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

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  No current season stats available

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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.”​

 

[Duckworth]

I agree with Yoda quite a bit regarding our list management. We have an above average list and Adrian is probably above average list manager. Biggest knock is I don't think we have any plays in the top 3 - maybe even top 5 in the comp for there position. Maybe Ridley but ive put McGovern, Stewart, lever a step above in same role.

We had 2 All-Australians this year. Stringer and Ridley not far behind, to go with one of the youngest lists in the comp.

 

[Foxx]

Im a supporter of Dodoro. But he made a blue this draft. When Taylor and Draper were on the board within five picks. He shouldn't have sat on his heels. Collingwood got the deal done to get up there. Dodoro should have made it a certainty too. You could see the reaction after missing out. Shouldn't have waited then.

 

[Duckworth]

Im a supporter of Dodoro. But he made a blue this draft. When Taylor and Draper were on the board within five picks. He shouldn't have sat on his heels. Collingwood got the deal done to get up there. Dodoro should have made it a certainty too. You could see the reaction after missing out. Shouldn't have waited then.

Dodoro has already been quoted as trying very hard to move up the draft. Collingwood got in there just before us. It happens.

 

[Foxx]

Dodoro has already been quoted as trying very hard to move up the draft. Collingwood got in there just before us. It happens.

Surely Dodoro could have moved up a couple of spots like Collingwood did to get Draper.
Dodoro was quoted in trying to move up to second round picks. That had nothing to do with the situation of 5 live picks away from two players who were rated top 20. He sat on his heels. Collingwood didn't.

 

[Lore]

Surely Dodoro could have moved up a couple of spots like Collingwood did to get Draper.
Dodoro was quoted in trying to move up to second round picks. That had nothing to do with the situation of 5 live picks away from two players who were rated top 20. He sat on his heels. Collingwood didn't.

Do you know what the cost was to move up a couple of picks?

 

[Foxx]

Do you know what the cost was to move up a couple of picks?

Next years third rounder. Fair point. Collingwood effectively paid 2 third rounders for Draper. Would we have? Did Dodoro try or sat back? Who knows. Looked bad though.

 

[tesla1962]

Those who know Hobbs could his ceiling be best insider mid in comp? - height/size profile to me says no but no shame in playing 200 games - still a good pick but think finding the super elite is our weakness

I like this new category you call the super elite. Linking it to height and size parameters for 'inside' midfielders should make recruiting easier. After all, we wouldn't want to recruit a Michael Voss (183 cm) or a Joel Selwood (182 cm), and definitely need to avoid the Sam Mitchell (180 cm) / Gary Ablett Jr (182 cm) types Just the super elites with our #11 picks from now on!

 

[ant555]

Surely Dodoro could have moved up a couple of spots like Collingwood did to get Draper.
Dodoro was quoted in trying to move up to second round picks. That had nothing to do with the situation of 5 live picks away from two players who were rated top 20. He sat on his heels. Collingwood didn't.

Being able to get it done is another thing. Not being privy to who was trading what and the value of Collingwood futures v our futures is also a factor. Not saying trading up was the wrong thing to do but it is not all that simple. Clubs would have looked at the Pies future picks as better value than ours to start with based on current expectation of ladder position. Someone actually has to want to do the trade .

 

[GUMBLETRON]

Being able to get it done is another thing. Not being privy to who was trading what and the value of Collingwood futures v our futures is also a factor. Not saying trading up was the wrong thing to do but it is not all that simple. Clubs would have looked at the Pies future picks as better value than ours to start with based on current expectation of ladder position. Someone actually has to want to do the trade .

Which probably means an F2 would have been needed. Coincidentally exactly the pick that had it been held this year would have precluded needing to trade up.

 

[nipst@r]

I like this new category you call the super elite. Linking it to height and size parameters for 'inside' midfielders should make recruiting easier. After all, we wouldn't want to recruit a Michael Voss (183 cm) or a Joel Selwood (182 cm), and definitely need to avoid the Sam Mitchell (180 cm) / Gary Ablett Jr (182 cm) types Just the super elites with our #11 picks from now on!

Didn't realise we were still playing in 90s early 2000s. Yeah good point if we were playing 10-20 years ago.

Petracca, dusty, danger, Oliver. We have stringer but I'd put bontempelli, Martin, petracca, danger above him for the mid fwd role.

For a unbiased opinion be interesting on the main board for who in our current team is top 3 in there role.

Also not just talking this year. Please list how many of these players dodo has drafted. Hird and Watson don't count.

 

[nipst@r]

One father son selection but how many top 3 brownlows, mvps, all Australian captains and even all Australians in the last twenty years has dodo drafted. Not a lot for a twenty year tenure with over 100 picks and list mgmt decisions.

Can argue all you want but to me its the super elite that win finals and flags, we haven't drafted any and we don't win finals. Simple.

I'm not saying his bad but he is not an elite list manager like he is made out to be on here.

If we stretch out to twenty five years without a finals win, that's okay for a list manager?

 

[JayJ20]

One father son selection but how many top 3 brownlows, mvps, all Australian captains and even all Australians in the last twenty years has dodo drafted. Not a lot for a twenty year tenure with over 100 picks and list mgmt decisions.

Can argue all you want but to me its the super elite that win finals and flags, we haven't drafted any and we don't win finals. Simple.

I'm not saying his bad but he is not an elite list manager like he is made out to be on here.

If we stretch out to twenty five years without a finals win, that's okay for a list manager?

I don't think anyone is saying that he is an elite list manager. I do however believe he has improved a lot after the saga.

I think we'll see those elite players emerge over the next 4-5 years. I believe this is the most talented list we've had since the early 2000s. Parish in particular was in brownlow form at certain stages this year. May well win one over the next couple of years. Cox, Perkins, Reid, Ridley, Draper and even Nick Bryan are others that could become one of the top players in the league.

 

[Foxx]

I don't think anyone is saying that he is an elite list manager. I do however believe he has improved a lot after the saga.

I think we'll see those elite players emerge over the next 4-5 years. I believe this is the most talented list we've had since the early 2000s. Parish in particular was in brownlow form at certain stages this year. May well win one over the next couple of years. Cox, Perkins, Reid, Ridley, Draper and even Nick Bryan are others that could become one of the top players in the league.

I think his job depends on this last new group.

 

[nipst@r]

I don't think anyone is saying that he is an elite list manager. I do however believe he has improved a lot after the saga.

I think we'll see those elite players emerge over the next 4-5 years. I believe this is the most talented list we've had since the early 2000s. Parish in particular was in brownlow form at certain stages this year. May well win one over the next couple of years. Cox, Perkins, Reid, Ridley, Draper and even Nick Bryan are others that could become one of the top players in the league.

I hope so. Agree with list ATM is promising and let's hope Cox or Ridley become that. I.e Bont, Oliver, Martin, McGovern all won there teams finals as if they play to there best they just simply have too much talent. When I look at our team in finals/ top teams the opposition seems to always have the best 3 players talent wise.

Draper is a very good ruckman but until he fixes his kicking will struggle to leap into conversation as best in the comp. Ridley, Cox and stringer are the 3 with potential of just to good or can by pure talent win finals, take us towards a flag.

 

[boncer34]

I hope so. Agree with list ATM is promising and let's hope Cox or Ridley become that. I.e Bont, Oliver, Martin, McGovern all won there teams finals as if they play to there best they just simply have too much talent. When I look at our team in finals/ top teams the opposition seems to always have the best 3 players talent wise.

Draper is a very good ruckman but until he fixes his kicking will struggle to leap into conversation as best in the comp. Ridley, Cox and stringer are the 3 with potential of just to good or can by pure talent win finals, take us towards a flag.

Max Gawn isn't exactly elite by foot

 

[owen87]

If we stretch out to twenty five years without a finals win, that's okay for a list manager?

This is an incredibly simplistic analysis.

 

[staaation]

just have five first round picks and politely ask the other teams to pass so we can address every need in one draft it's not that hard adrian jeez

 

[crackers65]

I think his job depends on this last new group.

His record over his career is terrible. Essendon has been a terrible club for so long
s**t coaches,s**t development, s**t administration, s**t medical and s**t recruiting all
mean one thing - s**t club. Administration looks to finally be leading. Coaches look good and latest recruiting is giving us hope. Is this Dodoro or Forster-Knight? Time will tell if we have improved in medical and development because if we are going to get better we must improve from within.

 

[owen87]

His record over his career is terrible. Essendon has been a terrible club for so long
sh*t coaches,sh*t development, sh*t administration, sh*t medical and sh*t recruiting all
mean one thing - sh*t club. Administration looks to finally be leading. Coaches look good and latest recruiting is giving us hope. Is this Dodoro or Forster-Knight? Time will tell if we have improved in medical and development because if we are going to get better we must improve from within.

 

[Sporno 4 Pyros]

Didn't realise we were still playing in 90s early 2000s. Yeah good point if we were playing 10-20 years ago.

Petracca, dusty, danger, Oliver. We have stringer but I'd put bontempelli, Martin, petracca, danger above him for the mid fwd role.

For a unbiased opinion be interesting on the main board for who in our current team is top 3 in there role.

Also not just talking this year. Please list how many of these players dodo has drafted. Hird and Watson don't count.

Bit hard to draft Bont, Petracca, Martin and Oliver when they are all taken before your pick
Not a terrible record with All-Australians (Hooker, Hurley, Ryder, Hibberd, DP3, Zerrett).
But I get what you are saying to a certain degree. I think they are forming the best list they have in 20 years (talls last year, solved some midfield issues in the past 5 years, will make it easier targeting”needs” over the next few years).
Development of the talent he has picked has been one of the biggest issues and they seem to have identified that problem and are fixing it.

 

[Old Campaigner]

To be fair to Dodoro a lot of people outside the club really rated the list we were building before Dank did his thing. The failure of that list build to win a flag isn’t really Dodoro’s fault.

 

[Pleasedontfail11]

Being able to get it done is another thing. Not being privy to who was trading what and the value of Collingwood futures v our futures is also a factor. Not saying trading up was the wrong thing to do but it is not all that simple. Clubs would have looked at the Pies future picks as better value than ours to start with based on current expectation of ladder position. Someone actually has to want to do the trade .

The Pies used Brisbanes future 3rd

 

[ghostdog]

Next years third rounder. Fair point. Collingwood effectively paid 2 third rounders for Draper. Would we have? Did Dodoro try or sat back? Who knows. Looked bad though.

Isn't that the point here though. You're saying he made a blue but also admitting you don't know if he tried or sat back.

 

[Ants]

Firstly, for points regarding this draft.

Im a supporter of Dodoro. But he made a blue this draft. When Taylor and Draper were on the board within five picks. He shouldn't have sat on his heels. Collingwood got the deal done to get up there. Dodoro should have made it a certainty too. You could see the reaction after missing out. Shouldn't have waited then.

The issue with this is that it ignores the cost. Just because we rated some of the players that almost got to us (Jones, Taylor, Draper) and were disappointed they didn't make it through, doesn't mean we thought they were worth two third round picks. Any third round pick is a bit of a lottery, and there would be a strong argument that two bites of the cherry are better than one. Especially as the second bite will be replaced by a rookie pick.

It is also funny how some lament not having a full draft hand this year, but others lament not pulling picks forward. He can't win.

Which probably means an F2 would have been needed. Coincidentally exactly the pick that had it been held this year would have precluded needing to trade up.

Of course, that F2 in conjunction with #29 last year got Caldwell who was drafted at #11 and we got #44 which was the points to pay for Eyre (a second round pick). So arguably we got a first round and second round picks last year by trading 2 seconds. Obviously how that plays out depends a lot on Caldwell, but its not like we just threw away our 2021 second, or that the options on the table this year were better than getting Caldwell & Eyre.

 

[Foxx]

Isn't that the point here though. You're saying he made a blue but also admitting you don't know if he tried or sat back.

When someone had a valid point against my argument, I took it on board and conceded a little. Is that not ok?