Essendon’s Jordan Ridley quickly emerging as one of AFL’s best young defenders
He’s become a name every KFC SuperCoach knows well and Essendon defender Jordan Ridley is fast emerging as one of the AFL’s best defensive prospects. These are the stats which show just how far he has come this year.
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Jordan Ridley entered his fourth season with just nine senior games to his name, hoping to cement a permanent spot in Essendon’s back six.
Not only has he done that, he has emerged as one of the biggest improvers in the competition in a breakout season to date for the 21-year-old.
His intercepting and sublime ball-use across halfback has added an extra dimension to Essendon’s defensive outfit, with the versatile 192cm defender able to play on forwards of all sizes.
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The Bombers second selection in the 2016 draft was one of the shining lights in their disappointing loss to the Bulldogs, taking a team-high four intercept marks — three of those in the first term.
Ridley averages an elite 2.7 marks intercept marks per game this season, more than Collingwood intercept king Jeremy Howe before his serious knee injury in Round 4.
“It’s something to be pretty proud of to be up there with names like that, (he’s a) super impressive player obviously. It’s definitely something I’ve focused on going into games this year so it’s good to see it all come together and pay off a bit,” Ridley told the Herald Sun.
This is all while going at an insane efficiency of 87.3 per cent by foot – ranking fourth among the top 150 ball-winners in the competition — a trait which gives him the ability to turn defence into attack in an instant after winning the ball off the opposition.
Ridley said he finally felt he belonged at the top level.
“My confidence in the role I’m playing in and actually playing AFL footy and comparing last year to this year is a massive contrast,” he said.
“I feel like the coaches have a lot more confidence in me this year and also it’s only probably the last few games where I’ve felt I belong at the level and really confident enough to play the way I want to.”
Essendon defensive coach and three-time premiership Cat James Kelly believes this had been the major area holding Ridley back.
“He sort of would train well all the time and have good confidence out on the training track but it wasn’t quite translating to good performance,” he said.
“(In 2020) his calmness and his confidence on the field has been a real highlight.
“He’s got really good athleticism, he reads the ball really well, he can handle most situations that are thrown at him at a game – we are happy for him to roll over onto talls and smalls. He’s playing with a lot of confidence in the air which is great.
The young Bomber also credits experienced defenders Michael Hurley and Cale Hooker for helping him improve his game.
“They’ve both been fantastic especially this year, I think they’re definitely a wealth of knowledge. and both stars of the game. They’ve definitely helped me and sort of taught me different positions to be in and what to think about when the ball is in certain spots on the ground.”
Ridley was surprised by his growing popularity in KFC SuperCoach despite averaging 108.8 points per game (ranked third among defenders), but said he will do his best to produce the goods for his owners.
“I didn’t know that (I was popular in SuperCoach),” he said.
“To be honest I never played SuperCoach so I didn’t really have a massive idea of how it works so I’ll do my best to make people who have me in their team proud.”
HOW MCGRATH HAS FULFILLED ESSENDON’S MIDFIELD AMBITION
— Sam Landsberger
Essendon coach John Worsfold helped answer one critical list management question before the club settled on taking Andy McGrath with the No. 1 pick in 2016.
Was McGrath (now 180cm) too short to play in the same midfield as Zach Merrett (179cm) and Darcy Parish (180cm)?
How would a centre square of little blokes fare when they couldn’t really look the likes of Patrick Cripps (195cm), Marcus Bontempelli (193cm) and Nat Fyfe (192cm) in the eye?
But hulking on-ballers don’t grow on trees and Worsfold pointed to the brilliant midfielders he coached at West Coast — Ben Cousins, Daniel Kerr and Michael Braun were all around 180cm — and said it wouldn’t be a problem.
While Greater Western Sydney wanted to draft McGrath to be their Heath Shaw replacement bursting out of the backline, Essendon always thought he was a man who would end up in the middle.
The Brighton Grammar school captain has gone from lockdown defender (2017) to rebounding defender (2018) to wingman (2019) to midfielder (2020).
Four years on and the Bombers have finally got their wish with the evolution of McGrath just about complete.
McGrath won the 2017 Rising Star playing behind the ball as he took the likes of Eddie Betts to the cleaners and showed why he had long been compared to Western Bulldog Jason Johannisen.
But his latest position is here to stay, as evidenced by McGrath’s number of centre bounces attended per game.
They’ve risen from 0 (2017) to 0.8 (2018) to 1.2 (2019) to 16 (2020), and that final number is in shortened matches.
In a season where ruckman Tom Bellchamers (form) and midfielders Dyson Heppell (injury), Dylan Shiel and Merrett (both suspended) have all missed matches McGrath has been the constant.
McGrath, 22, is far from the finished product but the Bombers believe they have a mighty midfielder developing in front of their eyes.
The Canadian-born dasher is great in tight with his quick hands often releasing teammates into space.
The next challenge will be getting on the outside himself and either hitting up forwards or hitting the scoreboard himself.
McGrath has not impacted the scoreboard this season and is desperately missing the physical protection of Heppell, Shiel and Jake Stringer.
But while physicality isn’t his strong point mental toughness is.
The bigger the game the better McGrath is, and you only have to look at his 30 disposals and one goal in last year’s elimination final or the 28 disposals he had in the second half of the 2016 TAC Cup grand final to see that.
The Bombers spent the summer learning 2021 senior coach Ben Rutten’s new game plan and it appears as if McGrath is going to be a major part of it.
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