In part one, an AFL club’s recruiting manager tells how he prepares for the first round of Division Two matches.

Keep up to date with all the rest of our under-18 championships coverage here.

Preparing for the NAB AFL under-18 championships

I MET with some of our recruiting staff early in the week and we discussed the prospective teams and how we saw them leading into the championships. The official squads of 30 players were distributed to AFL clubs on Wednesday and we basically pre-empted which players would play from those squads.

We have checked over the squads since Wednesday to ascertain who was missing from an injury point of view and to determine who might come into the squad. We also noted those players who we thought were unlucky to be overlooked for selection at some level.

At our meeting we also indicated which players we thought should be watched specifically. You always enter the championships with an open mind, but there are certainly players you anticipate will perform better than others.

On the plane trip to Sydney, we discussed the four Division Two teams and how we thought they might perform. We also discussed where players were likely to line-up and the type of game certain players might play. It was a general discussion, but some familiarity of the players is important – for example, size, height and playing characteristics.

We've already seen the Division Two players during the Challenge Cup Series in the lead-up to the national championships, so we're certainly not seeing them for the first time. But at least in the first instance you have a mental picture of these players.

Pre-match at the championships

AS A RECRUITING group we've decided that any social interaction with other people (i.e. recruiting staff, players, etc) can occur on our way into the ground and/or departing the venue.

But as the games are being played, I encourage all the guys to have their mobile phones switched off because this is a significant recruiting period during the year, and I like the guys to fully concentrate and not be socially involved or sitting around with other recruiting staff from opposition clubs.

During the breaks in matches, I'm more than happy for the guys to do whatever they want. They can relax, go to the toilet, get a drink or something to eat – that's just personal preference – but when the games are on, I want them to be focused on the play and nothing else.

I leave individual note-taking or player assessment totally up to each staff member. I encourage them to do whatever works best for them. You'll find some guys will take a lot more notes than others, but there is no right or wrong way to assess a player. Some people have a greater ability to commit things to memory, while others make notes at the end of the match or even later in the week.

You'll normally find in the earlier games that fewer player notes will be taken. It's often too early to label someone as "a bad kick" or "bad at ground level" based on just the first quarter or a half of one match. The recruiting staff will make their assessments over the whole championships and their notes will increase as the week progresses.

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.