Evil Homer said:
Why do you all seem to hate him?
This question is complicated and has many potential answers. My take:
Brad won the 2001 Dally M hooker of the year. He was brilliant. And IMO, he is a very clever hooker. But mid 2002, the Raiders lost Brett Finch, our young but established halfback. To combat this, Matt Elliott bought Drew from Parramatta for 3 years, in a radical attempt to play him at half. He had never done this in his career.
Initially this caused some angst amongst fans as we still had a lot of good halves at the club - Michael Monaghan, Jace Van Dijk to name two. However Drew really turned it on in early 2003, shutting nearly everyone us and starting a group of 'Drew believers'. However a combination of hammy problems and inability to direct a team around the park led to a dramatic dropoff in form.
However, many of us believe that because Elliott shelled out the big $$$ for him, it would look bad to drop him. So he perservered, causing a double problem of affecting Mark McLinden's game, as they never gelled as a combo. At this time Mick Monaghan was recovering from a busted jaw, and despite being an excellent prospect, was not retained at the club - because Drew was here to play #7. He is now captain of Manly.
Drew battled through the end of 2003 with recurring injuries, and still managed to do some very good things, creative kicks etc. But his inability to steer a team around like a good #7 was hurting the Raiders badly. We don't have many points in us to begin with and he was f**king things up even more.
Anyway on to 2004, with no Monaghan and Van Dijk. Drew is injured in the pre-season, missing the opener to the season. He comes back into the team and has another blinder (vs Parra), but resorts back to his old ways. Plus he is a liability in defence. He pots two match-winning field goals but his incompetence in the #7 is stifling the Raiders - go and watch the Rd 9 Broncos and Rd 10 Tigers games. They are appalling.
He publicly admits hooker is his preferred position. The loss of Mick Monaghan is believed to be a catalyst for brother Joel also departing the club. He is continually picked ahead of
another young talent, Todd Carney.
Finally Elliott has bit the bullet, and Drew is in reserves. Personally I wish the plan had worked, I still think he is a talented footballer. But we paid the price for playing him out of position.
All that said, a lot of the current anger towards him is because of his 'lack of passion' for the Raiders. He doesn't look like he wants to be here.
Anyway, over to Bay56 for the fiery answer 8) :lol:
