{"id":469561,"date":"2025-09-08T21:34:47","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T21:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=469561"},"modified":"2025-09-08T23:15:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T23:15:14","slug":"in-demand-bombers-star-makes-call-amid-three-club-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=469561","title":{"rendered":"In-demand Bombers star makes call amid three-club race"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/afl\/news-2025-essendon-bombers-brisbane-lions-sam-draper-adelaide-crows-matthew-nicks-20250804-p5mkbm.html\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"S\ufeffam Draper\">S\ufeffam Draper<\/a> will head to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/topic\/brisbane-lions-5sb\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Brisbane\">Brisbane<\/a> in this year&#x27;s free agency period, despite receiving interest for a return to his home state with the Adelaide Crows.<\/p>\n<p>According to Nine&#x27;s chief AFL reporter Tom Morris, the 26-year-old will join the Lions next season after opting to depart Essendon.<\/p>\n<p>The star ruckman had spent nine seasons with the Bombers after being selected with the No.1 overall pick in the 2016 rookie draft.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/afl\/news-2025-eddie-mcguire-comments-reacts-jeff-browne-article-relationship-commission-chairman-position-exclusive-comments-20250908-p5mtdz.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"\"><strong>McGuire rips &#x27;rubbish&#x27; claims of soured friendship<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/news-2025-nicho-hynes-hip-drop-judiciary-charge-phil-gould-cameron-smith-match-review-committee-criticism-20250908-p5mtg5.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Gould calls for change to &#x27;murder trial&#x27; judiciary system<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE: \ufeff<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/football\/news-2025-socceroos-coach-tony-popovic-world-cup-selection-process-new-zealand-series-preview-20250908-p5mtex.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Popovic takes &#x27;patient&#x27; approach despite World Cup build<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The standout South Australian product had been linked with a potential move to join the Crows, \ufeffbut will instead knock their approach back and head to the Sunshine State.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"9098d60b-8931-40f8-b0de-7123295766f9\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/9098d60b-8931-40f8-b0de-7123295766f9\" alt=\"\" data-width=\"6615\" data-height=\"3721\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Draper kicked 43 goals in 78 appearances in the red and black guernsey, but was part of the club&#x27;s horror injury crisis this season, rupturing his Achilles in round six. \ufeff<\/p>\n<p>Essendon could receive compensation once Draper&#x27;s touted \ufeffmove to the Lions as an unrestricted free agent is confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>The news of his move to Brisbane comes as the club also remain in the hunt to land West Coast co-captain Oscar Allen, who informed the Eagles of his desire to explore his options as a restricted free agent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>S\ufeffam Draper will head to Brisbane in this year&#x27;s free agency period, despite receiving interest for a return to his home state with the Adelaide <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=469561\" title=\"In-demand Bombers star makes call amid three-club race\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":469563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469561"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=469561"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":469564,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469561\/revisions\/469564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/469563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=469561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=469561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=469561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}