LEAGUE talent manager Kevin Sheehan has named his 30 leading prospects ahead of next week's NAB AFL Draft.
The quality of players available at this year's selection meeting has drawn mixed reviews from recruiters, but Sheehan is of the view that the pool is a lot more even than it has been in recent years - making it harder to predict.
But that doesn't detract from what's on offer, according to Sheehan.
"While this is a very even talent pool, it has a great deal of depth and I am confident that over the test of time many high quality AFL players will emerge from this group," Sheehan said.
"The depth of talent has been a strength of the draft over the last five years, with players selected at picks one to 25 averaging 33 AFL matches - just eight more than players selected from picks 26 to 50.
"On Thursday night up to 78 players will find a place on an AFL club list with a further 17 to be promoted from their clubs rookie list onto the primary list."
The switch from Saturday afternoon to Thursday evening (November 26) represents a break from recent tradition with the League also moving venues from Etihad Stadium to the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Kevin Sheehan's top 30 prospects (in alphabetical order)
Ryan Bastinac
Aaron Black
John Butcher
Jake Carlisle
Jesse Crichton
Ben Cunnington
Mitchell Duncan
Max Gawn
Benjamin Griffiths
Dylan Grimes
Jordan Gysberts
Lewis Jetta
Kane Lucas
Jasper McMillan-Pittard
Dustin Martin
Jake Melksham
Daniel Menzel
Andrew Moore
Anthony Morabito
Matthew Panos
Dylan Roberton
Gary Rohan
Tom Scully
Bradley Sheppard
Koby Stevens
Daniel Talia
Luke Tapscott
Troy Taylor
Jack Trengove
Nathan Vardy
Vision of these players in action along with positional breakdowns, skill and physical ratings and Q&As are available through afl.com.au's Draft Machine.
Learn about more than 200 draft hopefuls here.
