As Sam Draper took off from the centre square to kick his remarkable goal on Sunday against Gold Coast, Essendon senior coach Ben Rutten looked on from the bench in awe. 

At 205cm tall, it’s not an easy feat for someone of Draper’s size to break the tackle, weave through multiple opponents and then checkside the footy through for a goal, sending the Essendon faithful and Rutten into celebrations. 

Born in England, Draper switched from soccer to Australian rules at 17, so Rutten admits the 23-year-old is still learning the basics of the game but encouraged the young ruckman to continue playing with his unique flare. 

“It was fantastic. It was at the point of the game in the last quarter where the game needed a bit of a lift for the crowd and he certainly delivered,” Rutten told AFL360 last night. 

“One of those things as a coach, he is a young, athletic, passionate ruckman and we are still trying to teach him the fundamentals of the game so when he goes and does something like that, it makes life a bit hard for me.”

At bye week, Rutten’s Bombers sat 16th on the ladder with 10 losses and two wins over Adelaide and Hawthorn. 

Since then, Essendon has gone on to win four of their last six games, including victories over the top-eight sides in Sydney and Brisbane, and despite being an inexperienced side, it is the team's youth who have stepped up. 

Whether that be the likes of Draper or Jye Caldwell, who played a vital role in the victory over Brisbane with 26 disposals and a goal, or Massimo D’Ambrosio, who’s 23 disposals off half-back helped deliver a 9-point win over Sydney. 

Rutten attributed the growth of his team and the improvement of his younger players to the way they overcame the challenges faced throughout the first half of the season.

“Certainly, the results haven’t gone the way we would have liked at the start of the season but they have been really important in shaping where we are at now and I think it’s going to be a really important part to the back end of the season for us,” Rutten said. 

“We’ve had some exposure to players who we think are going to be really important players for us and that’s part of our journey of where we are at, at the moment. 

“We’ve put a lot of work in. The last month to six weeks, we’ve been playing some pretty consistent footy and those periods throughout the early stages, there was a lot of work done then that are starting to bear a bit of fruit now.”

As the Bombers head into the last five games of the home and away season, Rutten said the group is united and driven to continue developing while embracing the confidence from their recent victories.  

“I’ve got a lot of belief on what this group is capable of, and we are developing group who are starting to learn about each other,” Rutten said.

“The last few weeks have been really important in developing belief and confidence in what we have been doing.”