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Giants load up

Giants load up

11/24/2011 10:14:51 AM

With 11 of first 14 picks at Thursday's AFL national draft, expansion club Greater Western Sydney is confident it's reaped a bountiful harvest of the best young talent in the land to sustain the club through next year's inaugural season and beyond.

As expected, the Giants selected Eastern Ranges key forward Jonathan Patton at No.1 with the first of their 20 picks ahead of Swan Districts midfielder Stephen Coniglio at No.2 and Oakleigh Chargers midfielder Dom Tyson at three at the draft conducted at the Sydney International Sports Centre.

"We targeted some specific players but we were happy with what we got," said GWS list manager Stephen Silvagni.

"Just the way it fell in terms of talent we tried to pick the best players."

"We got a really good mix of midfielders and some players that can play both defence and forward so we were happy with that."

"We'd like two of everything, but we're not going to get everyone we want in one draft."

"We're a club starting out and we're going to have to be patient."

A handful of recycled players got a second chance including former Blue Setanta O'hAilpin and ex-Demons skipper James McDonald at GWS and former Eagle Beau Wilkes who's now a Saint, but there was no room at the inn for Brendan Fevola.

Melbourne pulled a rabbit from the hat with the nomination of delisted Adelaide utility James Sellar, who was a first-round pick in the 2006 national draft, with the third of their three picks at No.54.

Delisted players who were overlooked included Addam Maric, Daniel Pratt, Gavin Urquhart, Mitch Farmer, Ben Nason, Paul Bevan, Callum Wilson and Brennan Stack, though there'll be a second chance for some at next month's rookie draft, and one or two - such as former Magpie John McCarthy - in the pre-season draft.

Port Adelaide passed on their final selection which they're likely to hold over for McCarthy.

Fremantle also left a space on their list free for Zac Dawson who's expected to be reunited with his former coach Ross Lyon via the pre-season draft.

Port and the Brisbane Lions were the only clubs, apart from GWS, with a top-10 pick.

The Power opted for a local in Sturt midfielder Chad Wingard at No.6 while the Lions went for need with their nomination at No.8 of the top-rated teenage ruckman in the draft, Billy Longer from the Northern Knights, to support Matthew Leuenberger and Ben Hudson.

With seven 'live' selections to make, the most from any club apart from GWS, St Kilda went for North Ballarat midfielder Sebastian Ross, a first cousin of Essendon skipper Jobe Watson, with their first selection, No.26 overall.

The Saints used their final pick, No.76, to redraft veteran defender Jason Blake.

Premiers Geelong pulled a surprise with the acquisition of battle-hardened VFL veteran Orren Stephenson from North Ballarat.

The 29-year-old ruckman will help the fill the void left by the retirement of premiership big men Brad Ottens and Mark Blake.

Forced to wait until No.33 for their first pick, the Hawks pounced on Brad Hill, the younger brother of Fremantle's Stephen, who smashed the all-time beep test record at last month's draft combine and was the fastest over the 3km time trial.

North Melbourne picked up Tom Curran, the son of former Hawthorn forward Peter Curran while Michael Talia, the Western Bulldogs' second-round selection, is the grandson of Harvey Stevens, a member of the club's only premiership side in 1954.

 
Photograph Copyright : Getty Images

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