Richmond assistant coach Justin Leppitsch provides Richmond Media with an insight into the impressive progress of young defender Ryan Garthwaite.

Interrupted pre-season

"It was a frustrating pre-Christmas for him with his Achilles and ankle. No major injury and no major surgery, but he just didn't quite get in the work in that he wanted so it's good to see him out there now."

His first five AFL games of 2019

"He's looked really good. He's got that highly defensive mindset and he's still slowly building in his offensive component of his game. He's a big spoiler as we know and likes to glue to his opposition, so they're always trustworthy players." 

TICKETS Secure your seat for our big Friday night clash against Geelong

His huge distance covered in games (15.8km average for his past four games)

"There's always one defender, usually your tallest key, that plays 100 per cent of the game and he's it for us. They tend to build the kilometres mostly based off the the time they play, they probably play 10 per cent longer than most other players. There is a lot of that sweeping running where you're pushing up the ground and then going left to right, and a lot of kilometres getting built from a lot of possessions but it does definitely secure our defence well." 

His number one rank at the Club for spoils

"He's not so much our intercept possession-type player, but he's the one that plays behind, gets the spoil done and gets some distance for our offence to rebound. He's slowly building the offensive part of his game but that will come when he learns some smarter positioning on the ground and more aggressive positioning, but we're hopeful that will build over time."

Experience playing on opposition sides' key forwards

"You put him on a guy like Ben Brown (North Melbourne) last week and give him the big job but you're kind of hopeful that the support around him, like Astbury and Grimes, can come in and give him that extra support. Because (Garthwaite's) our most defensive player, we think giving him the bigger jobs is a good idea."

His mentors at Tigerland

"One thing about our defensive group is they're a highly experienced group. Not just Rance but Grimes...Shane Edwards...Nick Vlastuin. Ryan Ferguson (development coach and VFL backline) has been the guy who has spent the most time with him, and can take most of the credit for all the work that's done with him."

BROWSE Find a 2019 membership package suited to you