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

  Pos.

  Mid

  Career

  Season

  Last 5

  D

  21.1

  5star

  K

  11.0

  4star

  HB

  10.1

  5star

  M

  5.0

  5star

  T

  2.7

  4star

  CL

  1.7

  4star

  No current season stats available

  D

  14.6

  4star

  K

  9.4

  4star

  HB

  5.2

  4star

  M

  4.4

  4star

  T

  1.4

  4star

  – 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.”​

 

[Here_we_come]

We have the third most inexperienced list in the AFL ahead of only Carlton and GC (although I'm pretty sure we've gone below Carlton now after Myers, Baguley and Dea's retirements).

The most experienced team we fielded this year was on ANZAC Day, where our team had a total of 2146 games of experience. We were still 300 games of experience below our opponents that day. Hell, even on Dreamtime, where Richmond had literally half their team out, they still had 100 games of experience over us.

Look at West Coast's team on the weekend. They had an average of 146.5 games of experience. They had 13 players who have played more than 150 games, 9 more than us. Even Brisbane, without Hodge, have a more experienced team than us.

Zaharakis is our only 200 gamer. Hooker is on 193 (and he is nearing the end), Hurley is on 179, Heppell is on 169, and Shiel is on 157. That's a total of 5 players on our list who have played more than 150 games. In the 8, only the Bulldogs have the same amount, and the Lions & Giants have 7. West Coast have 13, Collingwood have 12, Geelong have 12, and Richmond have 11.

My question is, why is our list ALWAYS inexperienced? Even during the Knights/Hird days we'd constantly have a similar list profile (maybe even more inexperienced back then if you discount Fletcher). Serious questions have to start being asked of Dodoro. I doubt anything will happen though

The answer to this is Adrian Dodoro. He simply isn’t capable of assembling a high quality list and the upshot is most players are turned over before they reach 200 games, and we remain perennially inexperienced.

Our players that have reached 200 are just average when you consider the other talent that gets there, and not many (if any) have been genuine guns of the comp.

My question is how Dodoro has been able to stay for 20+ years given his extremely unsuccessful tenure. People blame development, but our decline coincides with his appointment as overseeing recruitment.

 

[Yoda_]

The answer to this is Adrian Dodoro. He simply isn’t capable of assembling a high quality list and the upshot is most players are turned over before they reach 200 games, and we remain perennially inexperienced.

Our players that have reached 200 are just average when you consider the other talent that gets there, and not many (if any) have been genuine guns of the comp.

My question is how Dodoro has been able to stay for 20+ years given his extremely unsuccessful tenure. People blame development, but our decline coincides with his appointment as overseeing recruitment.

Yeah, agreed. You would think the match committee would talk to recruiting with what they want. Looks to me that AD just goes with whatever he wants


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ghostdog]

We have the third most inexperienced list in the AFL ahead of only Carlton and GC (although I'm pretty sure we've gone below Carlton now after Myers, Baguley and Dea's retirements).

The most experienced team we fielded this year was on ANZAC Day, where our team had a total of 2146 games of experience. We were still 300 games of experience below our opponents that day. Hell, even on Dreamtime, where Richmond had literally half their team out, they still had 100 games of experience over us.

Look at West Coast's team on the weekend. They had an average of 146.5 games of experience. They had 13 players who have played more than 150 games, 9 more than us. Even Brisbane, without Hodge, have a more experienced team than us.

Zaharakis is our only 200 gamer. Hooker is on 193 (and he is nearing the end), Hurley is on 179, Heppell is on 169, and Shiel is on 157. That's a total of 5 players on our list who have played more than 150 games. In the 8, only the Bulldogs have the same amount, and the Lions & Giants have 7. West Coast have 13, Collingwood have 12, Geelong have 12, and Richmond have 11.

My question is, why is our list ALWAYS inexperienced? Even during the Knights/Hird days we'd constantly have a similar list profile (maybe even more inexperienced back then if you discount Fletcher). Serious questions have to start being asked of Dodoro. I doubt anything will happen though

Those numbers make it look like our upside is huge.

 

[ghostdog]

Yeah, agreed. You would think the match committee would talk to recruiting with what they want. Looks to me that AD just goes with whatever he wants


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I recall an interview with him after Woosh arrived where he was talking about acquired players for roles identified to him by Woosha himself. Stewart and Green were among them I think; I don't think he'd have that liberty. That said I'll be quite annoyed if he goes after Jack Martin.

 

[blitzer]

Those numbers make it look like our upside is huge.

I'd say our upside on the inexperience side is only average.

We've got low games because of: a) missed season, b) few finals, c) injury prone senior players and d) late blooming senior players. Plus I guess some developing youth but I wouldn't say it was a central theme to our list. The guys that I reckon would improve with experience that are in or around the best 22 are McGrath, Francis, Parish, Redman, Ridley, Ham, Clarke, McKenna and BZT. Guys like Fantasia and Daniher would improve with some continuity in actually getting out on the park so I guess you could slip them in. Most of these blokes outside of McGrath, Parish and Daniher played VFL for a significant period of time because they weren't really good enough to go straight into AFL, which doesn't stop them having great careers but if you are good enough for AFL right away that normally points to a pretty good trajectory.

Other players could improve too but it'd be hard to call them. Guys like McKernan, Brown and Ambrose are old without playing many games. They have significant state league experience and are very unlikely to gain a lot from more experience.

 

[Matthew_Lloyd]

The answer to this is Adrian Dodoro. He simply isn’t capable of assembling a high quality list and the upshot is most players are turned over before they reach 200 games, and we remain perennially inexperienced.

Our players that have reached 200 are just average when you consider the other talent that gets there, and not many (if any) have been genuine guns of the comp.

My question is how Dodoro has been able to stay for 20+ years given his extremely unsuccessful tenure. People blame development, but our decline coincides with his appointment as overseeing recruitment.

******* damning isn't it? Inexperience plays a big part in our inconsistent performances. It is a very big reason as to why it always seems that teams have more players on the field than us. They know how to set up, whereas we always look lost.

He needs to be moved on ASAP

 

[ghostdog]

I'd say our upside on the inexperience side is only average.

We've got low games because of: a) missed season, b) few finals, c) injury prone senior players and d) late blooming senior players. Plus I guess some developing youth but I wouldn't say it was a central theme to our list. The guys that I reckon would improve with experience that are in or around the best 22 are McGrath, Francis, Parish, Redman, Ridley, Ham, Clarke, McKenna and BZT. Guys like Fantasia and Daniher would improve with some continuity in actually getting out on the park so I guess you could slip them in. Most of these blokes outside of McGrath, Parish and Daniher played VFL for a significant period of time because they weren't really good enough to go straight into AFL, which doesn't stop them having great careers but if you are good enough for AFL right away that normally points to a pretty good trajectory.

Other players could improve too but it'd be hard to call them. Guys like McKernan, Brown and Ambrose are old without playing many games. They have significant state league experience and are very unlikely to gain a lot from more experience.

It's too late at night to be thinking about these things so deeply. You make good points, especially re: 2016 and late bloomers. I'd include Walla in that list; although not old, he hasn't the number of senior games a lot of others his age do.

 

[The Dustbin]

Hopefully this is Adrian's last season, we can replace experience and expertise with fresh new talent.

Been saying for a while now he has been in the role for far too long with practically no real team success the last 15 years. We need some one with a fresh set of eyes - healthy for the club and healthy for Adrian too to seek a new challenge outside of recruiting and list management.

Thank you Adrian in advance for the many memories (inlcd the ripping GIF's people have made of him). *Nothing personal.

 

[fairbump_playon]

Who's to say what success really is? A well managed presser can be a success.

Dodoro still looks good. I love that fist pump stuff and the two jackets look was inspiring.

 

[fairbump_playon]

It's interesting, isnt it, when you compare the players we took with top 10 picks in the draft and compare that with the Dogs.

It's even more interesting when you compare the players we have traded in using those picks, isnt it?

We all have our favourite whipping boys but what I find funny about your stupid troll account is that, fundamentally, it reflects the same widespread delusion about our real problem which is a B- grade midfield - in reality it's probably a C+.

The difference between my hammering of my whipping boys is 1) ive got solutions; and 2) I'm not using it to distract myself from reality (see comments above).

Don't listen to the naysayers Bruno. Our midfield sucks.

Also - I really hope that the next couple of years bring you a nice long run of wins. I think it would be good for you.

 

[Old Campaigner]

How do we know if it's Dodo picking up the wrong kids or our development coaches failing to allow them to reach their potential?

I'm leaning towards the development coaches, merely because looking back I can't think of many players we've drafted that were considered a reach for the pick they were drafted with.

 

[JayJ20]

How do we know if it's Dodo picking up the wrong kids or our development coaches failing to allow them to reach their potential?

I'm leaning towards the development coaches, merely because looking back I can't think of many players we've drafted that were considered a reach for the pick they were drafted with.

Truth lies in the middle. It’s both.

Dodoro has overlooked a lot of pure midfielders, specifically inside mids, for flankers. His recruiting strategy heavily relies on development rather than list balance and natural ability in preferred position. Case in point, picking McGrath over Taranto.

It’s why we keep seeing players played out of position.

A GWS, Geelong or Sydney will make it work. We don’t have the ability to develop those players into bona fide midfielders. Eg. Langford and Laverde.

There’s a clear disconnect between Dodoro’s strategy and the coaches.

 

[yodellinhank]

How do we know if it's Dodo picking up the wrong kids or our development coaches failing to allow them to reach their potential?

I'm leaning towards the development coaches, merely because looking back I can't think of many players we've drafted that were considered a reach for the pick they were drafted with.

How many development coaches have come and gone in dodoro's time?

 

[DERO]

Absolutely killed the Fantasia negotiations. KILLED THEM.

 

[citizen-erased]

\

Truth lies in the middle. It’s both.

Dodoro has overlooked a lot of pure midfielders, specifically inside mids, for flankers. His recruiting strategy heavily relies on development rather than list balance and natural ability in preferred position. Case in point, picking McGrath over Taranto.

It’s why we keep seeing players played out of position.

A GWS, Geelong or Sydney will make it work. We don’t have the ability to develop those players into bona fide midfielders. Eg. Langford and Laverde.

There’s a clear disconnect between Dodoro’s strategy and the coaches.

Agree.

Column A - we don't draft what we need, and you can't expect the development team to turn water to wine
Column B - We don't develop what we have to make up for those gaps.

 

[The Donners]

Truth lies in the middle. It’s both.

Dodoro has overlooked a lot of pure midfielders, specifically inside mids, for flankers. His recruiting strategy heavily relies on development rather than list balance and natural ability in preferred position. Case in point, picking McGrath over Taranto.

It’s why we keep seeing players played out of position.

A GWS, Geelong or Sydney will make it work. We don’t have the ability to develop those players into bona fide midfielders. Eg. Langford and Laverde.

There’s a clear disconnect between Dodoro’s strategy and the coaches.

It’s much harder to develop a player out of their “natural” position. It happens but I would just about say we do it more than most clubs.

 

[Here_we_come]

The development argument doesn’t pass the pub test imo, it cant explain several things. Such as:

- our long string of recruiting errors have pretty much coincided with dodoro’s appointment in the late 90s. Other than JJ (who was a good player but also had the advantage of being in a very good team) dodoro’s first recruit to make the all Australian team was Jobe Watson in 2012, a father son. A very poor record to say the least.
- we’ve had several development coaches over the last 20years, all with little success in getting any improvement out of the players (ditto senior coaches)
- if development is the real cause of our list issues, why then are people not screaming for our development team to be replaced (yet again)? Why do they get a free pass?

IMO it’s quite obvious who a lot of the issues lie with. He might do well in this trade period, who knows, but one thing I’m quite confident about is that we’re going nowhere while dodoro stays head of recruiting.

It’s amazing to me he’s been in various forms of this role for 20+ years, which is quite likely the worst period in our 150 odd year history.

 

[DERO]

Someone needs to create an algorithm or some s**t so we can put this one to bed.

 

[CBombers17]

Who actually tells him what the list needs? Is that the head of football's area or his alone? What input does the coaching staff have these days?

If anyone knows the actual structure of the list management decision making of the club it would be great to know.

Apparently Sheedy had a lot of input into player recruitment in his time. Can Dodoro be blamed for all poor selections of that era? What was happened in Knights time? Did he do a good job during the Saga with selection?

I don't pretend to know but to talk about our worst period results wise (accross a lot of different regimes, some chaotic) doesn't necessarily add up as Dodoros fault surely.

 

[fairbump_playon]

Someone needs to create an algorithm or some s**t so we can put this one to bed.

(Square root of Myers / Reimers + (Hooker - Carlisle)) x (McCluggage - McGrath) / ((Laverde + Langford) - Heeney) x (Houli - Jenkins)

 

[DapperJong]

Someone needs to create an algorithm or some s**t so we can put this one to bed.

Pretty sure everyone else was asleep when you posted this.

 

[calyam]

Truth lies in the middle. It’s both.

Dodoro has overlooked a lot of pure midfielders, specifically inside mids, for flankers. His recruiting strategy heavily relies on development rather than list balance and natural ability in preferred position. Case in point, picking McGrath over Taranto.

It’s why we keep seeing players played out of position.

A GWS, Geelong or Sydney will make it work. We don’t have the ability to develop those players into bona fide midfielders. Eg. Langford and Laverde.

There’s a clear disconnect between Dodoro’s strategy and the coaches.

Dodoro is one of many problems at Essendon. We have issues with recruitment, development and coaching.

Dodoro is okay at recruitment - we have a lot of talent on our list - but he is poor at list management. Dodoro is mostly in the business of accumulating and hoarding talent. He doesn't appear to give much thought to how his pieces fit together. It is one of the reasons that Essendon always seems to under-perform its talent level.

Our midfield for example has Heppell and then a half dozen players who are all very similar. A good list manager would look to find midfield talent that complements each other rather than simply replicating the same skill-set. Making matters worse, Dodoro is a talent hoarder so he won't try and trade out superfluous talent for pieces that fit better.

Take a player such as Parish. He is a talented player who will play 200 games. But because we have other similar and better players we don't utilise him very well. He is an inside player who barely plays inside. Wouldn't it make sense to explore a trade and find a piece that complements our existing list better? Plenty of teams would utilise Parish better than we have and plenty of teams have available talent that we might utilise better ourselves.

Parish is just an example of a player poorly utilised. There are plenty of other examples. From Dodoro's perspective all that matters is that he is talented. A more cerebral list manager would explore whether some of our poorly utilised talent could find us talent that would take us to the next level. Dodoro will never be that guy and it is damning that the club hasn't realised that yet.

 

[DERO]

Pretty sure everyone else was asleep when you posted this.

Changi airport at 1:00 am is a lonely place.

 

[Maxabillions]

Changi airport at 1:00 am is a lonely place.

I was there then!

 

[DERO]

I was there then!

Seriously? We’re you in the Scoot flight?