Picked at No.66 in the 2016 AFL draft, a different Luke Ryan meet his idol once more

“Pendlebury was me favourite player and I lined up on him for a bit and it was a pretty cool feelin’,’’ says Ryan, whose other heroes were Dane Swan, Nathan Buckley and Leon Davis.

“I loved shaking his hand after the game – that was pretty cool, as well. (Pendlebury just said) ‘Well done, keep it up’, that was pretty much it.

“He didn’t know me then.’’

So what does Ryan suspect Pendlebury knows about him now, ahead of Saturday’s cutthroat semi-final at the MCG?

“Probably nothin’, as well! Just a bloke from Perth,’’ says the wisecracking Ryan, 2020 All-Australian halfback and Dockers’ club champion. “No, who knows … Help get the win and then he’ll know who we are.’’

In his sixth season at Freo, having been a bargain draftee from Coburg at pick No. 66, just eight months after being cut from Essendon’s VFL pre-season squad, Ryan retains a soft spot for his boyhood team.

“I haven’t stopped barracking for Collingwood,’’ he jokes — well, one would hope, anyway. “I still go for ‘em. I still watch their games, but nah … there’d be nothing better (than) to beat ‘em, though.’’

Ryan is not just a valued senior player now but, at 186-centimetres, a versatile one, having evolved from key back to a role player — tall or small, rebound or lockdown — whose potential Collingwood match-ups include Jamie Elliott, Will Hoskin-Elliott and Jordan de Goey during his forays forward.

“Obviously my 2020 year I had to play tall, because we had no talls, but whatever the team needs, it doesn’t really worry me too much,’’ says Ryan of what he prefers. “Whatever best suits the team and gives us more of a winning chance I’ll do.’’

His favourite Magpie now: “Yeah, Scott Pendlebury, still.’’

*****

It seems a long time ago that Ryan couldn’t make the Bombers’ VFL squad.

He was 20 then, having been invited to Tullamarine from suburban club Maribyrnong Park, to where he had retreated from the NAB League’s Calder Cannons, just happy to play with his mates, live what he calls “a normal kid life” and pursue the carpentry apprenticeship he started after leaving school in Year 11.

Ryan admits he struggled to combine full-time manual work and a 6am alarm with three nights of training “when other kids were just going from school, waking up at nine o’clock and finishing at two”.

It took a bribe from his mum Dianne, in the form of an American Staffy named Axel, to persuade the talented ball-user, decision-maker and play-reader to have one last crack at the elite level.

Which, at the tail of that pre-season with the Essendon twos, ended suddenly, and not awfully well, but fortunately only temporarily, too.

“I’m pretty sure it was me contested work they didn’t like,’’ Ryan says. “I think it was a few things. I was a bit shocked, to be honest. But then I sort of got over it pretty quick, and I think I went to Coburg two days later and signed with them.’’

That move, however, was still something of a gamble for the Lions, who had cut 10 players from their own summer squad, with coach Peter German and general manager Craig Lees less concerned about Ryan’s ability than queries about his attitude.

“Germo was really strong about our expectations, because as funny as it seems, it was the last spot on our list, so we were dealing with a kid that had talent but there was obviously that stigma around him: Did he have that commitment and application and did he have that drive to want to play VFL footy?

“But in our very first meeting you just saw that little bit of a flicker in his eye, and when Germ and I walked away I said, ‘You know what, mate, I reckon his drive’s there and he’ll be able to be challenged really well by you and I think he’s up for the fight’.

“And the rest is history, really … Luke was true to his word and he’s paid everyone back in spades.’’

Despite ankle and shoulder injuries limiting him to 10 games, and with a chair reserved for him next to German during the team meetings to help ensure he stayed engaged, Ryan did enough to join club mates Adam Saad (Carlton) and Robbie Fox (Sydney) in the VFL team of the year and win the ticket to the AFL that is the Fothergill-Round Medal for the league’s most promising 23/U player and has become a remarkably reliable mature-aged draft guide.

“When I started playing a few good games and a few clubs started speakin’ to me I think that’s when I kind of thought, ‘Oh, maybe I do have a chance’,’’ says Ryan, although lingering doubts about his off-field reputation meant it was not always an easy sell to wary list and recruiting managers.

“The continual question was in regard to Luke, the ‘lad’, the behaviour,’’ says Lees, a former player development manager at Melbourne, now the general manager of AFL Cairns, who nevertheless was baffled on draft night that Ryan was taken so low.

“I remember listening to him in a press conference early on and they were, ‘Oh, you’re a bit of a party boy, and that’s why you slipped to 66th in the draft’, and that’s the consistent conversation I had with the recruiters.

“I just had to keep saying ‘I’m not sure why we keep talking about all the negatives, because Germo and I put it on him in early March, and he has responded.

“The fact that Luke’s had an absolutely outstanding career, and there’s still plenty of him left to give, it’s fantastic. He’s just pure class. He’s got the ability to trust what he does, his game sense is phenomenal, he’s one of the best kicks in the AFL, and his decision-making is probably the best I’ve ever seen.’’

Lees also sees a person still true to himself and close to his old mates, but believes the move away from Melbourne was a positive for a laid-back character who enjoys his down time.

“I might be wrong but I think the fact that he was drafted interstate and it was the opportunity for almost a clean slate to go in and be in that environment where you’ve got to then just dedicate yourself to the football club was probably absolutely in his best interests.’’

Ryan says he was happy to go — even, once it eventually registered, to one of the AFL’s two most distant clubs.

“I was sitting at home with my family watching it and then Freo read me name out and then it sort of sunk in and mum was like, ‘Oh shit, you’re going the furtherest away away’. But I love it here and my family loves comin’ over here every couple of weeks, so I’m grateful they took me.’’

Despite his protestations, one suspects Ryan is only half-joking when talking of his old Pie-supporting self and saying of that time at the Bombers “that I hated training there, cos they were Essendon’’, for he also says he feels lucky to have ended up elsewhere.

“When I was gettin’ looked at to get drafted, Essendon interviewed me and I wasn’t too keen on it, to be honest with ya. So lucky I didn’t get drafted there,’’ he says, having not told them directly of his reluctance but made sure his family and manager were aware.

“To get rid of me and then, what, six months later, they want me back, I was sorta like, ‘Nah, definitely not’.’’

Which amuses Lees, who estimates he was quizzed by at least 10 clubs. “The funniest thing was that Essendon probably asked me the most questions in regards to him.’’

So was Ryan a ‘lad’ back in his younger days? “Oh, that’s what they say. I was just a normal kid. That’s what me mum thinks as well. My mum hates that lad, party boy thing. I was a kid.’’

*****

Ryan’s senior call-up from WAFL feeder team Peel Thunder came at home against the Magpies in round 11 of his debut season; a one-game suspension for breaking the no-alcohol rules with teammate Brennan Cox after the Western Derby was one of the few hiccups since.

“Obviously we all have our moments and got caught drinkin’, and I think I missed that week, Freo got flogged and I come back in the next week and learnt me lesson and had a good chat to the leaders and stuff and they really helped me out,’’ he says.

“I think that’s turned me into the player I am today.’’

Despite a Rising Star nomination on his return, Ryan reflects that it took until his second season, which brought a top-five finish in the 2018 Doig Medal he would win — finishing 40 votes ahead of dual Brownlow Medalist Nat Fyfe — just two years later, to really feel he belonged.

Now playing as the third tall, Ryan is averaging similar numbers to last year, with almost 22 disposals and seven marks per game, yet doesn’t feel he has reached the heights of 2020, even if it matters not as the Dockers have exceeded theirs.

“I don’t think so. Just because I’m not the main man this year, which is good, I like that, playing my role … and seeing the other young backs in (Heath) Chapman, (Jordan) Clarke and ‘Youngy’ (Hayden Young) really strive is a better feeling anyway.’’

With acting captain Alex Pearce and Cox as the big bodies, and the influence of backline coach Matthew Boyd, the Dockers’ defenders are a tight bunch. “Yeah, we’re not the sharpest tool in the sheds, but we get along pretty well. Yeah, there’s a good connection there.’’

Having, like most of the Dockers, made his finals debut in Saturday’s remarkable come-from-behind win against the Bulldogs, Ryan says there will be no excuses for such a tardy start against Collingwood, when the crowd will overwhelmingly be in the home side’s favour, but Freo will draw upon its strong seven win, two loss, one draw record this season on the road.

“I don’t think we ever want to be 41 points down in a final, or any game for that matter, but (it) just showed the maturity of the group. Good fightback and it was one of the best wins I’ve been a part of.

“It’s a massive change, (the Pies at the ‘G) but we look forward to it. I reckon there’ll be a few Freo faithful going down there, and we’ve been a pretty good team going away, we try to feed off the opposition’s crowd and we’ve got to try and take ‘em out of the game as early as possible.’’

Ryan has been allocated 10 tickets, and mates have bought at least 10 more. At school, he did work experience at another Melbourne sporting cathedral, Flemington Racecourse, which is almost handballing distance from the family home.

Dad Michael started there 33 years ago and has been the senior grounds and gardens manager since 2020. The Ryan dogs — Axel is now living with an uncle — are often walked at the course, and Spring Carnival memories among Mick’s well-tended flowers are fond.

“He’s the main man now. He loves it. My mum used to work there, my uncle works there, so, yeah, a special place for our family,’’ says Luke. “I still get goosebumps now at the Melbourne Cup, and so does my dad. Even when we were kids, dad used to pick us up from home, and take us down to watch the Melbourne Cup.’’

Given all that, does he have an eye for a rose?

“Not really a rose — more horses!’’

Indeed, along with several Dockers teammates, Ryan was a part-owner of the Hayden Ballantyne-trained Mankind and has a current interest in a slightly trouble-prone galloper, Sacred Oath, in which the late Shane Warne was among a syndicate that includes Cox, Blake Acres, a couple of Materas and Joel Hambling.

There would be worse things, Ryan reckons, than doing a Denis Pagan and pursuing a training career once this one is done.

Which is not yet, far from it, for the 108-gamer who was drafted about 40 places below what he’d been told was possible and had started to wonder when he slid below No. 50 whether his name would be called at all.

“I was ‘Oh, jeez, maybe I’m not gettin’ picked up,’ and I was lucky enough Freo took me at 66 and played a few games in me first year,’’ says Ryan. “And now playing in a semi-final in front of 90-odd thousand, it’s what dreams are made of.’’

A reality, though, that includes a cameo from the sublime Scott Pendlebury. Who may not have had a great idea about first-gamer Luke Ryan five years ago, but will have a pretty good clue by now.