Dons get in quick
Mosquito a Bomber
THE bitter rivalry between Essendon and Hawthorn spilled over into the AFL draft, with the Bombers stealing exciting forward Irving Mosquito away from the Hawks.
Mosquito, who has trained with Hawthorn, appeared destined to play under Alastair Clarkson after he was nominated as part of the club’s academy.
But Essendon made a bid for the player with its first pick at No.38 on day two of the draft at Marvel Stadium.
The Hawks declined to match the bid and Mosquito joined the Bombers to the great delight of list manager Adrian Dodoro, who pumped the air with his fist.
“I’ve got a habit of doing some silly things . . . I regret that,” Dodoro said after vision of his candid reaction went viral on social media.
“(But) I think it’s a great outcome for our club . . . he’s a young man we targeted and the cards fell our way.
“I’m not too sure what (Hawthorn’s) thinking was, but for us it was the way we valued the draft and how we saw the boy. We valued him pretty highly and we put our cards on the table.
“He’s got a fair way to go with his footy development . . . we understand that.
“But we’ve had a lot of success at Gippsland Power and with Anthony McDonaldTipungwuti there’s a lot of similarities there.
“He’s got a lot of talent and a lot of ability.”
Mosquito, originally from Halls Creek, is an exciting small forward with a good leap who has honed his skills in the TAC Cup with Gippsland Power.
He cites Cyril Rioli as a hero, but is an Essendon supporter and toured the club’s facilities yesterday morning before the Bombers’ bold move to recruit him.
Hawthorn’s first pick was not until No.52 and it was not willing to spend that pick and find the one or more required to match the bid.
“There were a number of players that we thought might get through to our pick so in essence you’ve got to make a decision right there,” Hawthorn recruiting chief Mark McKenzie said.
“We were not surprised ... we thought there’d be a few clubs interested.
“Overall it’s a great story for ‘Irv’ to be on an AFL list. Obviously we’ve been working with him for a couple of years, but it’s a great story and we wish him all the best.”