It’s not about not giving out 5-6 year deals, it’s about being very selective in who you give them to. Long deals are for AAs. 4 years not cutting it for Drapes if he loved the club and believed we were headed in the right direction would be a red flag
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I agree in theory but in reality it doesn’t always work like that. Who’s to say Draper won’t be an AA in 2-3 years? He could be. He might not be.
In the end if Essendon runs a successful footy dept we shouldn’t be too concerned about offering an improving Draper a longer deal if that’s what it takes.
Definitely some risk. However, if Adelaide offer him 6 years I think the club will need to offer him 4-5 years to keep him.
It will be an interesting watch this year.
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I think it’s entirely plausible he loves the club and thinks it’s going in the right direction but gets an offer that is too good to resist.
This is potentially his big money contract. The one that sets him up for life post footy. Cannot begrudge any player just chasing money in Draper’s situation.
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For him to be worth the big money 6/7 year deal he needs to be kicking over 30 goals a season while sharing the ruck duties.
I’m not sure he can do that, I’d take any compo that nets us another top 10 pick.
The more we can hit the draft before Tassie the better.
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Agree when you say you’re rolling the die and kinda paying for potential. Lately, we’ve been poor at predicting this so the club should be as gun shy as I am. Maybe it was a Dodoro thing.
Will definitely be an interesting watch. Lots to unfold but unless he wins a Brownlow, 6 years would be a big mistake.
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Far more than their individual games in the practice match, I loved the way Bryan and Draper complemented each other.
I know it’s become some sort of footy wisdom that two rucks can’t thrive at the same club, and I guess we’re about to find that out, but I’m pretty excited by the options these two give us.
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For all the work he is no doubt doing on set shots, that flawed ball drop will mean he will kick a number of behinds.
Nonetheless, I think he will have plenty of shots, and likely kick a large portion in general play.
Reckon he could kick 30 if he played a minimum of 20 games.
I’d be ecstatic with more than 30.
I’m not sure it was a Dodo thing.
If Ridley and Parish weren’t injury prone, we have two All Australians entering their prime years. No issues with longer term deals in this scenario.
Message to Essendon is, become best in class at fitness and conditioning and this will mean your best players will continue to improve and be worth the money spent.
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I find this odd as this is, at least in part, my point. 6 year deals (Parish got 6 and Ridley effectively got 6) begin to lose their shine if a player breaks down, which is always a possibility.
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I get that. But to keep AA level players most clubs are being ‘forced’ to offer long deals.
If Parish and Ridley weren’t ‘broken’, they’d be AA level players and on that basis, I think it would’ve made sense to secure them long term.
It’s always risky. Even riskier for clubs that can condition their top talent.
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Sometimes you buckle and pony up more than you should. Nothing regarding this is absolute. Parish had an outstanding 2021 and then missed 6 games, then 5 in the following two seasons. Ridley, whilst showing a fair bit, hasn’t been AA. Silly to offer them 6. Same with McGrath. Same with Redman’s 5 year deal. It’s too much for guys that don’t have enough form in the bank or have doubts about how their bodies hold up.
It is indeed always risky. Mitigate the risk by offering less. I’ve got a good feeling about Sam this year and in the same breath, I’d let him go if he wants 5 given his history with injury.
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Still cracks me up that his main suitor is Adelaide
They weren’t super impressed with him last time they caught up.
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“I love your hair Drapes”
“Right back at ya Brysy”
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“Do the Drapes match the carpet”
Ill get my coat
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Goldy for 2026 to 2030!
I do think rucks are important, but it’s getting harder and harder to ignore the fact that highly paid/dominant rucks rarely win premierships nowadays.
Outside of Gawn in 2021, when did we have a dominant ruck or highly paid ruckman win a flag?
Darren Jolly in 2010?
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15 second mark if this clip. Clean pick up and handball to Tsatas that is very good for a big fella.
https://x.com/charliedons/status/1890977430615085227?s=46&t=i9_-5aHWGGo5kEY7csBuMg
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Ruckman are important, but their importance comes from being able to do the mundane very well.
Draper does the flashy well 4 odd times out of 10 and gets mauled by the mundane ruckman more often than not.
His game on the weekend was just a continuation of that pattern. The worrying thing is the trying to take the ball out of the ruck and just bombing it forward.
It worked once supposedly with the new guy getting a goal, but how many times didn’t it work ? and it didn’t work coming out of defence.
granted it’s only one insignificant not even pre season game, but you’d still like to see some deviation from the previous years bad habits with draper, instead of just see ball, get ball try and do something flashy and beyond your skill set, and have it come off a couple of times out of every 10 or so attempts.
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If he can just do the basics better and play smarter football, he will edge closer to that player we thought we had in 2021.
He does like to kick the ball, though he needs to be aware that if a Merrett, Martin, Perkins or Caldwell are nearby for an easy hb receive, we need the ball in those hands.
He plays so instinctively, I don’t know if we want to erraticate his kamikaze, chaos style altogether.
Just a little more refinement would be nice.
And FFS, no more mocking the opposition on their home ground post game after a lucky win !
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What you are promoting with this Bryan talk is a sound argument for playing both! I can get behind that.
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