Richmond’s third pick in the 2016 AFL National Draft, tall defender Ryan Garthwaite, is extremely highly regarded by those who have closely watched his football development at both TAC Cup level with the Murray Bushrangers and as a member of the GWS Academy.

“He's been a really well-performed player over two years now,” said Murray Bushrangers talent manager Lee Fraser.

“We rate him as a great one-on-one defender.

“I can't think of a time where he's been beaten, to be honest.

“He's taken on and beaten some of the best forwards in the competition this year, and he did it as a 17-year-old as well.

“He had to overcome a few injuries early in the year, so he missed a bit of nationals with NSW, but he played for the Allies and was really good.

“He's one of the most coachable kids you'd ever meet, a really steady kind of kid.

“The players love playing with him and he's just continued to work really hard at everything he does.”

AFL NSW/ACT Head of Talent, Darren Denneman, was similarly bullish about Garthwaite and his AFL football prospects at Tigerland . . .

“I love him,” Denneman said.

“People criticise his kicking, but I think they base that more on what it looks like than how effective it is.  

“Aesthetically, he's not the nicest kick, but he has a reasonably good efficiency rate.  

“He defends first and rarely gets beaten.  

“He can play on ‘talls’ and ‘smalls’, so he's quite versatile in that way.  

“He has a lot of upside because he does defend first and knows how to do that instinctively.

“Once he puts on some genuine upper body side, he'll be even harder to compete against one-on- one.”