BIG SAMMY DRAPER
Gotta love the man!
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Break out season i feel
He is a very mature 24 year old. Very impressive.
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And here’s me thinking that they were doing away with royalty on the Au $5 banknote.
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I’m interested to know where people think Sammy sits in terms ruckmen that have gone through the club in the last twenty years, He is certainly dynamic. He is aggressive and athletic. At the moment he is also has a lot of potential, which is what I think gets a lot of people excited. Do people think he has what it takes to lift the side from the mediocrity that has plagued us for two decades?
I don’t know for sure…but it will be fun watching!
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While he is still young and has improved, he needs to still do a lot of work on his kicking. I watched him take set shots at training on Saturday and it was hard to watch.
At 43 games, and 24 years old, I reckon he has shown us glimpses that not many if any Essendon ruckmen in the past 20 years have done. A lot to work on, but has the motivation and passion to make it happen - the season ahead should tell us a lot about him.
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He has gone under the radar this preseason.
Last 2 seasons he has had plenty of write ups that were probably premature. Maybe less expectation this year might see him improve out of sight.
He’s got some agro. Something none of our rucks in the last 20 years have had. That is fun to watch
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I think he’s a fair way off Hille at his best. Hille had an excellent forward nous too.
Judas WOULD have been our best of the last 20 years and I’m hoping Draper can get to the level Ryder was at Port.
Beachcomber was an honest foot soldier, but was never going to catapult us into the top-4.
There’s a very forgetable list of ruckmen after that. Allan, Laycock, Giles, Thurlow
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I think what’s encouraging is that Draper is enthusiastic, driven, and gives a damn about the contest.
That’ll take him a good way to being a very good player at least.
I can see Draper willing himself and his teammates into the contest to get a win. He lifts his team.
Kicking is a work in progress and I’m not fussed how weird it looks (given his goal keeping background) as long as it’s effective. It’s getting better and it shouldn’t be a major non-issue with time.
He has the attributes of something special, and as others have said - it’s going to be fun watching just how special he’ll be.
He should be a ripper.
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Yeah, I think you have it spot on there.
I would agree with your rankings as well. Ryder has probably been the best ruckman we’ve had in the last 20 years and I would place Hille second.
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We all love him and he’s improved a little every year, he needs to improve a lot now, it’s time he became a top 5 ruck in the league, not 10-15.
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Im gonna have to watch that 3rd qtr against Collingwood (2nd game) at some stage this week.
I remember turning to bltn jnr at 3 qtr time and saying “that’s the best qtr from a ruckman this year”.
My expectation is that he will be a Top 5 Ruckman in the comp from '24-'28 ish.
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I am quite comfortable to say he will be a better ruckman than Zac Clarke.
Tracking well.
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Thread bumps on key players makes me nervous these days.
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EFA
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