#24 Nick Bryan - growing luxurious mullets til 2025

He needs games at the highest level.

We all thought this was a development year but BDB seems to want to play the older players in any 50/50 selection option.

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Im not opposed, to a couple. But heā€™s still a fair way off it imo

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All true, however he is pretty good down lower given his height, and he can take a decent mark. His tapwork is good and will get better. Also a decent kick.

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If we want/demand/expect as supporters to ā€œplay the kidsā€ then stick with him beyond one middling , first up run.

I actually thought our clearance setups all night looked a bit off in terms of positioning , Iā€™d like to see his tapwork get taken advantage of more. And Iā€™ve never really thought he was slow for what he is, his follow up work at ground level is generally pretty useful imo. The impression I have of him is a fairly introverted kid who needs time to find confidence at each level. Send him up again.

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Physicality will be his biggest hurdle in making it. Needs to develop a mean streak asap, thatā€™s why i would still play Flip ahead of him. We already have a lot players who lack a physical presence, we dont need another soft big man.

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Nothing like giving the kid a chance! Draper is what, 24, and still plays a stinker once every 4 games and is still well off the best ruckmen in the league. I donā€™t expect Draper will be the real deal until heā€™s 27.

How long did it take Tim English?

Come on. For the love of god stop condemning players to the junk heap before theyā€™ve played 10 games.

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Lol sorry Mr Sensitive.

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Not sure if Iā€™m reading too much into this, but thought he looked salty AF at the end of the game. Essendon also reased ā€œGuelfi Camā€ footage which I thought showed it too

Funny I thought Draper played well, especially in the first half. Took contested marks, kicked a goal ( should have kicked two) setup another one. Iā€™ve said this previous weeks, certainly didnā€™t get beaten.

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Same thing was said about Englishā€¦ā€¦

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For sure, not writing him off. Would just prefer he develops it in the 2ā€™s.

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Underwhelming.

He was ok, but not great.certainly better than Phillips has been for the past month

Did a couple of nice things, still has some glaring weaknesses that he needs to work on. Which is to be expected.

He stays in, give him a block of games to get up to speed and hit some form

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I saw this too, also when he slapped hands with Drapes after the siren.
Bryan might have been annoyed at being subbed, but he neednā€™t be as providing more run in Q4 was an obvious change.
He may have been annoyed because he didnā€™t do enough to keep Scott from selecting Flip next week.
Then again he may not have been annoyed at all.

Bryanā€™s strengths of high leap, soft hands & impacting at the clearance are not as evident in AFL as they are in VFL, but that will come soon.

I think when Flip is ready to go Scott will select him. Flipā€™s bad days are just horrid, and that will see him out of the team when 2MP & Weed can share the backup ruck load.

Bryan is not yet AFL ready and playing VFL and rucking 90% of the game is a perfect platform to develop. He just needs to see it that way as well.

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Ruckman take the longest to develop. 21 for a ruck is a bit like 18 for a mid. Barring extenuating circumstances, Iā€™d strongly consider playing him for the remainder of the year. Flip wonā€™t go around again next year so we need to see exactly where this guy is to ensure we make the right list decisions. If he really struggles, we might need a seek a younger version of Flip as a stop gap.

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I think everyoneā€™s okay for him to get a few more games. I am, at least. But i have my reservations. Iā€™d love to see a little more agression but unfortunately thats something that cant be taught imo. You have it or you dont

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Agreed.

So heā€™s gonna have to adapt what he can do, to AFL level. Itā€™ll take a while, imo.

I thought at the centre bounces he was able to get over Williams and win taps, something Draper really struggled with

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Keep playing him until Wright is back. At which point I would hope neither Bryan or Phillips are playing in the seniors.

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My thought for the whole time he was on. He might just need to adjust to the pace, but he was definitely slow.

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