Luke Ryan will look to senior players Stephen Hill and Nathan Wilson for guidance this pre-season in a bid to take his game to the next level in 2019.
Ryan starred in his second AFL season, playing 20 games and finishing fifth in the Doig Medal count.
He led Fremantle with 52 intercept marks from his season total of 131 marks and ranked in the top three for rebound 50s, metres gained, effective kicks and disposal efficiency.
After establishing himself as an elite intercepting defender, Ryan plans to add some speed and penetration to his game to be even more damaging on the rebound.
“In my exit interview we covered working on a bit more run off half-back, which I’ve never really done over my career,” Ryan told 6PR.
“I’ve got Nathan Wilson next to me and Stephen Hill, so they’re pretty handy blokes to learn off on how to take the game on. So I’ll look to them and sit in meetings with them and learn how they do it.”
Ryan said he’s excited by the prospect of having a revamped forward line in his sights when moving the ball forward.
This includes key forward signings Jesse Hogan and Rory Lobb from the 2018 NAB AFL Trade Period.
“It’s going to be good coming out of D50 to see about three or four talls up there,” Ryan said.
“Hopefully, we can get the ball in their hands and we’ve got some good ball use coming out of the midfield and D50 to hit them on the chest and kick goals.
“That will make Ross (Lyon) a lot happier and the fans too, which is what we want to see.”
Ryan said he’s also looking forward to seeing what Fremantle’s strong defensive unit can achieve in 2019.
“We have a pretty solid back seven or eight players,” Ryan said.
“Now we’ve got key targets, if we get the ball in our forward 50, it might make our job a little bit easier.
“To have the likes of Alex Pearce, Nathan Wilson and Joel Hamling, they really help us younger blokes out.
“We’re pretty solid down there, we have a will to improve and we’ll keep building our chemistry.”
