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ESSENDON clearly made the cheekiest call in Tuesday night’s NAB AFL Draft.

Given the fierce rivalry with Carlton, the Bombers raised plenty of eyebrows when they used pick No.53 to nominate Jack Silvagni.

He is the son of Carlton great Stephen Silvagni, now their list manager, whose father Serge also played for the Blues.

Carlton fans would have screamed blue murder if the third-generation Silvagni had gone to Essendon.

But Carlton used the new live bid system, which aims to ensure fair value for academy and father-son draft nominations.

The Blues seemed to take a very short time to press the button on their table and activate the bid for Silvagni.

"I thought it was quite funny," Stephen said.

"They'd actually interviewed Jack quite a few times - they rated him quite highly.

"He was a chance to maybe get called at 24-25 but, once that got through, I knew something was coming."

Stephen added that if Essendon had made an earlier bid for his son, Carlton also would have matched it.

"They always keep you honest, but isn't that a great story for us?" Blues coach Brendon Bolton said.

Essendon list manager Adrian Dodoro said he was determined to not let Carlton recruit Silvagni with a later draft pick.

"I just want to keep the opposition down the road honest, that's all," he said.

"We weren't going to let them get away with murder.

"The kid is a very good player in his own right and he deserved to get drafted a little higher than when he was picked."