Essendon have escaped Optus Stadium with a relieving two-point win over the struggling West Coast — but victory has come at a cost. Star ruck Sam Draper was in tears in the rooms after going down with an Achilles injury late in the fourth quarter on Good Friday.
The fan favourite had already been shouldering a big load in the centre square, and was pictured in a telling chat with coach Brad Scott, a club physio, and other support staff during the three-quarter time break. Despite clearly being sore, Draper soldiered on to take his place on the field in the last quarter, until it backfired. In what appeared to be a typical Achilles injury motion, Draper fell to the ground after no contact with anyone in an innocuous incident after going to accelerate. The big man limped off the ground in the hands of a trainer and went straight into the rooms, where vision showed a devastated Draper being consoled while his right leg was elevated on a chair.
“That doesn’t look good at all,” Matthew Pavlich said of the injury.
It comes at the worst possible time for the Bombers, who only just lost Draper’s understudy in the ruck, Nick Bryan, to a season-ending ACL injury last week. Speaking after the game, former West Coast player Will Schofield said Draper was taken from the ground in a hospital bed by paramedics. Essendon will now have no choice but to turn to 36-year-old veteran Todd Goldstein, who has not played at AFL level since July last year.
Nevertheless, the Bombers have now won three in a row and are encroaching on the top eight after Peter Wright’s six goals helped them come from 29 points down and post a thrilling two-point win. The Bombers trailed 37-8 early in the second quarter of Friday night’s match on the back of four opening-term goals from Jake Waterman. Things still looked grim for Essendon midway through the third term when West Coast led by 25 points following a booming 52m set shot from Elijah Hewett.
But two goals in the space of a minute from Archie Perkins helped the visitors turn the tide, with the Bombers levelling the scores by three-quarter time. When Wright kicked his sixth goal at the 12-minute mark of the final term, Essendon led by 12 points. In a thrilling finish, Eagles forward Jack Williams kicked a goal to reduce the margin to two points with 28 seconds remaining. Essendon kicked the ball out wide from the next centre bounce to chew up vital seconds, with an ensuing intercept mark sealing the 11.11 (77) to 11.9 (75) win in front of 46,080 fans.
Wright was the star of the day, kicking 6.1 and gathering 17 disposals and seven marks in his first match of the AFL season. Zach Merrett (26 disposals, seven clearances, one goal), Andrew McGrath (25 disposals) and Nic Martin (26 disposals, one goal) also played important roles. Bombers wingman Xavier Duursma was injured in the dying minutes when he sustained an accidental knee to the midriff from Eagles ruckman Matt Flynn.
For West Coast, Waterman finished with four goals and 10 marks, while Jeremy McGovern (23 disposals) was a rock in defence. Tim Kelly collected 22 disposals and three clearances in his first match back from being dropped to the WAFL, and Elijah Hewett (22 disposals, five clearances, two goals) played his best match of the season. Harley Reid was restricted to 17 disposals and three clearances for the match, and his heavy first-quarter bump on Archie Roberts could come under scrutiny.
West Coast tallied an AFL record-low 77 contested possessions against Carlton last week, but they produced 35 alone in the opening quarter against Essendon as Waterman took the game by the scruff of the neck. The scoreline read 30-8 by the time Waterman kicked his fourth goal after the quarter-time siren, marking just the second time West Coast had won a term this season.
Alarm bells were ringing for Essendon when Jamie Cripps kicked a goal early in the second quarter to stretch the margin to 29 points. But two quick goals to Wright — on the back of Essendon’s 10-4 clearance dominance for the term — got Essendon back into the match, reducing the margin to 18 points by half-time. When West Coast youngster Hewett kicked a booming 52m set shot, the Eagles led 61-36 at the 18-minute mark of the third quarter. Perkins kicked a set shot and then a snap in the space of the minute to haul Essendon back in the match. And when Draper nailed his set shot and then Wright snapped his fifth, scores were level with a quarter to go.
Martin flew high for a mark and kicked truly to kick off the final quarter, and Wright followed it up with his sixth goal of the match to give Essendon a decisive advantage.
Things just got a lot more complicated for Essendon. When Nick Bryan went down last week with a season-ending knee injury, and then days later Sam Draper was revealed as a surprise unrestricted free agent, how the Bombers managed their two out-of-contract rucks became intriguing. But the bigger curveball came on Friday night with Draper's Achilles injury, which Essendon is clearly fearing could be a long time out of the game this year.
For the short-term, 36-year-old veteran Todd Goldstein will play his first game of the year against Collingwood on Anzac Day and hold down the fort. But what the injury means for Draper's future is where the Bombers' minds will also be, particularly after a start to the season that has been the 26-year-old's best and most consistent patch of form of his career.
Should scans confirm on Sunday that a serious Achilles injury has occurred, as coach Brad Scott forecast on Friday night when he said the Bombers were "concerned" about the severity, then the questions will be on how all parties take the next steps. Scott flagged it was shaping as the third long-term injury in three weeks at the club, including Tom Edwards' ACL at training earlier this month.
Both Draper and Bryan, managed by the same agency TGI Sport, wanted to start the season playing together to see how the two-man ruck set-up fared before getting deeper into contract talks. Neither gets that chance. The Bombers have been keen to lock in Bryan on a new deal and two years would take him to free agency, while there have been ongoing negotiations on Draper's future but no firm term put forward as yet. After clubs were informed of Draper's unrestricted free agency status last Monday, the view was that it could see clubs increase their bids for him without the threat of it being matched by the cashed-up Bombers.
Adelaide has long been keen on Draper as they have scoured the market for another ruckman in recent years. The injury will be considered by all clubs who hold interest. Last week's game against Melbourne was arguably the best of Draper's career; his forward craft has improved – he was well on track for a career-best goal haul this season after booting seven in the first five games – his marking has been consistent and when confident Draper has brought an energy to Essendon's mix. Injuries restricted him to 14 games in 2023 and 16 in 2024.
Essendon has wanted to keep Draper and Draper is settled in Melbourne, with rivals' belief that he would likely remain there, but the injury, which led to emotional scenes for the ruckman in the Optus Stadium rooms on Friday, added complexity to the contract situation. In the meantime, the Bombers will turn to Goldstein, and may ask Peter Wright to chip in. Vigo Visentini is developing but not yet ready for AFL rucking.
The Bombers already had two spots for the mid-season rookie draft after round 11 in late May, and their search for ready-to-go ruck back-up will be turbocharged. Former Sun Brayden Crossley trained with the Western Bulldogs over summer but ultimately was overlooked and Coburg's Cooper Keogh are two of a small number of state league rucks considered the most capable of stepping in. There are other tall youngsters in the mid-season pool, including potential No.1 pick and 200cm prospect Floyd Burmeister, but he turns 19 next month and is more a forward and longer-term option. The Draper injury brings questions for chasing clubs, it forces his own to find replacements and it complicates the decision ahead for the player himself at a time when he was proving his quality.
