The Sydney Swans have narrowed down who they are likely to take with their first selection in the National Draft on Friday night.
Currently the Club’s first selection is pick 9 but that may slide as far as pick 11 due to the academy bidding system.
Wherever the pick lands Recruiting and List Strategy Manager Kinnear Beatson is confident the Swans will be adding a quality footballer to their list.
“It is fair to say we have narrowed it down to three players that we think it will come down to at that stage and we are really comfortable that we will get a good player there,” Beatson said.
“What we believe will happen is players like Andrew McGrath, Hugh McCluggage, Ben Ainsworth and Tim Taranto will definitely be gone.
“The rest of it is pretty quiet at the moment because Essendon aren’t declaring who they will take at No. 1 and that is their prerogative.”
Senior Coach John Longmire sat down with the list management team on Thursday morning to finalise the club’s draft strategy heading into the event.
Beatson said he was confident the Swans would find some strong young talent deeper into the draft.
“At the end of the day good players always sneak through so we are organised for that to happen,” he said.
“We know what we want to achieve out of the draft.
“Who we take at pick 9 and 19 will determine a little bit what happens at picks 46 and 49 on balance with who is there.”
The Swans will take four live selections into the National Draft before turning attention to Monday’s Rookie Draft where up to five rookies could be added to the list.