From Phoenix castoff to European goal-machine
Overlooked All Whites striker Greg Draper becomes professional club’s all-time leading scorer after netting record 156th goal.
One-time All Whites striker Greg Draper is New Zealand football’s quiet achiever.
He has scored in Champions League qualification, bagged 20 career hat- tricks, and just last weekend became the all- time leading scorer at Welsh Premier League club The New Saints, who he has won eight successive titles with.
But despite his goal- scoring exploits in Europe, the 31-year-old has been overlooked by the All Whites for more than a decade.
His sole international appearance came in a 2-0 defeat to Fiji in 2008.
Draper cemented his legend status at perennial favourites TNS, one of only two fully professional clubs in the Welsh Premier League, by scoring a whopping five goals in a 10-0 rout of newlypromoted Flint Town United.
The five-goal haul took Draper’s overall tally to 156, surpassing the previous record of 154.
Incredibly, it was the 20th time that Draper has bagged a hattrick. He said it was a long time coming.
‘‘ It was a bit of a relief after what has gone on this year,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s probably been on my mind for the last two seasons. Once I got past 100 goals, which I think was two or three seasons ago, that was sort of the next target to go for.
‘‘Last season I needed 21 and I ended up getting 18, but the season finished early due to Covid so it’s really been playing on my mind because you wonder if football is ever going to get going again.
‘‘Once it did start back up I wanted to get it done and dusted, so it was more of a relief to finally get it done at the weekend.’’
Although he never set out to become a professional footballer – Draper was actually a talented cricketer growing up – scoring goals has always come naturally to the England-born forward.
‘‘ It’s just always happened. I didn’t start until under-12s in Somerset and in my second season in under-13s I scored 60 goals, which was a record back then. For some reason it’s something I’ve just always been able to do.
‘‘I think the most part of it is just being in the right place at the right time, I’m not one of those players who can get the ball and take five players on and smash one in from 30 yards.
‘‘ It’s all about being in the right place at the right time for me and at TNS you’ve got so many good players around you creating so many chances for you that it’s made it even easier.’’
Although he has fallen off the national team radar since moving to the Welsh Premier League, Draper was one of New Zealand’s most promising young players in his teenage years, and looked destined to feature prominently for the All Whites.
He represented New Zealand at the Under-20 World Cup, signed a pro contract with the Phoenix ahead of their inaugural season in the A-League, and helped the OlyWhites qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games in London by scoring the sole goal in a 1-0 win over Fiji.
But despite playing a crucial role in getting New Zealand to the Olympics, Draper was left out of the final squad.
All Whites Chris Wood and Kosta Barbarouses were brought in alongside over-age player Shane Smeltz.
Draper said the phone call from coach Neil Emblen notifying him of his omission was the last formal contact he has had with NZ Football. That was eight years ago.
‘‘I think it comes down to the fact there’s not a lot of exposure in the Welsh league,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s probably a little too risky for New Zealand selectors to pick someone from the Welsh league that they don’t know too much about when they’ve got lads in New Zealand who they can watch on a weekly basis.
‘‘After that I sort of realised I probably wasn’t going to get another shot at it while I was playing in Wales. I would probably have to be in the English leagues to get a look in.’’
Draper was signed by Ricki Herbert ahead of the Phoenix’s first season in the A-League, but he played just two games off the bench across two years. With no reserve team in place at that stage, Draper’s progress stalled.
‘‘ Second season I literally didn’t kick a ball. Obviously it didn’t work out as well as I liked, but I was young and to be fair when you’re behind Shane Smeltz you’re not going to get much of a kick. But I loved it, I loved living in Wellington, I spent another season there with Team Wellington and as a city it’s an amazing place. But in terms of the Phoenix it didn’t really work out.’’
Hindered by his import status, Draper knew he was unlikely to be signed by another A-League club so he headed back to the UK in the hope of resurrecting his professional career after brief spells with Melbourne Knights and Team Wellington.
He started out at Basingstoke
Town, a semi-professional club in the England conference league system, and quickly made a name for himself as a consistent goalscorer, netting 15 times during an impressive first season.
That was enough to catch the eye of TNS, who could offer Draper a fulltime salary as well as a chance to play European football, as the winner of the Welsh Premier League is guaranteed a spot in the qualification stage of the Champions League for the following season.
He has been able to play in some unique places, travelling to Bulgaria, Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Kosovo, Macedonia and San Marino during their forays in the Champions League and Europa League.
A two-time Golden Boot winner, Draper won eight league titles in his first eight seasons with TNS, but they were denied a record-extending ninth when the 2019-20 campaign was cut short by Covid-19.
‘‘We’ve been able to play some really big clubs, APOEL from Cyprus, Legia Warsaw from Poland, and a few other clubs who have got really good records in European competitions,’’ he said. ‘‘To be honest we’ve got close the last couple of years to progressing through to the later rounds of the qualifying stages, but maybe we just need a bit more luck.’’
This season they were knocked out in the second qualifying round by B36 Tórshavn from the Faroe Islands, losing 5-4 on penalties.
‘‘ That’s one of those places that you’d never choose to go to. It’s a beautiful place up there — but there’s nothing up there. It’s probably memorable for the wrong reasons. I don’t really want to go back there ever again. ‘‘ But there’s been some amazing places. San Marino was probably one of the nicest places I’ve been to. We had a good result over there, we beat them 5- 1 so that was a nice memory.
‘‘ Legia Warsaw was probably the best atmosphere, I’m not sure what the crowd was, maybe 30- 40,000, and they have the ultras over there so that was one of the most memorable atmospheres I’ve been a part of.’’
Enjoying the stability, Draper has his sights set on achieving the 200-goal milestone and all but ruled out a return to New Zealand in the future.
‘‘ With the success and the goals I’ve scored, it probably helps, but I’m happy here and I don’t want to be moving again somewhere else and settling down. It all fell in place nicely and hopefully I can stay here for another three-four years or until the legs stop working, and see what happens after that.’’