Player Watch #32 Samson Ryan

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I thought he was a KPF/2nd ruck but I've flipped.

He's an AFL number 1 quality ruck if we want it, who can drift forward and take the odd mark and goal.

He's not ready for a full season and will need a rest soon to not kill the guy, which is handy when Nank comes back or Soldo. I'd give Samson a rest in about 2-3 weeks cause he's been carrying a big workload.
 
Lacustrus said:
I don’t think it’s his strength
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Robbing Peter to pay Paul situation..
Losing Nank's physical aggression in the center agin the oppo midfielders...V...gaining a slower surer marking key forward...prolly horses for courses situation!
 

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juss said:
I thought he was a KPF/2nd ruck but I've flipped.

He's an AFL number 1 quality ruck if we want it, who can drift forward and take the odd mark and goal.

He's not ready for a full season and will need a rest soon to not kill the guy, which is handy when Nank comes back or Soldo. I'd give Samson a rest in about 2-3 weeks cause he's been carrying a big workload.
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Got the bye in a few weeks.
 
TigerImposter said:
Looking forward to the Ryan v Draper battle in the DT game. Draper has two years on him in development, but the way Ryan is going and growing in confidence he will love the challenge himself.
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He’s a learner isn’t he , can see he’s trying to better position his body to avoid being pushed around and actually looks where he’s tapping the bloody ball , I think he was knackered toward the end , got to a few contests and could barely get the arms up , has real talent , happy for the kid
 
Bojangles17 said:
He’s a learner isn’t he , can see he’s trying to better position his body to avoid being pushed around and actually looks where he’s tapping the bloody ball , I think he was knackered toward the end , got to a few contests and could barely get the arms up , has real talent , happy for the kid
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I don’t know Bo I reckon he looked had it at the end of the third and then five minutes into the last it was like the Gatorade kicked in and he was still full of running in the end. He’s definitely a quick learner and that’s what I was saying a few pages back that you can’t doubt his footy smarts as his positioning at reading the play have been exceptional. He also works out his opponents strengths and weaknesses well bc he basically ran Ceglar to the ground by 3/4 time by parking his body into his guts and then running off him. With Bilclav he just didn’t allow him to jump at him by basically just sticking his arms out like an aeroplane. I hope he’s doing his homework on Draper as I’ve been studying his major weaknesses and I reckon he’s dropped off bc of this technical issue. Will mention it in the preview thread.
 
Long post this, just wanted to look at these over-age guys we have been drafting, of which Samson Ryan is one.....

Thinking of Ryan and us picking him up as a 19yo in the 2020 draft, it is interesting to look at the players older than minimum draft age we have recruited since our first AFL flag in 2017, who remain at the club. Obviously we have recruited some players from other clubs who had high market value, but there are quite a few previously unloved or under-valued players.

Of those in market demand we got:

2018 - Lynch Age on arrival 26yo, projected games for the club 140

2021 - Tarrant 32yo, 30

2022 - Taranto 24yo, 130 - Hopper 25yo, 110



Of the previously unloved players:

2017 - Baker 19yo, 200

2018 - Aarts, 23yo, 42*

2019 - Pickett 27yo, 100

2020 - Ryan 19yo, 150 - Mansell 20yo, 65

2021 - Colina, 23 nil

2022 - Bauer 19yo 10 - Young 24yo, 100


Other attempts since 2017 where the player has been subsequently delisted or retired:

2018 - Weller, 26yo played 2 games*

2021- Parker, 25yo played 11 games*



If you go back further you get:


2016 - Prestia 24yo, 150 - Nankervis 23yo, 170 - Caddy 24yo, 79*

2015 - Broad 22yo, 170 - Townsend 22yo, 20* - Markov 19yo, 23* - Callum Moore 19yo, 8* - Marcon 23yo, 2*

2014 - Lambert 23yo*, 135 - Drummond 19yo, 5 games*



* now retired, traded or delisted


So since 2014 we have recruited at least one over-age player in every season. 24 players in all over the 9 off seasons.

The mature players we have given at least a 3rd round pick for are Prestia, Caddy, Nankervis, Taranto, Hopper, probably Tarrant, and of course we got Lynch as a prized free agent. These 7 mature age players over 7 off seasons that we have brought in from other clubs that cost good contracts, and in the cases of the trades, also cost picks in the first 3 rounds, have been on the whole fantastic recruits collectively. But I doubt the club would change its mind on any of these guys individually, if given the opportunity to back out with the benefit of hindsight.


Let's look at the over-age guys that had been overlooked in previous drafts, came in on minimum salary and cost nothing of value picks wise, and have proven valuable, or are projecting to be valuable, but had not been on another club's list....

Lambert, Broad, Baker, Pickett, Ryan, Mansell, Young.


Players in this category who had been on other clubs' lists:

Weller, proved no real value - Townsend, proved of value albeit never fully establishing in our best 22, Parker, proved no real value



Players not previously on another club's list who were traded out for at least a 3rd round pick:

Markov



Players who never established in our best 22 and had no trade value and who we recruited without them having been on another club's list:

Drummond, Moore, Marcon, Aarts(he gave it a mighty good go)



And Colina and Bauer not tracking too positively as yet but that could change.



These are the players where us supporters probably groaned with lack of excitement when we recruited them. There are probably 1000 decent quality games in that lot, and on average since and including 2017 they probably take up 3-4 positions in our team each week. At the moment, Samson Ryan probably looks like he could be about as significant a player as any of them.

If you said our 2024 best 23 at the moment was vaguely along these lines:

Back 7
Young Balta Grimes
Broad Vlastuin Baker D Rioli

Wing 3
McIntosh Pickett Ralphsmith

Mid 4
Taranto Hopper Short Bolton/Martin

Rucks
Nankervis/Ryan

Forward 7
Lynch Ryan Gibcus

Martin/Bolton Graham M Rioli Sonsie/Clarke Prestia

Sub: Cumberland


The team would be made up of:

5 previously unwanted over-age recruits, with Mansell also on the fringe

5 more costly mature recruits from other clubs

13 players drafted by Richmond in their minimum age draft year

0 players delisted by other clubs

So really we are recruiting players who are unwanted by other clubs from the pool of untried players, rather than from the pool of players who have been delisted or sold at any price by another club. We will get another 1-2 of these players in the MSD most likely and I also expect at least one more in the National or Rookie drafts later in the year. You could only say the strategy to target these players has been outrageously successful for us over the last 9 years or so. We seem to get a decent career, or some trade value, from about 50% of them, with Samson Ryan, Rhyan Mansell and Tylar Young the latest to show good promise.
 

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Dragonss said:
What I want to see to get his game to new heights is him keeping his feet and more follow up work. A lot of times I saw him hit the deck after going for the ruck contest and sometimes he could've let his presence be known by tackling and putting more pressure on the ball at the stoppage, which Nank does really well.

But nitpicking aside, wowee the improvement has been exponential.
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Yep.Picked that up as well.A few times he could've at least made an attempt to have an impact at ground level but more or less let the oppo waltz around him.At a guess a bit of fatigue had set in but no doubt it'll be addressed and improved as his fitness base builds.
 
kozi said:
Trained 100% as a full forward in pre season with no ruck work. Bit symptomatic of our brains trust at the moment, has always looked a ruck/forward to me with an emphasis on the former
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I was asking the same questions in pre season.

The pre season game against Melbourne they played him solely as a permanent forward. It was a perfect opportunity to give him rucking experience against Gawn and Grundy.

Yeah he kicked 3…but it was very confusing to not give a 206cm kid any experience at ruck.

They also rarely played him in the ruck at VFL level last year.

He will and Nank will be a nice ruck combo when Nank gets back.
 
bc27 said:
I was asking the same questions in pre season.

The pre season game against Melbourne they played him solely as a permanent forward. It was a perfect opportunity to give him rucking experience against Gawn and Grundy.

Yeah he kicked 3…but it was very confusing to not give a 206cm kid any experience at ruck.

They also rarely played him in the ruck at VFL level last year.

He will and Nank will be a nice ruck combo when Nank gets back.
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Ryan spent loads of time in the ruck at VFL level last season. In some games he was the only tall player to play ruck and forward, especially early in the season.

Richmond just wouldn't have expected both Nankervis and Soldo to be down together and would have seen it as a bigger priority to get ruck minutes into them pre-season, remembering as well another possible alternative Mate Colina has been missing due to injury for the entire season so far. Where we looked most vulnerable entering the season was key forward, which would probably explain why Ryan spent most of his pre-season preparing for that role.
 
Rioli2Rioli said:
Very good game from the kid

10 possessions (7 kicks 3 handballs)
5 contested possessions
2 tackles
29 hitouts

In 2 years time with a bigger tank and more muscle and 50 games

Goodbye Soldo
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He is a great assett, people forget if ee dont invest AFL game time with these kids then how are they going to improve ?
 
tiger_tough said:
Just watched the mini. Some of his tap work for a 9 gamer was ridiculous. Having said that his follow up work after the ball up was pretty poor at times. Need to study Nank closely.
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Do you disagree TigerImposter ? Pretty obvious on replay. It's not every time, but it was quite often, even in the mini highlights. I dont think it's an attitude thing, more so that he looks gassed.
 
tiger_tough said:
Do you disagree TigerImposter ? Pretty obvious on replay. It's not every time, but it was quite often, even in the mini highlights. I dont think it's an attitude thing, more so that he looks gassed.
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Actually I’m liking his second and third efforts after the ruck contest has been done. He’s been involved in many link up chains and some have resulted in goals. As I said earlier he goes through patches where he looks like he’s out of energy for the game, but then finishes the game out stronger. It’s been noticeable now for three weeks.
 

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Player Watch #32 Samson Ryan

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