It is his second year, he is tracking well and improving. He will be well aware of the time it takes to become the number 1 ruck and he is not quite there yet. Luey is probably gone at years end, he is already talking about how stiff and sore he feels, even right before the game starts.
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Leuey was giving Draper some huge compliments in the post match interview. He’s starting to play less ruck to give the kid opportunity to grow. Good signs.
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Any further updates on this bloke?
I know the Crows were monitoring his progress very closely and I’d imagine Port will switch their attention to him when Lycett re-signs at the Eagles. We look a bit thin on in ruck stocks so hoping he has continued his improvement
I wouldn’t be surprised if Leuenberger retires or gets traded to a club that needs a short term Ruckman.
I think that will allow us to upgrade Draper , and utilised as the second Ruckman on our list.
We don’t need to upgrade rookies to play them
He’s also not really ready, very new to game etc
Probably need to trade in/draft a mature ruck as a back up to Belly if Leuey is done. I’m not sure they’d want to have to fall back on only Draper if Belly got injured. Especially not in a year we should be a contender.
I’m curious about comments from some people that he’s still miles off it.
Last 3 weeks he’s averaged over 40 hitouts, 14 disposals and 4 marks a game.
That seems pretty solid to me. Even Looney when he was the main ruck earlier in the year, wasn’t doing any better
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Being upgraded means he gets paid a lot more.
Draper is closer to AFL ready than most people think.
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Yeah he has looked a lot closer to me as well, not for this year though. Next year I would expect him to get some games if he continues to play as well as he has been. I think there are some question marks around his around the ground work but that has also been improving from what I have seen (limited though).
DJR would know more
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Didn’t he get upgraded last year?
From what I’ve seen his ruckwork is fine for AFL level, he may not have much exposure to the variety of different styles of AFL ruckman though.
His ground work is coming along, although it doesn’t quite seem instinctive at the moment. He is willing to run with the ball and he moves nicely, doesn’t have the awareness yet, so he gets run down when he tries it.
He gets around the ground well and provides a marking option, can be a bit of a ‘double grabber’ though.
Biggest area he needs to improve in is his kicking, he’s competing with Clarke for ugliest kicking action, Clarke is a more effective kick though in general play.
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Hearing that Port are sniffing around.
Port can gagf. Sick of them coming after our players
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That’s great to hear. He hardly gets a mention on most of the VFL reports I read on here as all the attention seems to be on Francis, Lav etc. Great to hear he is progressing well
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There’s absolutely no chance his manager would be happy with Draper sitting on a Rookie list on minimum AFL wage when opposition clubs are circling… I imagine they would be.
He will also be looking for opportunities to play. I doubt he wants to be 3rd in line. We’re lucky to have 2 Mature aged quality Ruckman on our list.
There’s only one spot available, your lucky if you have 2 AFL quality Ruckman on a list. But if opportunities arnt being offered, then they will walk.
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This has Josh Jenkins written all over it.
I never wanted to lose Jenkins, but we couldn’t gaurantee him game time or a senior spot on the list.
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I have lost track of the rookie rules. Is it still a 2yr hold? If so, what happens at the end of the 2yrs? Do we get first rights to list him, with other clubs only being able to draft him if we fail to list him? Presumably even then, he has to consent to being listed by us (eg if another club made him a good contract offer he could potentially knock us back).
Is there any rule saying we can’t pay him more??
He’s not really.
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If Tommy and Leuey went down tomorrow could Sam come in and do a job or he a long way off?
This thread teetering on the brink of panic.
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