HAWTHORN must have liked what they saw from Central District this year, with the brown and gold just one Dyson Sharp away from completing the set. The Hawks picked up three SANFL Bulldogs as well as a hard-running midfielder in the National Draft before snatching a massive draft slider and Vic Metro MVP in the Rookie Draft.

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DRAFT HAUL

NATIONAL DRAFT:
Pick 20. Cameron Nairn
Pick 23. Aidan Schubert
Pick 34. Jack Dalton
Pick 56. Matthew LeRay

ROOKIE DRAFT:
12. Oliver Greeves

>> CLICK each player’s names for full profiles & highlights

Hawthorn featured twice in quick succession on AFL Draft night one, taking a pair of Dogs with their selections at Picks 20 and 23. Nairn and Schubert provided plenty of highlights for not only Central District but South Australia, where they formed two heads of a three-headed monster – with Mitch Marsh – throughout the series.

Schubert is more the key position tall, while Nairn is that third tall height at 188cm. Both are terrific aerial players and can do enormous damage on the scoreboard, while were also touted as potential top 10 picks at different points. The Hawks were able to snap both up at their selections and add to an already exciting forwardline.

If those two Dogs were not enough, they went back on night two and selected another Central District talent in winger LeRay who was again incredible value at Pick 56. A potential top 30 selection, LeRay has fantastic work rate, clean hands and can use either side of his body, possessing terrific upside as well.

He will be the outside to Dalton’s inside, with the Sandringham Dragons prospect the other player taken on night two. The kid with the elite endurance base is as consistent as they come, not to mention resilient, fighting back from two broken wrists that threatened to end his season early, but he returned to not only Sandringham, but Vic Metro as well.

Speaking of performing at Vic Metro, none did more so than the side’s carnival MVP, Greeves. He was touted as a top 10 player at the start of the year, but continued to slide to the point of where he looked a night two selection. As each pick was read it was a little bit surprising he remained on the board, with the Hawks swooping on him – a player they had tried to get into their Next-Generation Academy at year’s start – in the rookie draft.

Greeves has some some running traits to improve which was the reason behind the slide, but he oozes class and can do things that very few others can. All in all, the Hawks have made a low-risk, high-reward selection with the sole pick they took in the Rookie Draft.

GRADE: A

Impossible to give them anything below an ‘A’ for this draft despite not entering it before Pick 20. They nabbed sliders with most selections, and to get Greeves in the Rookie Draft – regardless of his flaws – is just great business. Hawthorn made the most of its selections, and the trio of Dogs will have familiar faces to relocate alongside.