A deep and largely even talent pool is making it “tricky” to predict this year’s draft order, says Adelaide’s National Recruiting Manager Hamish Ogilvie.

The Crows will enter Friday night’s AFL National Draft in Sydney with pick Nos.13, 43, 53, 66, 82 and 90 at their disposal. 

In previous years, Adelaide’s recruiting team has been able to accurately predict exactly which players the Club would net with its selections. Ogilvie said that was unlikely to be the case in 2016.

“The draft order is a tricky one to determine this year,” Ogilvie said on Friday.

“I can remember handing ‘Nobes’ (former Head of Football David Noble) a piece of paper ahead of two drafts and we got (our predictions) exactly right. In Riley Knight’s (2013) draft we got exactly who we thought we were going to get (Knight and Matt Crouch).

“Obviously, last year with Wayne (Milera) and Tom (Doedee) it was a bit easier because we only had two picks as well, so we predicted that one correctly.

“It’ll be no chance tonight with picks spread out over three or four rounds and lots of players forecasted to go in the middle. Every club’s list is going to be completely different.”

For the first time in recent memory, not even the No.1 pick is guaranteed with Andrew McGrath, Hugh McCluggage and Will Setterfield all being mooted as possible first selections.

Ogilvie said it was important the Club wasn’t distracted by the external noise.

“You can get caught up in what everyone else is doing and we can’t afford to do that,” he said.

“You can’t worry about the smokebombs, the media and the phantom drafts. We’ve got to stick true to what we’ve worked on for three years in some cases.”

Adelaide’s recruiting team had one final meeting on Friday to “tick everything off”. Ogilvie has also made a few last-minute phone calls to prospective draftees.

The national and rookie drafts, which will be held on Monday afternoon, are the culmination of a mountain of work by Ogilvie and his team.

“I’ve probably interviewed 70 players and some of those three or four times. Then the other guys have probably done another 30-40 interviews that I haven’t even sat in on,” he said.

“I’ve made about 150 flights and that’s just me. With (SA/WA Recruiting Manager) Phil Bunn’s flights to SA and WA (from Victoria), he’s probably travelled more than anyone. I’ve seen about 158 games live myself … It’s been a big year.”