Haha…I also did this exercise off the top of my head this without looking at club lists and came up with about 21 ruckman before you’d even think about Draper.
Draper has a long way to go. But if there’s one area in footy stats that do lie, it’s comparing ruckmen’s stats. Draper has done a lot of sharing of ruck duties, with both Phillips and Goldy, since Scott took over. So you wouldn’t expect him to be in the leading categories.
Average and fast becoming one of the most hated players in the comp if the socials are anything to go by. I think half of them are Essendon supporters.
You may have missed the eyes lowered 30 metre bullet to Langford last week second quarter.
His kicking has reached the point where he’s getting plenty of distance, and is more reliable to boot.
The handballs to someone running past are getting predictable to other teams so would like to see him take advantage of the space in front of him, take a gallop and kick it to the goal square.
Agreed - and it is another pointer to a lack of selection integrity and flexibility. Scott would rather jam his very fixed idea of his best 23 into a line up even where it results in the team being unbalanced and even in the face of conditions demanding something different.
I’m not a massive Draper fan but those hit out stats don’t really mean a lot when it doesn’t factor in time in ruck. It would be weighted towards teams who predominantly only use one ruckman like Melbourne, Bulldogs, StKilda, etc. if we played only Draper in the ruck his rating would improve.
