When you hear Shane Rogers trumpet the name of Carlton’s first selection in the 2013 AFL National Draft this November, spare a thought for the hours and hours that have gone into making that call.

Rogers heads up a vast national network of both full-time and part-time recruiters who contribute their time and energies to identify future Carlton talent.

“Our full-timers Luke Williams, Michael Jordan, Wayne Hughes and myself, together with Ross Parker in Perth, would see 140 live games each through the year, and get a video of each game to review,” Rogers explained. That’s anywhere and everywhere from the WAFL, SANFL, NEAFL, QAFL, TFL under 18s, U16s and of course the VFL, together with schoolboy, amateur and district football competitions.

“Our part-timers have also increased from 13 to 21 and we have representation in every state of Australia . . . our four scouts in South Australia are part-timers who would see 80-90 games and just as many do the same in Victoria. All of them operate on an honorarium because they love Carlton.” 

Rogers’ duties have taken in the experiences at successful clubs Carlton (including the Premiership year of 1995), Footscray, Fremantle (including the Preliminary Final year of 2006), Collingwood and Carlton again. Now in his second year at the helm, having assumed duties from Hughes, Rogers hit the ground running.

“When I started I made a few changes,” Rogers said. “Coming from a business background one of the first was to ensure that there wasn’t a clicky little footy environment that you can sometimes get… at football clubs.

“The recruiters connected with us are all on KPIs, they’re measured yearly and if they don’t step up to the mark we’ll have to make changes and get better people in. But at the moment the network’s going really well and it’s as good as we’ve ever had it here.”

The welcome additions of former Geelong recruiter Williams and Jordan have both replenished and firmed up the network of talent scouts who contribute to the national database, knowing that their day doesn’t end with a game of footy.

Rogers, who will complete 35 flights by years end to be at various games around the country, explained that most of the spotters on the club’s books each attend a minimum three to four matches weekly across all parts of the continent before completing their written briefs of players of interest.

“As well as completing this reporting system, these recruiters might also have to arrange interviews between me and the players’ parents, as well as attend training sessions to watch these players during the week. So it’s pretty involved,” he said.

Carlton’s connections transcend Australian shores. The club boasts a full-time Melbourne-based Ireland consultant who sources his own network to recommend potential international draftees (as was the case with Zach Tuohy), and has forged links with both the United States through player agents and South Africa.

New Zealand is also a port of call.

At the time of print, Carlton’s recruiters have negotiated both Under 16s and 18s national championships – and as Rogers explained “while we’ll be keeping an eye on those players we’re now trying to find a few mature age players, or players who have just missed out on the Under 18s and we’re continuing to monitor their progress”.

“AFL-wise we recently had to nominate 70 players for the draft camp so we’re in the process of finding out who will go to that camp,” Rogers said.

“One of the biggest things is to get around and speak to all these kids, and we’ve probably conducted 50 interviews already. We’ve got 25 interviews to go to cover the top 75 kids in Australia.”

Rogers is more than mindful of Carlton President Stephen Kernahan’s call that the club would be aggressive in building its playing list post-season. Not surprisingly, the former, together with the club’s General Manager – Football Operations Andrew McKay, have upped the ante in meeting with player managers in the countdown to the pre-draft trading period.

“There’ll be no stone left unturned,” Rogers said of the push. “In some ways that doesn’t guarantee we’ll get the player, as it might be the salary cap that puts us out of the picture, but I would say this is one of the years we’ve investigated more than any other.”

Of the 2013 national draft, Rogers welcomed the fact that the selection process was finally devoid of restrictions. “As for the draft pool itself, I wouldn’t consider it a poor one but I wouldn’t consider it a great one either,” Rogers said. “It’s what I’d call an average pool, which is a good thing. That means there’ll be  good players for everybody.

“At this stage it looks like the players will be on the smaller side. There are a lot of small kids who are genuine footballers likely to be in the draft and not so many ‘talls’ this year, so there’ll be a lot of midfield depth coming through and not so many key position players.”

And for the man who heads up the network, bring it on.

“The way we’re going at the moment we’re going to have a lot of picks in both the National and Rookie Drafts, and  that’s exciting as a recruiter. It gives us a chance to freshen our list and meet what needs we’ve got,” Rogers said.

“Importantly, the amount of work going into this is enormous. The club’s been very good at resourcing, more money’s been spent and the upshot of it all is that we’re in a lot better position than ever before.”