By Rebecca Mills
As the excitement builds for Thursday’s NAB AFL Draft on the Gold Coast, Greater Western Sydney GIANTS List Manager Stephen Silvagni is preparing for the culmination of two years of hard work.
After securing 11 of the first 14 picks at last year’s National Draft in Sydney, Silvagni and his team of recruiters will head in to Thursday’s draft with picks 1, 2, 3, 12, 14 and 28.
The list manager recalls last year’s event fondly and said that there is a sense of excitement and responsibility amongst his team.
“What stands out for me from last year was seeing those boys standing on the stage and knowing that they would be coming to GWS and playing for the club in our first season,” Silvagni said.
“There is a sense of responsibility amongst our recruiters to make sure that we put together the strongest list possible for this footy club.”
With a number of young guns touted to be selected high in the draft pool including Whitfield, Toumpas and O'Rourke amoung others, the GIANTS are sure to add some exciting talent to their burgeoning list.
Silvagni detailed the enormous amount of work that goes in to talent identification and while he wouldn't speculate about the type of player that the GIANTS would recruit in Thursday's draft, he said that this year's draft pool was a promising one.
“There is so much that goes in to recruiting these kids. We go and watch their games, look at their vision, talk to their coaches, go over their psychiatric reports, interview them and go to their homes.
“In a lot of ways it’s a culmination of all of our work. We have been tracking these kids for 24 months and we want to get the selections right.
“There is a pretty good depth in this year’s draft so every club will be able to select some good players with their first couple of picks,” he said.
With a multitude of exciting youngsters on the squads’ list, Silvagni said that the GIANTS players had a lot of hard work ahead of them if they are to achieve success in the future.
“Once players are on an AFL list, their draft order is irrelevant.
“I have a close relationship with Kevin Sheedy as I will have with Leon Cameron and we all work together to make sure that these kids develop as quickly as possible.
“It’s then up to the players to work hard, the coaches to develop them and everyone to give it their best to turn them in to the best player that they can be."
