AFL Player # 2: Sam Draper - The mullet hath returneth - 22/6

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Contract Status: Out of contract 2025
My Boy Draft 2024: Pick 20, TheUnicorn
 
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I haven't seen it posted but the big fella is 3 episodes into a podcast with Dan Gorringe and Nick Butler. IMO it's a good laugh and insight into this magnificent creature:
player.whooshkaa.com

200 PLUS

200 PLUS features the biggest (literally) people in footy talking about the game from their elevated perspective. Footy’s bigs are seen but rarely heard, and Nick Butler, Dan Gorringe and Sam Draper use this podcast to give this community a voice. They address the key issues of footy, provide an...
player.whooshkaa.com player.whooshkaa.com
 
BrunoV said:
I always got the impression Mumford played without underpants which is why he favoured the big bear hug, leg wrap around fall on you tackle. That it was part of the reason players are so scared of him.

I see this in Draper's future.
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Brings a horrifying other meaning to the word tackle, especially "fall on you tackle" 😳
 
BrunoV said:
I always got the impression Mumford played without underpants which is why he favoured the big bear hug, leg wrap around fall on you tackle. That it was part of the reason players are so scared of him.

I see this in Draper's future.
Click to expand...

Read this and immediately thought of that carlton player a while back dashing down the ground while his plums had escaped their safe haven... can't remember his name though.

How things have changed, they even focused on it in the media.
 
www.theage.com.au

Footy from a higher place: how Sam Draper became Essendon’s spiritual leader

When Draper ran 100 metres to spoil on Anzac Day, captain Dyson Heppell wrapped him in a rom-com hug. It showed how the former soccer player and aggressive ruckman is regarded at the Bombers.
www.theage.com.au www.theage.com.au

Sam Draper wants to have a word with Gillon McLachlan. The Mullet would like to meet the Bouffant.
In the AFL chief executive, Draper recognises a kindred spirit, a purveyor of one of the lofty arts. Draper, the soccer player turned AFL ruckman, short back and sides turned all back and no sides, is also a footballer turned broadcaster. Alongside former Gold Coast ruckman Dan Gorringe and TV journalist Nick Butler, he produces a podcast called 200 Plus.
“It’s a podcast by the ruckman for the ruckman. No one under 200 centimetres,” said Draper, who patrols the ruck for Essendon at 205 centimetres.
All back, no sides: Sam Draper at the centre of the Dons’ team song.

All back, no sides: Sam Draper at the centre of the Dons’ team song.CREDIT:AFL PHOTOS
“It’s footy from a higher place and a higher perspective. It’s a bit of fun stuff, talk a bit of shit - ‘Goz’ is pretty good at that - then a bit more footy stuff, we talk about the week ahead, the big issue of the moment and look to get a few ruck guests on.”

Fellow “bigs” Shane Mumford, Mark Pittonet and Ivan Soldo are on the invitation list, but McLachlan, the former Uni Blues ruckman, is the main prize.
“The week of the first episode the rucks were the back page of the paper with all the PCL drama, so we delved into that,” Draper said. “We have a voice and even though people didn’t ask for it, we can give them our opinion.”
Aggression: Draper bursts through his Hawthorn opponents

Aggression: Draper bursts through his Hawthorn opponentsCREDIT:GETTY IMAGES
Collingwood star Brodie Grundy was among those who injured the posterior cruciate ligament in their knee, an occupational hazard for rucks, on Anzac Day when he and Draper jumped into one another. Draper remembers hearing a noise in the contest and knew Grundy was hurt.
The injuries sparked a fresh debate on the rules at centre bounces, but Draper said administrators should “leave us big boys and girls alone. Don’t change the rules and overreact to a couple of injuries”.

The Anzac Day match marked a small but significant penny drop moment in Draper’s game.
In the early rounds he felt he was rucking well but not necessarily playing well. He was concentrating on his rucking and his opponent without thinking about his influence on his team and the game.
Before going up against Grundy and Collingwood, Draper changed focus. He realised what the team needs from him is what they call his “contagious energy”. He admits to being naturally a boisterous, “bit weird”, excitable character and his teammates feed off his aggression.
“That week was a turning point of my focus. I had watched four Anzac Days from the stands and never played in one, so I was jealous of the boys and pretty amped up for that,” he said.
″⁣Me playing with a bit of aggression is good for the team and good for my game as well, so my mindset was different for that game than when I have played better rucks in the past.

“Sometimes I have tried to just stop them instead of playing my own game, and I’ve realised that is not how I want to play and how the team wants me to play so that one was a good one for my mindset of thinking it doesn’t matter who I am playing, I am going to bring that aggressive mindset and play my own game.”
Draper was a footballer before he was a ruckman. He played soccer. His parents are English - his mum was pregnant with him on the plane to Australia and Sam was born in Australia.

The family returned to England to live when he was three and Sam spent his childhood in Brede, East Sussex, where most of his extended family still lives. His parents returned to Australia with Sam and his brothers and sisters when Sam was nine. He played soccer in Adelaide until he got too big to play as a central defender and in year 11 lost some passion for the game. He realised he was built for Australian rules.
“My two main idols growing up were Wayne Rooney, he was quite aggressive for a striker, and then Nemanja Vidic; the centre-back for Man United was my all-time favourite. He played with a bit of aggression and a bit of a fearless mentality,” Draper said.

“The thing I loved most playing soccer was a perfectly timed slide tackle when I can get the player as well as the ball, but also get in trouble a bit and get a yellow card. When I switched to footy, I was loving it. You can be aggressive and throw your weight around.”

On Anzac Day, with his team under siege and playing terribly, he wanted to be the big man who made the big statement for his team.
He ran through Pat Lipinski in one fair, body-rattling bump that had the dual effect of bringing cheers from Essendon fans and silencing those who say the bump is dead.
On another occasion, he ran 100 metres to the wing to clatter into a pack and spoil the ball over the boundary line. So excited by it, Bombers captain Dyson Heppell ran to Draper not to pat his back but to give him a full rom-com hug.

Draper was good for three quarters but Grundy, after being injured in the third quarter, was consequential in the last term. Regardless, the change in Draper and Essendon was appreciable.

In the final quarter against Hawthorn last week, as the Bombers started to gather momentum and rein in the Hawks’ 25-point lead, Draper took matters in his own hands at the centre bounce.
“I thought we weren’t getting the bang for our buck with the clearances and getting the ball forward, especially in the centre, so I saw the second ruck come in and I thought, ‘screw it, I will try and get it forward,’ ” Draper said.
When the ball went up, Draper, channelling former Brisbane ruckman Clark Keating, abandoned deft palm work and belted it as hard and far as he could. He hit it almost out of the centre square to half-forward, where Darcy Parish was worded up to run onto it.

″⁣I told Parish before the bounce I was going to do it and it almost worked out to be the perfect play, but he messed the kick up. That last quarter especially turned into a real territory game and yeah, I was proud of that one

“Yeah, I did it off my own back. I hadn’t got it ticked off, ” he said, a little sheepishly.
Coach Ben Rutten later applauded Draper’s approach, pleased that he had sensed what the moment needed, and that Essendon’s momentum was coming from territory and surging, not from possession.
“If I take the game on and make a mistake I won’t be too worried about it and the boys won’t be too worried either, because they know that’s one of my strengths, when I take it on and play with flair.

“I did want to stand up as a leader. I am figuring out the type of player I want to be and the type of player my teammates love me to be.“
 

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Bombers36 said:
Love the big mans spirit - but he has to learn how to play the game and basics like kicking and tap work need to improve - at the moment he's just a big battering ram
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Agree. Less podcasts and opinions and more get the basics of footy happening.
 
ant555 said:
Agree. Less podcasts and opinions and more get the basics of footy happening.
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The podcast is interesting, I binged it last night before and after the game. They’re all rucks talking about ruck craft and such, the importance of having a presence on the field. And you get an insider and two outsider perspectives on the game each week coz the other two both watch Draper play.

More insightful in terms of football than the club pods which are more light entertainment, and I reckon a potential future leader of the club if he gets the rest of his shit together (Gawn used to be a loose unit too so it’s possible).
 
He seems to get a lot of shit but he has only played around 30 game's.

Yes, he does need to better his basic footy skills and take a couple more grabs but that will hopefully come soon.

Don't forget guys like Gawn, Goldstein and even Ryder (didn't help we played him in other positions in classic Essington fashion) took around 50 game's or more to really start making more of an impact and become dominate ruckmen.
 
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naraku said:
He seems to get a lot of shit but he has only played around 30 game's.

Yes, he does need to better his basic footy skills and take a couple more grabs but that will hopefully come soon.

Don't forget guy's like Gawn, Goldstein and even Ryder (didn't help we played him in other positions in classic Essington fashion) took around 50 game's or more to really start making more of an impact and become dominate ruckmen.
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Sorry for the intrusion, but soldo was the same.
nothing but a brick with two legs (not saying Draper is that) but with games comes the improvement in skill set.
he’ll be fine.
 
naraku said:
He seems to get a lot of shit but he has only played around 30 game's.

Yes, he does need to better his basic footy skills and take a couple more grabs but that will hopefully come soon.

Don't forget guys like Gawn, Goldstein and even Ryder (didn't help we played him in other positions in classic Essington fashion) took around 50 game's or more to really start making more of an impact and become dominate ruckmen.
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With the added disadvantage of probably only 30-40 junior games.

Compare that to the likely 150 for someone like Sean Darcy.
 
eth-dog said:
With the added disadvantage of probably only 30-40 junior games.

Compare that to the likely 150 for someone like Sean Darcy.
Click to expand...

Yeah, he was a basketball or Soccer background wasn't he ?

I would just leave him in and get some extra help for basic footy skill.

What's Salmon or Madden doing ? Alessio ?
 
Doesn't have that natural nous for a ruckman, does well playing against inferior opponents at the lower level, he is being exposed at the top level.

Going to echo the sentiment from boncer34 that he probably needs a spell. Bryan could go past him very quickly by years end. I don't think its "career at the cross roads", but he certainly needs to improve on a number of things imho.
 
boncer34 said:
We need to shoot Bambi
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Not entirely related but you did cause me to look this up out of curiosity (gosh was he really that bad?) and instead I found this:

D196ABD5-C2CF-4069-9958-C04BFF489486.jpeg F9DA7CE6-230D-4197-9BE4-4DC85806A18E.jpeg

How is it that his season average is better than his career average in raw numbers but against the benchmark he’s somehow worse?

Is the pool more competitive this year compared to the compared to the pool used to calculate career benchmarking? 🤔🤔
 
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AFL Player # 2: Sam Draper - The mullet hath returneth - 22/6

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