RECRUITING and list management departments are tasked with perhaps the most difficult job at every AFL club: shaping their team's direction in the short, medium and long term. They are all at different stages of their road towards a premiership, but the job insists they must take a broader look all of the time.

There's the trade targets. The retention of their own players. The scouting of this year's draft, next year's draft and the one after that. Then there's the strategy, the planning, the meetings, the decisions and the minutiae that lies behind the scenes.

So how do the Eagles do it? AFL.com.au's draft expert Callum Twomey looks at the Eagles' recruiting and list management department, uncovers who does what and who makes the tough calls.

West Coast pours plenty of resources into its recruiting department, making it one of the competition's biggest teams. Rohan O'Brien is into his seventh year as the club's recruiting manager, overseeing five full-time staff spread around the states to monitor the talent coming through. Former Eagles player Brad Smith and Trevor Woodhouse take a more national view, while Jordan Loxley and Steve Nash (in Victoria) and Duane Massey (in South Australia) are more specialised in their areas. Because of their deeper list of full-timers, the Eagles have six part-timers, a smaller group. Former Kangaroos midfielder Brady Rawlings is the club's list manager, having previously been an assistant coach to Adam Simpson, with Adrian Battiston the Eagles' pro scout. Rawlings arrived at West Coast at the end of 2013 having been a recruiter with the Roos. General manager of football Craig Vozzo also keeps a close eye on under-18 action at different stages of the year to be on top of the talent pool.