NICK Naitanui the slider on Saturday? Not going in the top three?
No, it's not likely, that's true, but it's an indication of the apparently bizarre scenarios that AFL clubs play with in the week leading up to the draft.
The Tigers were surprised when Alex Rance slipped through to No.18 last year, and the club is getting ready for more unexpected players slipping through this year.
Richmond recruiting manager Francis Jackson is living by the motto "expect the unexpected", and true to that, he's suggesting that while the club is preparing its "what-if" scenarios, there's already information suggesting an upset brewing.
"That's what we try and talk about this week, and that's what we're doing today," he said on Wednesday.
"There's something else that you wouldn't think possible, that mightn't be beyond the realms of possibility for Saturday.
"And that's why we like to be prepared and have everything down pat, because if you do deviate from your philosophy, sometimes you get pushed into decisions that you haven't given the correct amount of time to and you find yourself in trouble, so we try to cover all those bases.
"So there could be a possible upset in the wind, but I'm not even sure myself exactly what it is. But it could be."
The Tigers get to call their first number with the eighth pick, and Jackson said they were ready for anything after they got Rance at 18 last year.
"We've done our list and our priority order, but sometimes the unexpected might crop up – a player might slide dramatically that you hadn't really considered, and you would find it hard to believe someone might be there at, for instance, our pick eight, when they might be one of the top couple, or the same thing could happen in the second round.
"This is my third draft, and it's taught me to expect the unexpected.
"We play 'what happens if?' What happens if Naitanui falls to us?
"That's what happened to us last year with Alex Rance – we took him at pick 18 and clearly thought he'd be gone by then.
"That's part of the excitement of draft day – years of planning, and the unexpected can still jump up."
