Well, no.
Depending on how much you have seen of a player.
We are not wondering if Durham will be good or not when we signed him long term. We know he is good. We’re hoping he’ll be great, we don’t know that, but we do at least know he’ll be best 22 at worst.
But yes, for some players when you sign them, you don’t know if they’ll be any good. Which is ultimately the point. Wait, let him player for another 16 rounds, and then have a better idea if he’ll be poor, adequate back up, likely first ruck or in long term rehab.
I truly hope goes well and Im happy he wants to play for us (unlike some others) but hes played a handful of games as a mature age 27 year old at AFL level and already earnt himself another 3 years on the list off the back of those games.
Its too premature, he does not have enough exposed form especially as ruckman if thats our plan for him.
In the end its not worth over thinking about but I would like to see more exposure at AFL level.
Dont forget Zac Clarke had great WAFL form too, its not always a great indicator.
I like it, ruckman don’t have to be world beaters but they do have to be a workhorse. He will only excel in a professional environment. Bryan will be No1 ruck and he will be a backup until Vigo is ready. It’s a good ruckman pathway and lost management from a succession and value perspective.
And there is a sneaky chance he grows and becomes something more than workman like. He has the potential with his athleticism.
Yes, he has shown positive signs but we’ve essentially committed to a bloke for this season and the next two when he was line ball for a contract this year up until a few months ago.
We’ve basically signed a bloke based on pre season form and training.
I think saying it’s insanity is going a tad too far.
There’s a chance this works out fine, but there’s no major issue in waiting a month to gather more data. If that means he’s worth an extra $100k per year, so be it. It’s not like we’re struggling for cap space and it pushes out another UFA out of the top ten paid at the club. We see more data and pay for it to be sure he isn’t looking like the next Shaun McKernan depth/list clogger.
Age wise, he’ll probably be the stop gap between Bryan recovering from his knee injury and Vigo developing and taking a spot in our team.
I personally don’t think that has been established yet.
I quite like the guy, and he busts his ass off which we need more of. I have no issue with him being in the team, but he’s limited IMO.
I just don’t see why we needed to sign him up before the season started. It’s not like he could be poached in the next few weeks. At least have a look at him playing extended minutes as a starting AFL ruck.
It’s not a huge issue as I’m sure he’s on bugger-all money, it just seems weird to me why we keep signing guys before we need to.
Im personally glad we didn’t throw more money at him. The meltdowns this board would have had if the club had paid big money for him would have been one for the history books. Draper is a great ruckman, infectious personality, good forward craft. Everything else, he is poor, can also go missing in games often. Do you pay $800k+ for that?
I think its as simple as you always need that state level, backup ruck on minimum chips, pretty much all clubs have one. And at worst, he’s that. He’s also got the athletisicm to go back. I watched heaps of him at WAFL level and this seems a smart business decision to ne
I’m aligned. At worst he appears to a competent backup based on what limited footage we have seen. But far more important is the view of people like Goldy who has competed against the very best. Given that, we would have a very good opinion of the potential downside versus the risk of him being poached. The club has determined we want to keep him.
Maybe it is because some supporters have lost confidence in Essendon’s ability to identify which player should get extensions that they see a major risk here.
In my opinion in terms of extending contracts this is not the one to worry about & I stand behind this decision versus many others.
I assume we have signed him now as we must think he’s going to perform well, and we know that when he does other clubs will start to make offers. Hence we sign him now for minimum chips. Seems like good business to me