Speaking at the AFL Draft Combine, Voss said the Club’s recruiters have proven successful in identifying and drafting young talent over recent seasons.
“There has been evidence of our recruiting group being quite strong over the past few years,” Voss said.
“Rob Kerr, Graeme Hadley and their team have been able to bring quality players to the Club.”
“In 2008, we were able to secure the likes of Daniel Rich, Jack Redden, Todd Banfield, Aaron Cornelius and Tom Rockliff from the one draft, and last year we picked up Jared Polec, Patrick Karnezis, Ryan Lester and Josh Green who all look likely players.”
“From the 2009 Draft, Ryan Harwood, Jesse O’Brien and Bryce Retzlaff have started to come through, and we haven’t even seen Callum Bartlett yet.”
“So I have tremendous confidence in our guys to get the job done for us again.”
Voss will obviously play an active role in identifying the team’s main requirements, but understands that his recruiters bring a far greater knowledge of the potential new recruits.
“We will always bounce stuff off each other, but our recruiters have watched these players throughout the year,” Voss said.
“These guys have seen upwards of 13 or 14 games of some of the boys this season. You can’t get a good overview of what these guys can do from just watching one game.”
“I remember last year coming down to watch Dyson Heppell play, and he didn’t touch the ball. I walked away thinking that I got nothing out of it. He was obviously highly rated at the time - and has gone on to prove he’s a fantastic player - but just didn’t get the footy on that one day.”
Voss said the AFL Draft Combine has helped him and some of the other coaches get some further background on players who have surfaced in the Club’s initial draft discussions.
“My involvement is really just to observe, put some faces to names that have been thrown around for most of the year, and back-in what the recruiters are doing,” he said.
“When we start to look at the vision over the next couple of months, it will be good to put a players’ personality with his name.”
“It’s also a really good chance for us to get together as a group and talk through things about where we need to be and what we need to look for.”
“The testing itself is just one part of decision-making process. It just helps us to understand how they physically move and whether they’re able and willing.”
