Essendon will likely be with out ruckman Sam Draper for the speedy future as he undergoes a “period of unloading and loading” because the cult hero offers with a lingering hip problem and coach Brad Scott isn’t certain when he’ll return.
Draper had performed each one of many Bombers’ opening 13 video games earlier than lacking final week’s conflict with Fremantle because the Dockers ended Essendon’s four-game profitable streak.
Scott confirmed Draper, who has been unable to coach after the harm worsened, would stay off the monitor and would wish to relaxation, then construct himself up once more earlier than being thought of for a enjoying return.
He conceded that may not be on the schedule the membership hoped for and can be depending on how Draper’s hip responded.
“He’ll go through I’d say the next two weeks of unloading, and then we’ll have to reload him,” Scott stated on Wednesday.
“He won’t play the next couple of weeks. It’s just been gradually getting a bit worse.
“We just made the decision that we want to get him absolutely 100 per cent before we play him again.
“When you’ve got a player who’s dynamic and powerful and he’s struggling through a season, it’s not going to help us to just continue to go down that road.
“So it’s that unloading phase, get some treatment in and then reload him.
“Hopefully, that’s a few weeks … but it’s really hard to be definitive as to when he’s going to be back.”
It depart Essendon veteran Andrew Phillips and rising massive man Nick Bryan to hold the load, which they did towards the Dockers with out a lot success.
But they may get the prospect to enhance that effort towards Port Adelaide on Saturday evening.
“I wouldn’t have said our rucks were beaten,” Scott stated.
“We were a bit disappointed with our midfield group and I know they‘ll respond this week.
“But the two rucks has been the preferred structure for us all year, and even without Draper we’ve got options.”
Scott stated the membership was resisting the urge to herald final 12 months’s high draft decide Elijah Tsatas who has been spectacular within the VFL since overcoming a knee harm which prevented him from enjoying till this month.
“The temptation is, your excitement gets the better of you and you want to bring him him,” he stated.
“The tendency of young players is to come in and go ot, but Elijah is one player I can see when he comes in, you expect he’s going to stay there and we want to set him up for that.
The Essendon coach also labelled criticism of key forward Sam Weideman, who hasn’t kicked a goal in four weeks, as “unfair”, declaring the previous Demon was a sufferer of different points in Essendon’s sport for the time being.
“He’s just trying to work in. He’s at a new club, trying to fit in with a player he hasn’t played with before in Peter Wright,” Scott stated.
“We always look at our forward structure in terms of the total output, and our forwards didn’t give us great output on the weekend. But they didn’t get great service, or a lot of service, either.
“It‘s extremely unfair to talk about one player when it’s the total mix we’re looking for.
“We wouldn’t be sitting here 8-6 without Sam Weideman … we’ve got a lot of faith and confidence in Sam.”
Source: www.news.com.au
