or Lions — had a pick before them in the rookie draft.
“Obviously, you’re trying to get him as cheap as possible,” Dalrymple said.
“But you always have to ask yourself, are you prepared to miss the player?
“You can’t outsmart yourself. If you want the player and you value him there then you’ve just got to pay the purchase price.”
Carlton regretted ruling a line through Daniel because he stood 167cm.
But Dalrymple said his height was “totally irrelevant” to the way he played.
“He’s not a contested possession player, but a ball user at ground level and not an aerial player,” he said.
“One thing I think is really important is it’s not how they look, it’s more what they do, and the impact of that on the game.”
Like Daniel, Dale relocated to halfback and immediately reached All-Australian status.
“He seemed a natural footballer,” Dalrymple said.
“As a forward his ability to front-and-centre crumb … players who can read the drop of the ball have pretty good footy IQ, I reckon, and he displayed that.”
This year Ed Richards has been repositioned to halfback.
So what’s more important — talent identification or development?
Dalrymple declared finding players with the right attitude helped AFL clubs unlock their potential.
But as three-time premiership coach Damien Hardwick once said: “A coach is only as good as the talent that he has.”