Hawthorn left nothing to chance when dispensing of its nest of early draft selections, Emma Quayle writes

At 8AM last Saturday, Hawthorn's draft day team met for breakfast at a Middle Park cafe.

Less than five hours later, the same six men stood around the barbecue in coach Alastair Clarkson's backyard, welcoming the fresh pieces of footballing meat they had just delivered their club. The Hawks did not dictate all of the terms last Saturday; their day did not start until Carlton and Collingwood had plucked their preferred players from the national draft pool.

But with four first-round selections and another at the start of the second, they had a bigger say than any club in how the draft unfolded.

Their day's work — the culmination of a season's scouting — lasted less than an hour. That said, the Hawks spent less time on their toes than might have been thought, their morning adhering almost entirely to a neat script.

THE LEAD-UP

Hawthorn started focusing on the draft three weeks ago, bringing its recruiters to Melbourne for a two-day seminar to review a list of 66 players.
From there, recruiting manager Gary Buckenara and Chris Pelchen, Hawthorn's player personnel and strategy manager, whittled the list back and into an order of what they called their "talent flow".

Long before then, the club had pinpointed the key qualities each prospective recruit had to possess.

They had identified that the top 25 players in this draft were good talent, and they aimed to squeeze all their picks in there, finishing trade week with five of the first 22 selections.

In the days before the draft, Pelchen and Buckenara refined their 25-player "talent flow" , along with the four strategies.

FRIDAY NIGHT

Pelchen closed his office door about 8pm, having made final checks on the two Beaus, Dowler and Muston. If the Hawks were to choose either the marking forward with the fractured pelvis or the tall onballer probably headed for a second knee reconstruction, they wanted to make educated calls. "All you can do is minimise your risk," Pelchen said. "In Beau Dowler's case, we've had contact on a weekly basis with his family and his medical staff … It would be fair to say we were probably more aware of where Beau's knee was than Beau himself."
SATURDAY MORNING

Pelchen filled the group — Buckenara, Clarkson, football manager Mark Evans, chief executive Ian Robson and recruiter Greg Boxall — in on Dowler and Muston, and Buckenara offered an update on what he suspected other clubs were thinking. Then they tucked in to breakfast.
THE TABLE

Pelchen and Buckenara would do the bulk of the work, with the rest of the team seated at the back table. "When you're picking at pick 70 in a draft, it does take more co-ordination because more and more players are getting called out," Pelchen said.
PICK THREE

The Hawks thought Murphy, Dale Thomas and Xavier Ellis the best three — it was the order that was in question. With Murphy and Thomas gone, Hawthorn switched to the "Ellis strategy". Buckenara hesitated before calling the Gippsland Power player's name, but only briefly. "It was just common courtesy," said Pelchen. "We just turned around and said to Alastair … 'Are you still happy for us to call Xavier's name out?' "
PICK SIX

The Hawks had only one player in mind at their next pick, Beau Dowler, come on down.
PICK 14

Four players were listed at pick 14, and the first of them had gone. Grant Birchall was next in line and available, along with one other; though the decision had been made, it had to be confirmed.
PICK 18

Ruckman Max Bailey was the only player in mind at pick 18.
PICK 22

Only two of the Hawks' top 21 remained when they reached their final pick (their father-son selection, Travis Tuck, aside). One was Beau Muston. Buckenara and Pelchen turned to the back table.
"That discussion was for me to confirm what we knew about Beau and his medical condition and have the CEO accept that and be under the knowledge that if we selected this player, there was a strong likelihood he wouldn't play next year," Pelchen said.

THE WASH-UP …

The Hawks' formal draft review will happen next week; by Monday this week, they had sifted through the players left over. They will head to the rookie draft with a much longer talent flow, and less specific strategy. "We have to wait our turn this time," Pelchen said.
For now, they are happy with what they've got. "I remember Port Adelaide in 2001, we got Shaun Burgoyne, Kane Cornes and Domenic Cassisi at pick 50," Pelchen said. "We came out of that draft thinking we'd done well, so you do have a feeling. I've got a good feeling coming out of this draft, too."