AFL pre-season 2023: Sam Draper impressing at pre-season training
The Bombers will need plenty of players to improve to avoid a repeat of 2022 this season and it appears one rising star is ready to answer the call. Get the latest pre-season news here.
Watch out, opposition rucks.
If Monday’s almost three-hour session is anything to go by, Sam Draper could go from cult hero to serious threat.
He’s always been important, but the 24-year-old’s combination of size and craft has him in the box seat to become one of the Bombers’ best — if not the best — player in 2023.
Draper has proven imposing against Andrew Phillips and Nick Bryan in recent match hit-outs and was stoic again on Monday, even plucking the ball from the ruck and bursting forward out of a pack when given the opportunity.
Once the competition’s rising star but has all the hallmarks of the real thing.