Port Adelaide National Recruiting Manager Geoff Parker gets asked one question every day by players and staff as he walks through the office in the Allan Scott Power Headquarters at Alberton - “Parks, who are we taking with pick 6?”

Parker, who heads up a team of more than 10 recruiters nationwide, answers with the same response every time, “I dunno, mate”.

“I’ve obviously got a good idea of who we’re going to take, but unless GWS give me their first five, I can’t be sure,” Parker said.

Despite being just a week away from the biggest day of his year, Parker took time out to sit down with portadelaidefc.com.au to answer supporter questions about the upcoming 2011 National Draft, where Port Adelaide has picks 6, 45, 51 and 81.

Question: ‘Bionic’ from The Power From Port.
A huge positive for our club has been player retention, that’s a real big tick for the recruiting staff and club culture. Many outsiders have unsuccessfully predicted a mass exodus of particularly our younger players including Butcher, Boak, Trengrove.

How much emphasis does the club put on a player’s personal well-being, goals, family & friends in selecting them for PAFC?

Geoff Parker: We look closely at the character and personality of the players when deciding who to select. It is an area we’ve placed a lot more emphasis on in the past few drafts which is a factor in why they’ve stayed together at the club. Not only do we try to draft good players, we also try to draft good players who are good people. It’s one of the factors along with obviously their football and athletic ability.

Q: ‘FishingRick04’ from Big Footy
What would be an approximate number of players viewed by the Port recruiting team and total number interviewed?

GP: We have staff across the country that not only watch games on the weekend, but also watch vision of all the major state leagues throughout Australia, so we get to see hundreds and hundreds of players across the course of a year. As the season goes on, the number of players we focus on gets scaled back and without knowing exactly, it’d be around 80 to 100 and we’d interview a majority of those players.

Q: ‘Phht’ from Big Footy
How important is the interview with the draftees?

GP: It is important, but it is just one of many factors, so it’s not necessarily make or break. It certainly doesn’t hurt to interview well though.

Q: ‘FishingRick04’ from Big Footy
Are there players followed from a younger age, e.g. 14?

GP: We start tracking players around the age of 15 or 16.

Q: Bailey Zobel from Facebook
What position player are we looking for in the draft?

GP: We’d like to strengthen our midfield, whether that’s with another ruckman or with more inside and outside midfielders, we’ll have to wait and see. We’ve traded for Renouf, but if you look at Collingwood, Geelong and Hawthorn last year they had five or six 200cm-plus players to share the load.

Q: Bradley Cooper from Facebook
What are the defining factors that are going to make the difference between a relatively even field of draftees in that 3-8 region? How they interviewed, speed, skills, proven leadership, proven big game performances, consistency, etc?

GP: There’s not one defining factor. We factor in their form during the year, their test results, their interview. It’s a combination of everything. We don’t necessarily put more emphasis on one factor over another.

Q: Bradley Cooper from Facebook
When it comes to our high 40+ picks in what is deemed a shallow draft, how will the club treat the picks? Positional, best available, gamble on a couple players with some outstanding attributes?

GP: We’re still working through what might happen at those picks. Because it is a shallow pool and it seems as though there won’t be a lot of picks utilised, some players we rate may fall through to us at those picks. We’ll assess what holes we might have on our list with an eye to filling them at 45 and 51.

Q: ‘Fifty’ from The Power From Port
What is the strategy in early draft picks - best available, or to fill needs?

GP: With pick 6 we’ll take the best player available to us.

Q: ‘Phithy05’ from Big Footy How much involvement does Matty Primus have in any recruitment decisions? Does he give the recruiting department any recommendations?

GP: Once the AFL season finishes, Matty becomes more involved in the recruiting process, watching vision and sitting in on more meetings. We watch vision together and discuss the pros and cons of certain players. He makes suggestions on the types of players we might need, but ultimately he puts his faith in us as the recruiting department to make the final call.

Q: Adam Jarrett from Facebook
What are the chances of landing John McCarthy? And is it one or the other with Davis or are both possible?

GP: We’re working through the process of looking through the delisted players, but at the moment we don’t know who is going to be available and we’re still undecided if we go down that path. We’re going through our list management strategy, so we’ll need to figure out how they’d fit in.

Q: ‘Phhht; from Big Footy
How do you try and evaluate/compare potential draftees from different leagues/levels (TAC vs SANFL vs WAFL under-18 etc)?

GP: You get an opportunity during the National Championships to watch the best 17 and 18-year-olds compete against each other so we can make comparisons during that time. It’s a bit more difficult evaluating the mature age players in different competitions but we like to think with our experience and knowledge in the recruiting department, we make good assessments.

Q: ‘Phhht’ from Big Footy
What is the average time that was spent viewing and analysing a draftee?

GP: How long is a piece of string!? After the pre-season and rookie draft we start working on lists for the coming season. So from 1 January until the end of the draft we’re constantly evaluating the draft pool.

Q: ‘Phhtt’ from Big Footy If a potential draftee has had injury concerns leading up to the draft year, do they you access to medical reports? Can the club ask for a medical report to be performed on a potential draftee?

GP: The AFL has medical staff in charge of all draftees’ medical information. All players that nominate for the draft have to make their medical records available to AFL clubs. Our club doctor, Mark Fisher, can request medical information from the AFL on any player, but that information is then made available to all 18 clubs. Also, the players invited to the national draft combine have a medical assessment conducted by the AFL doctor in front of the 18 clubs.

Q: ‘Relativity’ from Big Footy
I'd like to know that if a player expressed any reservations about moving from interstate, would this change the club’s views about recruiting them?

GP: We think here at Port Adelaide that we have a strong culture and outstanding player welfare strategies that would encourage a player to stay after his first contract expires. Over half our list now comes from interstate and the success we’ve had in retaining our players is testament to these player welfare strategies.

Q: ‘Ford Fairlane’ from Big Footy
Do the recruiting people talk to each other to get a feel for how the first round of the draft might pan out?

GP: Yes, recruiting people do talk to each other. Information comes from a lot of different sources - the media, player managers, other AFL clubs and state league clubs. It’s been harder to get an idea this year because GWS hold all the aces with the first five picks. We’re being diligent in our work on who we think are the best six and we’ll pick the highest ranked one when it comes to our pick.