Quality made it a Don deal

ADRIAN Dodoro’s mobile phone rings in his office at Tullamarine about 12.30pm last Tuesday.

The Essendon list manager is a little anxious, because today is the day he hopes to get his player. On the line is Dylan Shiel. Dodoro is the fourth person Shiel rings at lunchtime from his manager Paul Connors’s Melbourne home and his message to Dodoro is sensational news: I’m coming to Essendon.

Shiel personally phones Hawthorn, St Kilda and Carlton before he calls Dodoro and tells them the gut-wrenching news he won’t be heading to their football clubs.

Unlike Carlton, which flew Shiel to Noosa as part of its sexy pitch, the Bombers pitch to the gun midfielder stayed at the football club. They believed Shiel saw the real Essendon and the Bombers saw a player who wanted to play for premierships and be the best player in that flag team.

Blues list manager Steve Silvagni revealed on 3AW this week he asked Shiel why he didn’t choose the Blues.

“He just felt Essendon was a year or two ahead of Carlton in terms of playing finals,” Silvagni said.