You’re right in the sense that he may ask bombers to match the offer and if so he’d agree to stay to which they may do if it’s band 2 compo but not be so inclined to do so if it’s band 1 compo, but yeah like I said there isn’t really a back and forth between clubs changing contract terms in order to manipulate the compo because there is no reason for the clubs attracting the player to do so.
See your point.
But to play devil's advocate.
Draper may be amenable to a move, without wanting out badly (maybe like Jack Graham?).
Essendon may have a preference to keep him, but be open to moving him on to help their rebuild (like us with Bolton, Baker, Rioli etc, free agents or not it hardly seems to matter these days).
If a club offers money that warrants B2 comp, Dons would probably want Draper to stay, Draper may not really be that fussed - we can only assume. He may elect to stay. Alternative club may then increase offer and trigger B1, Draper is more enthusiastic for the money, Essendon tells him they won't increase their offer to try to keep him because they'd prefer B1 compo.
Off he goes.
But it's still very viable that he stays, even if he just uses an opposition offer to leverage more money out of the Dons. If they're only looking at B2 compo and can't get an offer closer to B1 I can see this being the outcome quite easily, but it looks like there's quite a bit of interest in him from a few clubs, and I genuinely think we should consider it given our ruck issues and that we have few players to pay wages and meet TPP requirements.
