West Coast Eagles General Manager of Football Craig Vozzo says the Eagles went into the 2015 trade period with a clear objective and come out of it very happy with the outcome.
From a player perspective the Eagles gained the services of Jack Redden (from Brisbane), Lewis Jetta (Sydney) and Jonathan Giles (Essendon) while Scott Selwood (to Geelong), Callum Sinclair (Sydney) and Matt Rosa (Gold Coast) departed the club.
The Eagles began the trade period with picks 17, 37, 57 and 75 but now head into the 2015 AFL draft with picks 23, 31, 62 and 75.
Vozzo said the Eagles now head into the AFL draft on November 24 pleased with where the list sits.
“The intention was to build our midfield,” Vozzo told the ABC.
“With trading you have to give a little to ‘get’, we felt we’re really well placed in our ruck division with Nic (Naitanui) and Scott (Lycett).
“Then getting Jonathan in together with Fraser McInnes and Jeremy McGovern we think we’re really well placed in that area.
“So getting Lewis who adds another dimension to our midfield with his speed and foot skills in particular, we thought it was worth doing.
“A lot of speed and outside run, we want to get him back to playing where he takes a lot of ground, bouncing and delivering inside 50.
“But he gives versatility because he can run from the back half as well.”
Vozzo said the Eagles had one eye on long-term strategy when recruiting Brisbane midfielder Jack Redden to help workhorse Matt Priddis lead the young midfield brigade.
“Jack’s a 24 year-old predominantly inside midfielder who’s 190cm and some really good running power,” Vozzo said.
“We think with Scott (Selwood) going out it was really important in that age demographic of mid-20s to bolster up our stocks.
“It gives Matty Priddis some support because your next level of mids after that is Mark Hutchings, Elliot Yeo, Dominic Sheed who are all sort of early 20s, then you go down to Liam Duggan who’s still 18.
“So we thought it was really important to bring someone like Jack into the footy club to supplement our midfield and in particular the inside grunt.”
With the draft only weeks away and with recruiting staff working feverishly to unearth the next batch of Eagles, Vozzo was clear on what West Coast would be chasing at this year’s draft.
“We’re definitely always looking for some quality mids into the side,” Vozzo said.
“You can’t have enough quality mids, we’ll probably look at a bit of height as well.
“I think we’re getting to that stage where we’ve probably got to supplement the key position roles with some developing talls coming in.
“We’ve got Tom Barrass and obviously Jeremy McGovern but we’re going to have a look at that next level as well.”
