Port Adelaide ruckman Peter Ladhams hoping to play more AFL games in 2020 after Paddy Ryder’s departure to St Kilda
Why did Port Adelaide’s Peter Ladhams cut his dreadlocks? And how did missing his alarm spark a career-best 2019 season? He talks about trying to become a leading ruckman for the Power.
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Peter Ladhams agrees with the suggestion he is laid-back – outside of footy.
“I’m naturally just chilled and relaxed,” the five-match Port Adelaide ruckman says.
Inside the game, Ladhams, 21, has been trying to shake the nonchalant tag for a few seasons.
He was made aware of that perception of him during his draft year in 2016 when he was overlooked for the national combine and Sydney recruiting boss Kinnear Beatson later told him he thought he did not work hard enough.
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To address the concerns, Ladhams hit the gym, improved his fitness and lopped the dreadlocks he had been growing for two years that were “pretty much a part of me”.
Port Adelaide rookie-listed him that November.
But signs of that casual nature re-emerged nearly a year ago when, only a few weeks after the Power made him sweat on a new contract, he slept through his alarm and missed a Saturday morning running session.
Port’s leadership group punished him by forcing him to spend a week on the tools to realise how lucky he had it playing football.
The experience would shape his 2019 because after a run of brilliant SANFL form, he made his AFL debut against Hawthorn in Tasmania – six months after missing that training.
“I took it in my stride, put a smile on my face and went through the week,” says Ladhams, who grew up as a massive Port supporter.
“I was all around Adelaide, doing a carpenter’s sort of work but a lot of it was picking up rubbish and moving it to a trailer.
“I think I repaid them (Port) this year with some good footy.”
Ladhams impressed on-field to the point Port not only re-signed him until 2022 and kept him in the side at premiership ruckman Scott Lycett’s expense, it traded 2017 best and fairest Paddy Ryder to St Kilda in October.
“It was really competitive at training and the first couple of weeks being smashed by Scott (Lycett) was pretty tough but I knew that I was going to get better for it and he didn’t take it easy on me, which I told him not to,” Ladhams says.
“It was an awesome experience to lead the ruck with Paddy.”
In Ladhams’s last AFL game of the season, Todd Goldstein taught him a lesson in North Melbourne’s 86-point drubbing of Port in round 22 that cost it a finals berth.
He bounced back with an excellent SANFL finals series, helping the Magpies reach the premiership decider.
“Through the (North Melbourne) game there was a lot of self-doubt, thinking I’m not up to the standard,” Ladhams recalls.
“I took it as a massive learning experience because he’s a great ruckman and done that to a lot of blokes.”
The off-season provided Ladhams with another taste of how quickly an AFL career could end. He was in a Cancun, Mexico hotel with Aidyn Johnson when coach Ken Hinkley rang to tell Johnson he would be delisted.
With Ryder departing, Hinkley saying he is open to playing two ruckmen if they are in form and also showing he is willing to drop Lycett, Ladhams knows he has another opportunity to prove himself
“I only played one game with Scott and I think we can both play in the same team,” Ladhams says.
“Everyone wants to play round one and if I look back on last year, I’d never have dreamt of doing that but I’m in a good place now to put my hand up.”