How Does COVID-19 Affect AFL Recruitment?
“Lots and lots of Zoom…”
– Chris Toce, State Recruiting Manager, St Kilda FC
The 2020 AFL season was a difficult one for football fans, but was also very restricting to the behind-the-scenes footy department staff at AFL clubs. Unpluggered Podcast was lucky enough to speak with Chris Toce, St.Kilda Football Club’s State Recruiting Manager, to discuss his 2020 season and how Covid-19 affected his ability to do the role.
The first major impact due to Covid-19 was the number of support staff that unfortunately were made redundant. Throughout the entirety of the AFL, a large number of support and football department were furloughed due to the dwindling income faced by AFL clubs, with limited ticket, merchandise and membership sales available. At St Kilda FC, with budget limitations, the Saints already operated a smaller recruitment team compared to other larger clubs, with the number of layoffs smaller than others in the industry landscape
The process of actually identifying the young talent was also no small task.
With Victoria under strict lockdown for a majority of the football season, local sports and recreation events were put on hold in an attempt to limit large groups of people and stop the spread of the virus. Consequently, there were none of the usual underage games for AFL recruiters to go to, making the identification of the next talent even more difficult. Toce and the Saints recruitment staff spent a majority of the year trawling through film from prior years, with Toce himself managing to spend three weeks in Adelaide watching the SANFL competition while the Saints were in their Noosa (QLD) hub later in the year.
Leading up to the draft, a regular practice for recruitment staff is normally going into the homes of potential draftees to interview them and their families. In this Covid-interrupted season, adaptation was required, which led to the heavy use of Zoom conference calls. With three-to-four in-person interviews a week, online video calls provide a better ability to interview more prospects from around the country more efficiently, but there were some drawbacks.
“With Zoom there’s maybe there’s the possibility for the person we’re interviewing to be a bit more rehearsed”
Says Toce, “When you’re face to face with someone it’s a little more intimidating… so we got some pretty polished interviews that’s for sure.”
Ultimately, the Saints picked Matthew Allison and Tom Highmore with AFL draft picks 26 and 45, respectively. With a limited draft hand thanks to another aggressive trade period, the mindset of being flexible with draft selections was at the forefront of Toce’s and the Saints’ recruitment team.
“You really just want to pick good players.”
Allison looks to be a good complimentary piece for Max King and Tim Membrey in a dangerous forward line, with an engine that allows him to play a little higher up the ground. Highmore was a guy on the Saints’ radar since he was a GWS Academy player at 17 years old. After a bout of glandular fever impacted his draft year, he ultimately wasn’t drafted, playing NEAFL football for a couple of seasons before a big move to South Australia saw him excel in the higher quality of the SANFL, landing at the Saints with the 45th pick of the 2020 AFL Draft.
On the latest episode of Unpluggered Podcast, Toce explains how he ended up in Adelaide to get a first-hand view of Tom Highmore late in the season.
What does an AFL recruiter look for in a draft prospect?
“Personally, I’m always looking for guys that play well in big games and perform under pressure. Sometimes guys can’t help that they’ve been in unsuccessful teams, but if when given the opportunity to play a final or a national’s game for their state that’s when you want to see them play their best.”
According to St Kilda FC’s Chris Toce, 2017 draftees, Nick Coffield and Hunter Clark, are good examples of this.
Coffield’s draft stocks rose after impressive games for Vic Metro playing in a number of different roles, while Clark was described as “just having the will to win” no matter what the situation required. In one of his worst games in his under 18 season, he tallied only 10 disposals, but his will to still impact the contest was evident as he amassed 18 tackles to make up his lack of possession. Both Coffield and Clark are two vital young pillars in the future success of the St Kilda Football Club.
The A-Team ready for #AFLDraft. pic.twitter.com/6L7TbOidSv
— St Kilda FC (@stkildafc) December 9, 2020
On a final, light-hearted note, the question on the minds of every Saints fan that only Unpluggered Podcast‘s Nick Splitter was brave enough to ask:
What was the Deliveroo order on Draft Night?
Toce’s answer?
“The stock standard… the pizzas… there was some salad there as well but as you can probably tell, I didn’t hit the salads too much.”
Listen to the interview with Chris Toce in the player above, or subscribe to Unpluggered Podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
