Footy Dept. Soon to be ex-GM - List & Recruiting Adrian Dodoro #putoutyourjackets

[Lore]

Cliff notes:

• Stepping back from his current senior role following the 2023 AFL Draft
• Transition plan, raised the possibility with Vozzo in April
• Replacement is Matt Rosa, whose thread is here: Welcome to Essendon Matthew Rosa
  Matthew Rosa

  Age

  37

  Ht

  191cm

  Wt

  84kg

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  Mid

  Career

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  Last 5

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  21.1

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  11.0

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  10.1

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  5.0

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  2.7

  4star

  CL

  1.7

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  No current season stats available

  D

  14.6

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  9.4

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  5.2

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  M

  4.4

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  1.4

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  – AFL Talent & Operations Manager!

To coincide with this announcement, the Club’s General Manager of List and Recruiting, Adrian Dodoro, has made the decision to take a step back from his current senior role following this year’s NAB AFL National Draft. He will lead the Club through the upcoming 2023 Trade and Draft period in his current position prior to transitioning to and assisting Matt Rosa moving forward.​

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Dodoro, an Essendon Life Member, has played a significant role at the Bombers over nearly three decades and said the time was right to take a step back.​

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“I approached Craig back in April to discuss the concept of transition and I feel that now is the right time to make this decision,” Dodoro said.​

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"I sat on the panel to assist in the selection of Matt, and I believe he will be an outstanding acquisition to the Club for years to come. I look forward to working with Matt moving forward.​

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“These roles are very taxing on individuals and their families and it just feels like that. After nearly three decades and with stability in key roles at the Club, now is the right time for me to take a step back in to a role which will provide me and my family with a better work life balance.​

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“More immediately, we have an important few months coming up and I’m looking forward to playing my part to deliver a strong Trade and Draft period for the Club to ensure that the playing list is in a strong position for the future.”​

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Essendon CEO Craig Vozzo acknowledged the significant impact Dodoro has made at the Club since joining in a full-time role in 1998.​

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“Adrian is a highly respected Life Member of the Essendon Football Club and has made an enormous contribution to the Club and the wider AFL industry during his time in football, including assisting to navigate the Club through unprecedented and challenging periods,” Vozzo said.​

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“Throughout his time at the Bombers, Adrian’s commitment and passion to take the Club forward in its list management and recruiting, has been unquestionable. Some of the Champions of Essendon have been identified and selected by Adrian, and we will always be grateful for the important and enduring role he has played.​

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“On behalf of the entire Club, we would like to acknowledge Adrian’s selfless decision and we look forward to his ongoing contribution to the Club.​

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“Adrian will work with Matt to ensure a smooth hand-over and a successful transition of responsibilities.”​

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Except they don’t. They simply cannot, and they don’t.

Gold Coast. Carlton under Bolton. They were not capable of getting anywhere near the top sides and they never do.

I bring them up those two examples because make no mistake, that’s the level we played at last night.

We do it regularly. 6-8 times over the past 18 months we’ve totally matched it with top 2 or top 4 sides. Beaten them or run them to a goal. It’s not some fluke, it’s happened plenty of times.

This group is capable.

Im confident in saying there’s not a team in the league with the incredible gap between their best and worst that we have.

Something happens that makes this team - that can match and beat the best - play like Bolton Carlton or Gold Coast sometimes.

As much as people like to say “it’s been like this for 15 years”, it hasn’t. We’ve been s**t at times, and the side has consistently played below itself for long periods before (generally ASAGA related), and the club has had hugely identifiable tactical issues before (under Knights), that were there every week.

But it has never had this ability to completely implode into rank uncompetitiveness randomly like this.

The first clue to it is obviously pre-seasons. We do something that has us shockingly unprepared for the season.

Gold Coast were very good against the Eagles and Cats early in the year and Blues with Bolts ran a much stronger Collingwood team to a kick. We are better than them but certainly not anywhere near consistent enough to even consider ourselves almost contenders ourselves. We have some elite tricks that can roll anyone but also gapping weaknesses that can get exposed by anyone.

 

[calyam]

Hindsight heroes stuff again.

Can you blame a recruiter for taking the safe option and taking the lock with the least question marks in McGrath?

Can you blame a recruiter for not taking a bloke who had barely played all year, probably didn’t want to play for your club and had just done a runner from a breath test and instead taking another lock with few question marks (Parish over Curnow)?

If you know they’re going to pan out after the fact of course you take the higher risk higher reward option, but this is the real world and botched picks have consequences.

'Hindsight heroes' my arse. That's lazy and disingenuous.

McGrath wasn't the best fit for our list and he didn't fill our most pressing need. That is the real world. It was true before he was drafted and it is glaringly obvious today.

McCluggage was the concensus first pick until the TAC finals. McGrath wasn't even considered a top three chance until he had a great final series. Recruiters such as Dodoro threw away an entire seasons worth of form and evidence in favour of a couple of games of footy. Dodoro fell prey to recency bias. McGrath was never the safe option, that was McCluggage. There was more evidence that he was an outstanding prospect than there was for any other player in the draft that year.

Stop making apologies for mediocrity.

 

[Kwality]

McGrath was a half-back for virtually the entire TAC Cup campaign and during the Championships, no?

This isn't a slight on his abilities but recruiting him as a half back with the view for him to play midfield seems needlessly risky over drafting a player that had a junior campaign that was just as impressive AND played the entirety of it in the midfield in Hugh McCluggage, who I thought we were going to take.

TAC Cup means squatt in season 3 of an AFL career.
Dodoro needs to project way beyond schoolboy footy, & at 50+ games McGrath .... big year 2020, he's got it, not Dodoro though.

 

[Keystone agony]

Developments becoming a major issue

Surely we cant just miss that much in the draft. I mean everyone had guys like Mcgrath, Mutch, Laverde, Ridkey, Langford, Parish, Francis ect ect around the mark. Other clubs just seem to be able to develop players ie Stack, Rowbottom, Worpel. The Sydney, Hawks, Eagles, Pies strong clubs just get it so right

Our talent seems to be kept 'behind too many' as if it were those ahead that were putting us into the top 4 every year. Thats not the case.

 

[Zach Package]

'Hindsight heroes' my arse. That's lazy and disingenuous.

McGrath wasn't the best fit for our list and he didn't fill our most pressing need. That is the real world. It was true before he was drafted and it is glaringly obvious today.

McCluggage was the concensus first pick until the TAC finals. McGrath wasn't even considered a top three chance until he had a great final series. Recruiters such as Dodoro threw away an entire seasons worth of form and evidence in favour of a couple of games of footy. Dodoro fell prey to recency bias. McGrath was never the safe option, that was McCluggage. There was more evidence that he was an outstanding prospect than there was for any other player in the draft that year.

Stop making apologies for mediocrity.

I’m not making apologies for anything, I’m just giving context. If McClug is so great (and he is) then GWS would have taken him, rather than trading up to try and get McGrath.

McGrath has already proven just as much as the other two and everyone else in that draft by virtue of a genuine two way understanding, and an ability to defend the most dangerous smalls while providing rebound. Just because we’re trying to develop him into more than that doesn’t mean he’s not still that.

He wasn’t all that far off what Saad is doing now as an 18 year old straight off the bat.

 

[F_therest]

I’m not making apologies for anything, I’m just giving context. If McClug is so great (and he is) then GWS would have taken him, rather than trading up to try and get McGrath.

McGrath has already proven just as much as the other two and everyone else in that draft by virtue of a genuine two way understanding, and an ability to defend the most dangerous smalls while providing rebound. Just because we’re trying to develop him into more than that doesn’t mean he’s not still that.

He wasn’t all that far off what Saad is doing now as an 18 year old straight off the bat.

You've missed his point entirely...he's not saying McGrath won't become a gun player, just that the team could do with the TYPE of player McCluggage/Taranto are instead of McGrath - guys who played midfield basically their whole junior careers.

You've basically backed him up by saying Mcrath is defending dangerous smalls and offering rebound like Saad...but you could have drafted a pure midfielder instead of a guy who played mostly half back in juniors and a little bit of midfield.

Missed the point again with your GWS comment...maybe GWS tried to trade up for him because they do in fact need a half back rebounder with speed and would have played him mainly in that role, instead of trying to turn him into a mid.

 

[yaco55]

Trading up happens a lot more than your implying. It happened to us with one of these players; Melbourne traded up with Gold Coast to jump our picks and take Oliver.

The issue is we’ve had a gaping hole in our list and Dodoro hasn’t addressed it. Not having the picks isn’t an excuse when trading up was a method available to him that he hasn’t taken. At what point in time does an inability or unwillingness to address the most important position on the ground become a fatal error for him?

Dodoro may not have been interested in Oliver who if you remember never played in the under 18 championship, came good in the second half of the TAC Cup, in which the competition standard is lower because of the missing 'private school boys' - Oliver was a late bolter who wasn't top 20 in phantom drafts only a month or two before the draft - I understand Dodoro wanted Worpel but Hawthorn had an selection - When you are rating a player a third rounder then you hardly have the need to upgrade a selection.

 

[The Donners]

I’m not making apologies for anything, I’m just giving context. If McClug is so great (and he is) then GWS would have taken him, rather than trading up to try and get McGrath.

McGrath has already proven just as much as the other two and everyone else in that draft by virtue of a genuine two way understanding, and an ability to defend the most dangerous smalls while providing rebound. Just because we’re trying to develop him into more than that doesn’t mean he’s not still that.

He wasn’t all that far off what Saad is doing now as an 18 year old straight off the bat.

You’ve lost me here.

We needed a pure midfielder and instead we have a good small defender?

 

[TheGrizz]

We haven't had a good midfield for 15 years.

That Jobe kid went alright...

We have also had two guys make AA 22 is as mids as well in that period.

 

[The Donners]

That Jobe kid went alright...

We have also had two guys make AA 22 is as mids as well in that period.

Midfield as a collective.

 

[Howard Moon]

you can say what you like about the midfield, but it has shown across the year its perfectly adequate.

there is one reason and one alone why he should be called into question.

How he let the state of our ruck department descent into this position is criminal.

A cursory look across most other teams lists shows each team with a handfull of ruck options, some senior, some developing, but options.

We have one injury prone bloke, one developing rookie who unfortunatley got injured and a throw at the stumps which clearly hasnt worked.

You can say he suffered bad luck with drapers injury but nobody can say he was ready to take over anyway, hes still developing.

It was only a matter of time before big tbell suffered annother injury, where was his planning? a middling wafl guy who had never cut it in the afl before?

Its a travesty how he let it come to this, and not only that, they actually gave him a second chance to rectify it! they created a mid season draft!... what does he do? grab a midget mid. Beggars belief.

There is only one thing that has derailed out year and stopped it dead, its not the mids or the back or the fwds..or development or whatever else, its the pitiful ruck department and how Mr list manger neglected it all this time, hes just ran it intio the ground. Year upon year we say he will grab a ruck this year, surley, year upon year he says nah, we can do it next year. Chickens have come home to roost.

 

[The Donners]

you can say what you like about the midfield, but it has shown across the year its perfectly adequate.

there is one reason and one alone why he should be called into question.

How he let the state of our ruck department descent into this position is criminal.

A cursory look across most other teams lists shows each team with a handfull of ruck options, some senior, some developing, but options.

We have one injury prone bloke, one developing rookie who unfortunatley got injured and a throw at the stumps which clearly hasnt worked.

You can say he suffered bad luck with drapers injury but nobody can say he was ready to take over anyway, hes still developing.

It was only a matter of time before big tbell suffered annother injury, where was his planning? a middling wafl guy who had never cut it in the afl before?

Its a travesty how he let it come to this, and not only that, they actually gave him a second chance to rectify it! they created a mid season draft!... what does he do? grab a midget mid. Beggars belief.

There is only one thing that has derailed out year and stopped it dead, its not the mids or the back or the fwds..or development or whatever else, its the pitiful ruck department and how Mr list manger neglected it all this time, hes just ran it intio the ground. Year upon year we say he will grab a ruck this year, surley, year upon year he says nah, we can do it next year. Chickens have come home to roost.

We were 7 and 7 with Bellchambers (excludes game he went down) and we’ll finish the season 11 and 11.

 

[scottmclaren]

a middling wafl guy who had never cut it in the afl before?

Its a travesty how he let it come to this, and not only that, they actually gave him a second chance to rectify it! they created a mid season draft!... what does he do? grab a midget mid. Beggars belief.

What’s your point? The mid season draft only does middling state league players. You want him to double down and replace Zac Clarke with a worse Zac Clarke?

i do wonder if they thought Leuenberger would go again and play the Zac Clarke role this year.

If anything it just shows how much of a hole Daniher leaves in our list.

 

[yodellinhank]

We were 7 and 7 with Bellchambers (excludes game he went down) and we’ll finish the season 11 and 11.

He's a cream puff, and he's fast slowing down

 

[BrunoV]

Trading up happens a lot more than your implying. It happened to us with one of these players; Melbourne traded up with Gold Coast to jump our picks and take Oliver.

The issue is we’ve had a gaping hole in our list and Dodoro hasn’t addressed it. Not having the picks isn’t an excuse when trading up was a method available to him that he hasn’t taken. At what point in time does an inability or unwillingness to address the most important position on the ground become a fatal error for him?

I can understand Parker, only because he was available, but upgrading picks to take a player in the mid 40s? One who could have gone on the 20s?

I would be very interested to know how many times this has happened.

You're almost certainly confusing pick upgrades to add value to trades for deliberate attempts to target certain players.

Do you even know we were interested in Worpel? It's a strange argument.

If you want to be critical look at Dunkley and Sier and then put you're balls on the line and say who you'd prefer, based on the picks we had (and at least looking at the type of player selected).

 

[boncer34]

you can say what you like about the midfield, but it has shown across the year its perfectly adequate.

Sounds like how you describe a premiership midfield.

 

[The Dustbin]

Might be time for Adrian to move on for himself and the club, or the very least another role with the club that excludes recruiting. Certainly not blaming him, but he's been there long enough - the club needs a fresh set of eyes and Adrian needs a fresh new challenge.

 

[JayJ20]

I’m not making apologies for anything, I’m just giving context. If McClug is so great (and he is) then GWS would have taken him, rather than trading up to try and get McGrath.

McGrath has already proven just as much as the other two and everyone else in that draft by virtue of a genuine two way understanding, and an ability to defend the most dangerous smalls while providing rebound. Just because we’re trying to develop him into more than that doesn’t mean he’s not still that.

He wasn’t all that far off what Saad is doing now as an 18 year old straight off the bat.

GWS also had a midfield stacked with talent. They probably wanted McGrath to replace Shaw because they have the luxury to spend top 2 picks on elite HB talent.

Taranto and McCluggage fill a need more than McGrath

 

[JayJ20]

The issue is both recruiting and development.

Recruiting because our midfield is horribly unbalanced.

Developing because too many players end up average

 

[eth-dog]

Say what you will about Bellchambers but after 13 games we were averaging 3 more clearances than our opposition and only lost it twice, to Freo and West Coast. In the next 7 we've been averaging more than 4 clearances less than our opposition.

 

[GUMBLETRON]

The issue is both recruiting and development.

Recruiting because our midfield is horribly unbalanced.

Developing because too many players end up average

I doubt the midfield would be so unbalanced if the development wasn't so poor.

 

[DERO]

I like him.

 

[Lore]

And relying on a stat which demonstrates loose ball gets says what in response?

We've been swimming against the real contested ball tide for 3 years now. Our response is to load up with more short people and non-aggressive players.

A better way of looking at this is that the Dogs have murdered us around the ball at least as far back as the time Carlisle kicked 8 to get us over the line.

And a 180cm McLean isn’t a midget getting loose ball gets? The way we played on Saturday night would’ve made anyone look good.

If your point is that we need another contested mid, then sure, I’ll agree with that. But the hyperbole is not needed, and undermines your point.

 

[Fin ice Smuggler]

Richmond turned their fortunes around when the put more money into development and recruiting. It was capped off with icing on the cake once they recruited Balme into footy operations.

Whats Essendon going to do to not only help develop the kids we do recruit but to heighten it's chances of getting free hits via it's academy?

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Dodoro may not have been interested in Oliver who if you remember never played in the under 18 championship, came good in the second half of the TAC Cup, in which the competition standard is lower because of the missing 'private school boys' - Oliver was a late bolter who wasn't top 20 in phantom drafts only a month or two before the draft - I understand Dodoro wanted Worpel but Hawthorn had an selection - When you are rating a player a third rounder then you hardly have the need to upgrade a selection.

I don’t disagree with how you’ve parsed it but it continues to show Dodoro is a terrible judge of inside midfield talent or doesn’t prioritise it anywhere near enough. Either way he’s shown an inadequate level of skill to deserve another year. It’s time to look elsewhere for a list manager.