EXCLUSIVE RECRUITING INTERVIEWS (BELOW)
Rob Kerr (National Talent Manager)
Stephen Conole (Senior Recruiting Manager)
Graeme Hadley (WA & SA Recruiting Manager)
Andrew Farrell (Pro Scout & Vision Analyst)



Rob Kerr
is the Brisbane Lions’ National Talent Manager. A former AFL player with both North Melbourne (1987-88) and the Sydney Swans (1990-91), he went on to forge a successful professional career which included a period as CEO of the AFL Players’ Association. He joined the Lions midway through 2010 to oversee the Club’s list management and recruiting process.

How many matches do you watch? How many reports do you receive?

Some weekends I will see four or five games live, some weekends two, it all depends on the scheduling.

I watch a lot of AFL at the start of the year and spend the last few months cross-checking the non-AFL players the recruiters are highlighting as well as trying to keep a close eye on the AFL.

The recruiting network has logged over 3,500 player reports on our database so we have a great tool for reviewing how targeted players have performed when they have been viewed. Some prospects will have had 15 reports written on them which allows us to track their season in significant detail.

Who ultimately has the final say on the Club’s recruiting strategy? Or is it done in consultation with the recruiting team and football department?

The process is certainly consultative, the recruiting team and the coaches have wide ranging discussions and everyone has the opportunity to put their view forward.

At the pointy end if there is a divergence of opinion, Michael (Voss) is happy to put his faith in the recruiting team as they have seen the players live and followed them for an extended period of time.

How much say do the Lions coaches have in the final selection?

The more senior coaches (Michael Voss and Mark Harvey) and Dean Warren have a strong say.

We have to take into account of what type of player they feel they need, and they are perfectly entitled to challenge our opinion, which they do, and we need to have an answer for them.

Ultimately we are a Club building a team that needs to have the capability to win a Premiership. Therefore we may have to pass over some highly rated talent to select a player that fills a specific need that simply has to be addressed if you want a team that can compete with the best on the biggest stage.

We have to ask ourselves how do you think this player would stand up and contribute to the team on Grand Final day?

Every website and paper has supplied their own Phantom Drafts. How accurate are they? Can they sometimes be misleading for the general public?

The journalists and avid talent followers seem to do a pretty good job with the Top 10-15 but after that it’s really guesswork. I’ve seen a few and they often have good write-ups on the youngsters but the order is different to how the recruiting teams are likely to see it.

Even those close to it can find it hard - AFL National and International Talent Manager Kevin Sheehan had a player in his top 30 last year who wasn’t selected in the National Draft. Clubs prioritise different attributes to those outside the club.

What are the biggest risks associated with the Draft?

Your biggest risks are the intangible qualities that will ultimately determine success.

Drive, self belief, work ethic, attention to detail - these sorts of attributes will see many less talented players overtake those with more talent.

Another risk that is significant for us is that you are moving an 18 year-old boy who finished school less than 10 days ago to another State, away from his support network.

It’s not always easy to predict how that transition will go, but Manny Lynch and our football staff do their very best to make it work.

What would be your final word for Lions fans?

No doubt many supporters will have their favourites that they hope are selected, and the reality is we can only take three players.

The Lions’ faithful can be assured that those involved in this process have put in the work and debated the relative merits of players in the context of our list ad nauseam.
Each player is selected with a particular end in mind, and we have the belief that in our system they can achieve those aspirations. At the end of the day though, it will be up to the player to take control of his career and it will most likely be a few years before we get a good read on how that is going to turn out.




Stephen Conole is the Brisbane Lions’ Senior Recruiting Manager. He joined the Lions at the start of the 2011 season after spending eight years as the Regional Manager at Oakleigh. Conole also performed various roles at AFL Victoria.

Aside from the full-time staff, who else makes up the Lions’ extensive recruiting network?

We have a great network of recruiters across the country who perform an essential role on a part-time basis. They do a lot of the ground work and tend to cover a lot of the local games - particularly during national championships when most of the full-time staff are tied up.

They include Rick Dowling, Russell Gardner, Ashley Craig and Stuart Page (Victoria), Peter Fitzgerald, James Saywell and Luke Norman (South Australia), Brett Wills and Terry Pass (Western Australia), Darryn Perry (Tasmania), and Leigh Brain (NSW/ACT).

Ashley Drake is our Talent Identification Officer for the Northern Region, while Academy Manager Luke Curran and Coach Scott Borlace also do an enormous amount of work covering Queensland.

The role of our recruiters is two-fold - they report on targeted players, and also identify any new talent that might emerge at any particular game.

We have a national phone hook up on a weekly basis, and have four structured meetings per year where we are all in the one place at the one time.

Our team watches over 900 games and countless hours of vision each season - not to mention all the testing, fitness results and interviews. It’s a very thorough process.

How often will the entire recruiting team get together?

Each State group will meet around four times per year to discuss the list that has been formulated and plan ahead. But as an entire national body, it’s somewhat separate.

It’s then the responsibility of myself, Rob, Graham and Andrew to merge the lists together in consultation with Dean Warren, Michael Voss and Mark Harvey.

How do you balance the drafting conundrum between ‘best available’ and ‘Club needs’?

It’s a juggling act.

That’s why our meetings with the Club’s football staff are so important - to get a good feel of where the list is and the immediate requirements.

It’s the recruiting department’s role to throw up potential players in the Draft who might be of a higher priority because they play a particular position, and compare them to the standard of player who may play a different role than the one the Club would ideally like to fill.

Is the process on the night as easy as ticking off players in order of preference as they’re taken? Or can discussions arise depending on who is taken by other clubs?

Every selection that you take, and another club takes, impacts on another selection.

For example, if you take a key position player with first selection, you might look at a different type of player - like an inside or outside midfielder - with your next pick. It’s not always as easy as just taking the next player you rate the highest.

If there is any discussion or extra time required, it’s generally to discuss which particular player or type of player we would like to take following our first and second selection.

It certainly gets harder later in the Draft as your options become limited. Therefore, trying to pick a player specific to your requirements can be more difficult.

Even with the amount of resources put into recruiting these days, is it still possible to overlook potential future stars?

There’s no doubt. Players can be overlooked, and history shows in last few years that the Rookie Draft can be just as fruitful as many of the selections in the National Draft.

Jack Crisp is a good example. We took Jack with our last selection at the 2011 Rookie Draft, but he ended up playing 10 games this season - the most of any of our draftees. He has now earned a place on our senior list.

Even though you do a lot of research, there are a lot of intangibles that restrict a player’s ability to be a successful player - even though you hope you cover off a lot of those. Some players you thought would be successful don’t quite make it, while others who get passed up until late in the Draft can become stars.

We’re very confident that we’ve got a fantastic level of knowledge on each of the boys in this year’s Draft. However, our ratings of the players may vary from many of the other clubs - so selections may differ accordingly.

Sometimes if you like a particular player, you have to take them a little earlier than you first hoped because of your specific requirements, or you may be concerned they’re not going to be available at your next selection.




Graeme Hadley is the Brisbane Lions’ WA & SA Recruiting Manager. He has been part of the Club’s recruiting team for the past six seasons, having previously spent 11 years with Fremantle. A recent move back home to Perth has seen his role focussed more on the talent in both Western Australia and South Australia.

How has your role changed since moving back to Western Australia?

Apart from being the overall coordinator, the role hasn’t changed a great deal. Stephen (Conole) has assumed the reins and has helped make it a seamless transition.

My role has been defined to revolve more around Western Australia and South Australia. We still talk about national issues, but Steve generally drives those discussions.

Perth is where my family is, so there is a responsibility for me there. At the outset we missed Melbourne terrifically, but it’s great to be back.

How confident can you be about your final Draft selections?

You’ve got to back your processes. It’s a logical and sequential process with a fair degree of purpose. There are no kids that we don’t have a strong profile on.

It’s not haphazard in any way. If you’re running around and coming up with wildcards now, it’s not ideal.

I liken the process a bit to a football match - you move from the first quarter, into the second and the third. By the fourth quarter, you hope that you come up with a result.

The process should have, by now, enabled you to get to a point where you’re happy with the list of players. The recruiting team has done the required research to enable a sound decision.

That said, you can never predict the future - that’s one thing you can’t do. Although people with a psychological background often say that the best predictor of the future is the past.

The Club has had a good history of selecting players who might not necessarily have had a huge media profile leading up to the Draft. Does popular opinion play any role in the final decision-making process?

It can’t be that way. It goes beyond that now. There’s no point having a network and not backing your network to find the best possible players. The decision we make have to reflect the work of your network. You live by your decisions.

You can recruit in a style which was more reminiscent of 15-20 years ago when you simply listen to prevailing thoughts and come up with a consensual list of players.

It’s never a one-man operation. It might look like that because someone sits at the table and reads out the numbers, but the decisions come from the great work and recommendation of your entire network.

At this moment, do you have any idea of what the other clubs are planning to do with the first seven picks?

You can waste a heck of a lot of time trying to analyse what other clubs are trying to do.

You might have an idea of who the first 4-5 picks might be, but it’s crazy to think you know more than that.

There’s general leakage, but there can be advantages established by keeping information to yourself. Most clubs tend to operate with their own plan and tend to keep it to themselves. It’s guess work on behalf of others.

So long as you’ve done your work and research prior to the Draft - you know how you’re going to respond to other clubs’ calls.

Right now, we don’t know who the Lions are taking at Pick No.8. But we’ve certainly prepared in a way that we’ll take a particular person if he’s available.

Everyone frames their own drafts, and that’s terrific. But in the end, it doesn’t matter what anyone says, it will never determine who gets drafted.

Last year two players had media at their homes because they thought they were going to be selected but weren’t. The media are generally well informed, but they don’t always know.

Do you think Lions fans - and AFL fans in general - can expect some surprises this year?

It’s absolutely inevitable that there will be surprises.

While we’re moving closer and closer to a scientific information-based model, we’re not there yet. You’re assessing performance, and that remains the key to a player’s drafting potential.

You can never go to the Draft not having seen the players play.

Craig Brittain was a great believer that what you see on the field is what you get. Game performance remains the key in the drafting process, and the act of an accurate assessment.




Andrew Farrell is the Brisbane Lions’ Pro Scout & Vision Analyst. He started working part-time with Champion Data, and also did some scouting and statistical analysis with Fremantle. He joined the Lions in 2011 and performs a number of roles at the Club, from video editing and statistical analysis, to scouting and recruitment.

What specific recruiting elements are part of your role?

One of my key responsibilities has been to oversee players from the State Leagues who could be potentially benefit the Club’s list.

We look closely at those AFL-listed players who are playing in their respective State Leagues, as well as analyse other potential mature-agers.

We do this by entering reports on each identified player. Reports basically consist of the seven match attribute descriptors that we deem as being the most valuable. Under each of those categories, we rate the players’ performance from 1-5.

There’s also a written section which consists of items such as; what influence a player had on the game; who his opponent was; strengths and weaknesses; things you’re unsure of; and general comments.

I don’t have a lot to do with recruitment of U18s, although any chance I get (when there are no State League games scheduled) I like to head along to watch TAC Cup games so I can be aware of the pool that’s available.

Can vision/highlights sometimes be misleading?

Highlights packages can make any player look good - and can be manipulated any way you like.

There are certainly pluses for looking at vision. You get a snapshot of seeing how the player’s performed, and can really hone in on key areas of a player’s skill - such as his kicking technique, defensive output, and cleanliness around the contest.

But there’s no substitute for watching a game of football live - that’s the lifeblood of the recruiter.

At what stage pre-Draft will the Club finalise its Draft preferences?

The landscape continues to change, and interviews continue to go on up until a few days leading into the Draft.

It’s a comprehensive process, and every due diligence needs to be taken.

That said, by now the field has narrowed considerably, so it’s just a matter of deciding between just a few players.

How confidential is the wealth of information you hold? Do family and friends with an interest in AFL ever try to get a ‘scoop’ from you?

Family and friends will sometimes ask for my personal opinion on certain players, but I don’t like to divulge an in-depth amount of information to people on the outside - particularly about players the Club might be targeting.

You can balance having a conversation about a player without revealing any critical information. After all, we don’t want to give other clubs any indication of which players we might be interested in.
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EXCLUSIVE RECRUITING INTERVIEWS (BELOW)
Rob Kerr (National Talent Manager)
Stephen Conole (Senior Recruiting Manager)
Graeme Hadley (WA & SA Recruiting Manager)
Andrew Farrell (Pro Scout & Vision Analyst)