With the dust of trade week well and truly settled Western Bulldogs Recruiting Manager Simon Dalrymple has taken some time out to discuss what was a very busy period for the Club.

Simon first of all thank you for joining us, you must have been very happy with the calibre of players we have bought into the Club.

It was a really positive week, we targeted 3 players and we were very happy to secure them.  We think they will add leg speed to our team for Season 2011 and they are all under 24 years of age.

Now in gaining Patrick Veszpremi from Sydney we have traded Andrejs Everitt, were you pleased with that outcome?

Yes it is an interesting one.  Andrejs has played more football than Patrick over the last 4 years, due largely to the fact that Pat had some injury issues and came into the system a year later.  It would be fair to say then that Andrejs has achieved more at the AFL level but we believe Patrick has a lot to offer as a forward.  He was also an All Australian Under 18 small defender and I have known him since he was 13 when he came through the Northern Knights program.  There is a lot of talent there and he has shown in the past that he has responded well to a kick in the backside.  He won’t be happy with his time in Sydney and we know we have a player that is very keen to prove a point.

It was disappointing to lose a player like Andrejs but at the same time we are wrapt to have Patrick because we know he can kick goals, has speed, is a beautiful kick and can also play down back.

Looks like we may have something to look forward to there.  So along with Sherman, Veszpremi and Djerrkura we also managed to secure Liberatore and Wallis under the father-son rule which means we may be a little quiet at the upcoming Draft.

Yes we have given up our first 2 Picks but we had planned on that for a while now.  We are very happy to have both the boys, they are already on training programs for the off season which is a huge advantage for us.  We believe that we have got an absolute bargain to get both of these boys who we rated in the top 20 of the Draft.  So we really have bought in 2 first round selections into the side and traded our 3rd round selection for Nathan Djerrkura.

We had our sights set on Nathan mid-way through the year, we had someone watching him every week and we have done a lot of homework on him.  He has had 4 years at a really strong club in Geelong and given the opportunity he can play as both a small forward and midfielder.  Nathan has terrific speed and agility and we think he will be very good for us.

Now ahead of the Draft that leaves us with our 4th and two 5th round selections which will be a challenge, but we are working through a process now of targeting players that we think may be available in that range.  We are looking closely at the character of our potential draftees, late in the Draft there will be individuals with some weaknesses but we want guys with really strong character.  They will need to be prepared to work on their deficiencies and that is our number 1 criteria.

We are working very hard at the moment to interview the potential players, investigating their backgrounds, reviewing all of our data and vision.  History says you can still get very good ‘role players’ in that range in the draft.

There was obviously some interest in Josh Hill throughout Trade Week from Hawthorn, can you explain to us what happened there?

Josh did attract some interest but we were not prepared to trade Josh unless we got something valuable in return.  To be honest Pick 37 in this year’s Draft, when you consider the number of players who have already been taken out of the pool, it is basically the equivalent to Pick 50.  It is not a strong Draft and we were not prepared to give him up unless we could use that Pick in another deal.

We had spoken to the Gold Coast about doing that, but by the time Hawthorn had bought that offer to us late on the final day any chance of dealing with the Suns had gone.  Cameron Richardson, Peter Faulks and Tendai Mzungu were 3 guys who were on our radar but they had already gone in other deals.  So if Hawthorn had come through with an earlier offer we might have been able to negotiate but unfortunately that did not come through.

In saying that we are very happy to keep Josh and we believe he can play a substantial role for us next year.  You have to remember that Brad Johnson, Nathan Eagleton and Jason Akermanis are no longer with us and we now need medium size forwards to stand up.  We believe Josh can play that role and also on the wing, his 2009 form showed his is a proven goal kicker at AFL level.

Was it disappointing to lose Faulks from underneath your nose?

He was one of a couple of other mature age players that we targeted.  We only had one 4th round selection and two 5th  round selections which meant we did not have a lot of currency to negotiate with the Gold Coast.  Unfortunately Fremantle became aware of our interest in Peter and they were able to do the deal with the Suns.  We needed the earlier Pick’s to make it happen.

So fans should not be too worried about us not being involved until late in the Draft?

Yes I mentioned we have the late Picks in the 70’s and we will be really targeting players with the right character, who can play a role with our team.  Through the Trade Week and father-son rule we have already bought in plenty of talent, we now need youngsters who can play roles.

Well I guess the fans should have cause for optimism given the Club’s tremendous track record with making the most of late Picks and Rookie selections.

Dale Morris, Matthew Boyd, Brian Lake are great examples. You only have to look at the last Grand Final to see that you can still find quality late in the Draft.  Collingwood had Rookies Alan Toovey and Harry O’Brien in their side, so we will be leaving no stone unturned to unearth the next batch of young kids to bring into our Club.

Well Simon thanks for your time, I know you have a fair bit on your plate and best of luck with the upcoming Draft!