PORT ADELAIDE coach Ken Hinkley says his club has been planning for three or four years to attack November’s AFL National Draft, chasing another injection of quality young talent.
Hinkley outlined the club’s strategy during an interview with journalist Gerard Whateley on his Melbourne radio program on SEN.
The Power coach praised the club’s list manager Jason Cripps for having it well placed to be a big player at the draft.
“Our strategy all along was to make sure that we were in this draft really big at the top end of the draft and we set out last year and we made those decisions back then and positioned ourselves pretty well,” Hinkley said on Thursday morning.
“We’ve got our own first round pick, we’ve got St Kilda’s second-round pick, we’ve got Jared Polec wanting to join North Melbourne so we expect a first-round pick out of Jared Polec, there’s no doubt about that.”
The Power is currently armed with pick 9 and two second-round picks (21 received from St Kilda last year and pick 27).
It also has picks 45, 46, and pick 81.
It is widely believed that the 2018 draft crop is full of top-end talent with South Australians Jack Lukosius (Woodville-West Torrens), Jackson Hateley (Central District), Connor Rozee (North Adelaide) and Izak Rankine (West Adelaide) expected to feature in the first round.
“We think we’ve put ourselves, or Jason’s done an enormous job to put ourselves in a really good position to attack the draft with youth,” Hinkley said.
“We don’t plan for this movement a week out, we plan for this movement three or four years out, that’s what we’ve done and credit to Jason Cripps, he’s done it really well.”
The draft order could change slightly depending on potential compensation picks for free agents like Gold Coast’s Tom Lynch.
For the first time, the draft will run over two days and clubs will also be able to trade draft picks during the event on November 22 and 23.
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