FOUR NEW CATS REPORT FOR DUTY; AFL DRAFT WRAP
Ben Jensen 2 December 2008

By Ben Jensen (Edinburgh) GEELONG drafted four new players in the 2008 AFL National Draft yesterday. Only four players were drafted, down from five last season, the number one pick being Mitchell Brown, taken with number fifteen. Key forward Brown was recruited from the Sandringham Dragons TAC Cup side, along with fellow Taylor Hunt, a small defender. Tom Gillies is the third TAC Cup recruit, from Dandenong, and has designs on a key defensive role while the real excitement package is 'medium forward' Shannon Motlop, younger brother of Daniel and Shannon. In other news, 2008 Geelong VFL best and fairest Jason Davenport was given another chance at an AFL career, after being drafted by Port Adelaide with pick 78.

Melbourne drafted Jack Watts with their number one pick, a tall key forward recruited from Sandringham, but schooled at Brighton Grammar. Ben Cousins, as expected, was not drafted at all. COMPLETE 2008 AFL NATIONAL DRAFT LIST

Arguably the architect (or at least the chief drafty) of Geelong's 2007 Premiership, recruiting guru Stephen Wells was happy with the intake of four. "We were hoping to get a mixture of players if it fell a certain way and as it turned out we got a genuine tall forward, we got a good tall defender and a couple of other running players with speed and skill – it was a nice mix", he said.

Wells said the club was happy with what they ended up with. "With every choice there were a number of good players we could have chosen from and it was a hard choice, but we’re really happy we picked the players we did because we think it was a very good draft. In drafting we haven’t really considered what contribution they might make next year, it was all about the long term and anything they do next year will be a bonus."

Wells revealed the Cats are planning for the future, not only with the medium term pending retirements of the likes of Darren Milburn, Tom Harley and Cameron Mooney, but recent departees or long term injured. "We work on succession plans every year but I guess with Nathan Ablett leaving the club and Matthew Egan under an injury cloud it was certainly a consideration that we take some tall players, but not just for the sake of it, we wanted players of quality and we think with the two talls we got our share of quality players".

15 MITCHELL BROWN (Sandringham Dragons U18, Victoria)
195cm, 82kg, DOB 28/8/90
Key forward who two years ago was not really on any clubs' radar, Brown may be unlikely to feature at AFL level in 2009 but is a good prospect for the Cats should the two Toms (Lonergan and Hawkins) not make the positions their own in coming years.

33 TOM GILLIES (Dandenong Stingrays U18, Victoria)
192cm, 86kg, DOB 7/3/90
Tall defender who played mostly at full back at TAC Cup level but the Cats have eye on the marking defender as more of a centre-half back.

39 STEVEN MOTLOP (Wanderers, NT)
182cm, 67kg, DOB 12/3/91
Seventeen year old and generously described as a 'medium forward', Motlop is sure to become a cult hero down at Kardinia Park if he is half as good as older brothers Shannon and Daniel, Shannon who played for the Kangaroos and Melbourne while Daniel continues to ply his trade with Port Adelaide after also beginning his AFL career with the Kangaroos. .

49 TAYLOR HUNT (Sandringham Dragons U18, Victoria)
183cm, 83kg DOB 5/11/90
Another recruit from Sandringham along with Mitchell Brown may well be the man to take the place of a creative defender in Darren Milburn or perhaps a speedy one in David Wojcinski.

FULL DRAFT LIST