Triple premiership player Ryan Williams retires from Central District

RYAN Williams is leaving Central District after eight years but he says he never expected to stay so long.

SANFL Football. Three-time Central District premiership player Ryan Williams has retired.

RYAN Williams is leaving Central District after eight years but he says he never expected to stay so long.

Williams was 18 when he left Victoria to join Port Adelaide Power and the Bulldogs took him in the SANFL mini-draft.

His AFL journey ended with his delisting in 2008 after two games in two seasons.

But the midfielder chose to stick around at Elizabeth, where he had won a flag that year, and played in another two premierships in 2009-10.

Now Williams, 26, is returning home to Anglesea after 150 games with the Bulldogs and a second-placed finish in the best and fairest this past season.

“Getting cut from Port, I was disappointed,” Williams recalls.

“Obviously going through a good era (at Central District) – winning flags and playing finals – it was too hard to leave.

“I’ve been thinking about heading home the last couple of years.

“I thought if I don’t do it now it won’t happen and I’ll regret it.”

Part of the reason Williams has remained in Adelaide is his building work with former teammates Chris and James Gowans.

Williams met the Gowans twins when he was a toddler in Anglesea and their best mate’s parents babysat him.

Years later they helped get him to Central District.

“Central had the second-last pick in the mini-draft and I was still there.

“(Bulldogs coach) Roy Laird rang them up and said ‘what do you make of this Williams bloke’ and they said ‘he’s from Anglesea, just take him’.

“They’ve been a great help for me work-wise and with footy.”

Williams regards his three premierships, along with “playing at a good club with a good bunch of blokes and a great coach”, as the highlights of his SANFL journey.

He hopes to play for Geelong’s VFL side next season.