Richmond assistant coach Ben Rutten provides ‘Roar Vision’ with an insight into the impressive development of young Tiger key defender Ryan Garthwaite.
His progress this year
“’Garthy’ is one of those guys that you can’t question with his work-rate and his desire to get better. He’s only a second-year player, but he’s taken on a big responsibility with the backline group. He’s had Ben Miller there and Noah Balta, the last few weeks, to work with, and he’s a bit of a wise head back there for us as well. He’s consistently playing really well himself, but he’s also being able to make other people around him better, which is a great strength of his . . . He’s able to nullify and often beat his direct opponent, but he’s also able to come off and help his other teammates out as well.”
Learning from seasoned Tiger backs
“It’s a bit of a flow-down effect, really. They’re able to help Garthy and then Garthy’s able to apply that knowledge himself, but then also teach and help coach Ben Miller and Noah Balta, for example . . . He just keeps building, and we’re seeing some great results on-field . . . He’s a really long spoiler and he’s getting more confidence and more decisive about when it is the time to spoil, and when’s the time to go for his marks. He’s been balancing that out better of late, and he’s really hard to play against. He is one of the most competitive players we’ve got on our list and he just hates getting beaten. So he’s getting a few more tools to be able to make sure that doesn’t happen very often.”
His JLT pre-season performance v Essendon
“He handled himself really well in the game. We were really pleased and took a lot of confidence out of his ability to come in and play his role there. In that game (Toby), Nankervis went down during the game and Garthy had a run through the ruck. That was something we hadn’t seen much before from him, but he competed well and had a couple of hit-outs to advantage as well.”
His key focus area
“He’s just really driven and concentrating on repeating his form week after week and making some really good habits out there. We don’t expect him to be perfect and get it right every time, but the way he’s able to stay involved in the contest and keep backing up is terrific.”
Confident he could handle senior league football
“He’s in some really good form at the moment and he’s ready to go when the opportunity arises. The way he’s been playing and leading those guys in defence has been terrific, and he’d only learn more by coming up to play at AFL level.”
