	{"id":86601,"date":"2022-08-11T04:34:32","date_gmt":"2022-08-10T18:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/?p=86601"},"modified":"2022-08-09T17:59:27","modified_gmt":"2022-08-09T07:59:27","slug":"rival-club-flags-interest-in-bombers-skipper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/sport\/rival-club-flags-interest-in-bombers-skipper\/","title":{"rendered":"Rival club flags interest in Bombers\u2019 skipper"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">ESSENDON captain Dyson Heppell could be enticed north to finish his career.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">AFL Media\u2019s Cal Twomey joined SEN <em>Breakfast<\/em> last week to provide updates on several players.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of those was Bombers\u2019 skipper Heppell, who remains unsigned late in the 2022 season.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">The 30-year-old has an offer on the table to stay at The Hangar but is yet to make up his mind given interest from the Gold Coast Suns.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe reported several weeks ago that rival clubs were looking at him as a veteran free agent option when he was out of contract at the Bombers,\u201d Twomey said on SEN <em>Breakfast<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cNow, he got a contract offer shortly after that, a one-year extension was put to him, but he hasn\u2019t signed it and Gold Coast has an interest in Heppell as an unrestricted free agent.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cHis form has spiked in the last couple of months, I think he\u2019s been playing more on the wing, he was good again against North Melbourne last week, one of Essendon\u2019s best players, so the Suns are having a look at him.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI think Essendon opened the door to this possibility by taking until so late in the year to offer their skipper an extra year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cSo it will be fascinating to see what Heppell does from here. Take the year at the Bombers or head to Queensland to close out his career.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite looking a step off the pace at times, Heppell has played an important role in 2022 off half-back, averaging 22.7 disposals, 6.8 marks and three rebound 50s a game.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Club legend Tim Watson was asked if he wanted Heppell to stay at Essendon for 2023.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cUnder the right circumstances, yes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cHe\u2019s a great club man, very popular player, great around the team and I can see why he would attract interest from the Suns for that purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><strong>&#8211; BY SEB MOTTRAM\/ SEN<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ESSENDON captain Dyson Heppell could be enticed north to finish his career. AFL Media\u2019s Cal Twomey joined SEN Breakfast last week to provide updates on several players. One of those was Bombers\u2019 skipper Heppell, who remains unsigned late in the 2022 season. The 30-year-old has an offer on the table to stay at The Hangar [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/sport\/rival-club-flags-interest-in-bombers-skipper\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":86595,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-86601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rival club flags interest in Bombers\u2019 skipper - Ballarat Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/sport\/rival-club-flags-interest-in-bombers-skipper\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rival club flags interest in Bombers\u2019 skipper - Ballarat Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ESSENDON captain Dyson Heppell could be enticed north to finish his career. 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