Essendon coach Brad Scott is excited about the first round of the 2023 Draft on Monday night.
The Bombers are currently armed with pick nine and will no doubt have plenty of quality options to select from.
Players tipped to be chosen around that selection include Vic Metro forward Nate Caddy, Allies defender Connor O’Sullivan and Tassie high-flyer James Leake.
Scott says that the Bombers like all three of those options and simply need to rank where they sit on their draft board when their selection rolls around.
“All of those players (Caddy, O’Sullivan and Leake) are very good players,” Scott told AFL.com.au's Gettable.
“Every AFL club would love to have them on their lists.
“The difficulty probably comes between splitting them.
“It’s almost a bit of a cop-out having pick nine, you almost take what is left.
“But we like them all, even if we had an earlier pick, splitting those guys would be quite a challenge.
“We certainly like them all.”
One player that could surprisingly still be on the board come Essendon’s first selection is WA tall Dan Curtin.
While Curtin has also been touted as a top-five pick, some are predicting him to slide towards pick nine and Scott says the Bombers would be delighted if he were still available by their turn.
“He (Curtin) is in that group of players that we really like,” Scott said.
“The fact that he’s from WA doesn’t deter us one little bit.
“We really like him, he’s a really versatile player.
“Jee, if he’s there at our pick we’d be delighted. But that probably means some other players have jumped in (ahead of him).”
Given how much the Bombers do like some options inside the top 10, Scott says they could look at live trading draft picks on the night if a situation presents itself.
“With pick nine, would we like to come in a little bit? Potentially,” Scott said.
“We’re open to everything, probably like most clubs at the top end.
“I think there’s going to be some good opportunity for live trading, so we’re certainly open to that.
“But if a player like Dan’s there at our pick, we’d be very pleased.”
The first round of the 2023 AFL Draft begins at 7pm (AEDT) on Monday. The second and subsequent rounds take place on Tuesday night.
