SYDNEY'S general manager of recruiting and list strategy Kinnear Beatson has backed scouts to be ready to draft players this year even if they don't get to see prospects on the field again this season.
The AFL has not yet put plans in place for its NAB AFL Draft amid the coronavirus crisis, but CEO Gillon McLachlan over the weekend said he was confident there would be a draft staged.
However, McLachlan added that it may mean clubs would have to use information and footage from previous years to make their selections with uncertainty over a return date for this year's draft crop.
Beatson has steered the Swans' recruiting since 2006 and is one of the most experienced talent spotters in the industry, and said recruiting teams would have enough data to make choices in the worst-case scenario of not seeing any more live games.
10-YEAR CHALLENGE A look back at one epic U18 AA team
"For the vast majority of players we would have a fair bit of vision from 2019, whether that would be from state league competitions of school games that we were able to gather," he told AFL.com.au.
"If they're in one of the Academy hubs there's already quite a degree of testing results on them, so we have a feel for that. We haven't done any research yet as to whether any of them wore GPS units last year, but a lot of them also played in the under-16s.
"I know a lot changes from under-16s to their draft year – if it stays at 18 – but those are things you would take into account for what we would have to work off, plus any games they played at the start of the year as practice games we'd have to get access to them and code them."
SMALLER POOL? FUTURE PICKS? How will COVID shake up the draft?
Under-18 competitions, like all leagues across the country, have been paused until at least May 31 as Australia deals with the COVID-19 outbreak. Recruiters and list management teams from all clubs have been stood down as part of the financial measures enforced by the AFL.
Options such as a smaller draft pool and changing the draft age to 19 to allow the prospects to play next season have been raised within club discussions, as well as ensuring access to Academy and father-son talents.
The Swans have first call on several Academy prospects, including possible first-round choice Braeden Campbell, and Beatson, who has not previously been a supporter of raising the draft age, said the recruiting landscape would adapt to the AFL's decisions.
"There's a lot of water to go under the bridge in terms of list sizes, there's a lot of player contracts in place so we have to know what happens with them, what the total player payments looks like, whether there's rookies, what the domestic leagues look like, where your other players outside of the senior team will be playing – all of those are questions yet to be answered," he said.
"But in terms of if the draft age went to 19 or stayed at 18, well so be it. We'll run with it. There's far bigger issues at the moment. It has been debated a lot whether the draft age should be lifted, and quite a few think that it should and there's some arguments for it.
"But something else that will need to be considered will be what the state leagues look like if the draft age goes to 19. Are those players going to be in an environment where their development continues at a rate where it needs to be to have them ready and prepared for AFL football when they're finally drafted?
"It's early days in terms of what's happening and a lot of decisions are going to have to be made. We have to have the best interests of the under-18 players in mind."
LATEST NEWS All your COVID-19 updates here
Beatson has been opposed to lifting the draft age due to concerns about the stifling of development of players in their 19th year and how they would occupy themselves if focused purely on football, and argued there had been a significant number of players in his time at the Swans who had achieved excellent ATAR scores while juggling football and school work.
