The Hobart Hurricanes have enlisted the help of North Melbourne recruiter Scott Clayton ahead of the inaugural BBL Draft.
Hurricanes coach Jeff Vaughan has revealed that the veteran AFL recruiter has been providing the franchise with all of his wisdom and experience when it comes to selecting players.
The Hurricanes hold pick 8 in Sunday’s draft and will get the chance to take one of 12 Platinum players.
To help navigate the BBL club through their first ever draft, the Hurricanes have sought the assistance of Clayton to help them focus in on the players they desire.
“We’re really fortunate that our CEO Dom Baker has enlisted Scotty Clayton, a good Tasmanian man and well-known through AFL circles and the draft guru of the AFL system,” Vaughan said on SEN Tassie.
“He’s been sitting in on all of our meetings and been asking the exact same question (of who will we select).
“We’ve developed a situation where we’ll go role specificity until we think that the next best player is better than our second or third picked for the role-specific type of player we want.”
Vaughan says Clayton’s expertise has been invaluable as the Hurricanes navigate their first foray into the draft world.
“It’s been a great learning curve for me and for everyone involved because in cricket we don’t do a draft,” he added.
“It’s something that’s brand new hence why we invited Scotty Clayton, who has been a wealth of knowledge for us.
“It’s a great process for us to go through and we’ll be far better for it. Heads have certainly been spinning at different times trying to work out how it all looks.
“The draft isn’t a traditional AFL type draft because you need to take into account player availability. Of those 12 platinum players, they’re all available for different amounts of the tournament.
“So that comes as part of our strategy determining what type of player we want. Do we want a better player who is only available for four games? Or do we take a so-called lesser player who is available the whole tournament.”
Clayton has previously worked as a recruiter at Brisbane, Gold Coast, Western Bulldogs and West Coast.
Another link to the Kangaroos is the fact that Ricky Ponting, a passionate Roos fan, is the head of strategy for the Hurricanes.
The list of 12 Platinum players available in the first round of the BBL Draft is as follows:
Faf du Plessis (South Africa)
Jason Roy (England)
Liam Livingstone (England)
Sam Billings (England)
Kieron Pollard (West Indies)
Andre Russell (West Indies)
David Willey (England)
Shadab Khan (Pakistan)
Dwayne Bravo (West Indies)
Rashid Khan (Afghanistan)
Chris Jordan (England)
Trent Boult (New Zealand)
The BBL Draft takes place on Sunday, August 28.
The BBL|12 season kicks off on December 13.
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