Past Player - Aidan Riley

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Re: NSW Scholarship Player - Aidan Riley

Did anyone see Aidan Riley play in the Sturt Reserves today and how did he go. What a great thing for the Crows to bring him over for a game. Maybe they can bring their other two scholarship boys over for some games.?
 
Re: NSW Scholarship Player - Aidan Riley

I'm dearly hoping that the Crows take the oppurtunity to include Riley in their weekly SANFL highlights package. They won't get another chance before we (probably) rookie-list him at the end of the year. No word how he went so far though.


The club actually tried to bring Sam Martyn over to play for his reserves club, I forget which one it is now (Westies?) but the AFL put the kibosh on it (after the tickets had already been booked, mind you). Apparently the ruling is they're only allowed to do it in the year that the player is first eligible to be drafted.
 
Re: NSW Scholarship Player - Aidan Riley

In typical last-round form, Wollongong (the second-bottom team) got up to beat the East Coast Eagles, who are the top team in the league. (Poor kicking had a fair bit to do with it :eek:)

Riley had a fair hand in the result, with two scores and fifth in the bests :thumbsu:


9.4-58 WOLLONGONG
Selected Team 6:10 PM
Sat 22/Aug

North Dalton Park (Map)
def.
6.15-51 EAST COAST EAGLES
Selected Team
WOLLONGONG
Goal Kickers: M. Toussis 2, G. Batty 2, A. Riley 2, P. Balding, J. Weavers, K. Ewen- Chappel
Best Players: M. Thomson, T. Bartlett, A. McConnochie, D. Goodley, A. Riley, J. Weavers
EAST COAST EAGLES
Goal Kickers: M. Skuse, L. Stanford, A. Polkinghorne, J. Dwyer, S. Ryan, J. Dimery
Best Players: B. Physick, M. Skuse, D. Bowles, J. Dwyer, R. Fitton, E. Wilson
 

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Re: NSW Scholarship Player - Aidan Riley

After watching the highlights of his game for the Sturt reserves, he really reminds me of Marty Mattner.

Not only does he tackle like a madman but also, like Marty his decision making seems to be a little bit outside the square, like when he tried to handball straight through a pack of opposition players instead of over the top to a teammate on the other side.
 
Re: NSW Scholarship Player - Aidan Riley

I've been meaning to do this for a couple of months but stuff just kept coming up. Finally, I've managed to get around to it :eek:


As many of you are aware, Aidan Riley, one of our NSW Scholarship-listed kids, has been touted by Rendell as a sure thing for us to take in the rookie draft this year. For this reason, unlike every other youngster in the draft this year that we may or may not get, Riley is of special interest because we know he's coming to us.

Earlier in the year, we saw footage of Riley playing for Sturt, where he showed some nice glimpses with some crunching tackles, but this is basically the only footage we've seen of Aidan playing.

Aidan has spent the majority of this year playing for the Wollongong Lions in the AFL Sydney's Premier league, while also playing a couple of games in the Div 1 league and the U18s. Overall, Riley played eleven games for Wollongong this season, finishing in the bests in eight of them.

Wollongong, however, had a poor season, finishing second-bottom, and for this reason, were rarely featured as AFL Sydney's match of the week. The match of the week has the distinction of being the match shown on TV. Only twice was Wollongong shown on TV this season - and only once in a game with Riley playing. This was one of Riley's three games where he failed to make the best players.

Nonetheless, undeterred, I have procured a copy of the match and pulled out everything remotely related to Riley and made a compilation video of the footage :p I've tried to include everything Riley was involved in, not just highlights or his possessions. Perhaps disturbingly, this does mean you'll see him being led to the ball, or caught HTB throughout the video, but you will also see glimpses of his talent.

In reality, this was one of Riley's worst matches of the season so don't be too upset if you don't like what you see. Riley spent the first three quarters playing in defence where he struggled to have an impact (going statless in the second quarter) and had a few goals kicked on him. In the last quarter he was moved to the wing where he played much better (doing as well or better in every statistical category than the previous three quarters combined).

My watching of the match told me a few things about Riley:

- He is definitely not one-paced. He has good acceleration and uses it to break lines when possible.
- He does not seem a natural defender and doesn't mind a player well.
- Seems to have natural inside skills, such as laying good tackles and diving in for a handball, but spends a fair bit of time loitering around the packs instead of actually making it happen.
- He's got a relatively good disposal.


Of course, in the end, all of this is just from one match, and one of his poorer ones at that, so little can be gleaned from this match other than just seeing the kid running around. I've presented the compilation video in the order that the events came up in the match so don't be discouraged when the first few parts of the video show Riley getting a bath :eek: There are some beautiful passages of play from the second half that are well worth a look. Overall there is definitely something there to work with and if Craig and co can bring his best out there is absolutely a player in Riley.

[youtube]rC92wNtvO3U[/youtube]

For the attention span-deprived among you, Riley's best efforts can be seen at 1:40, 2:38, 3:32, 4:38, and 5:56.


Riley's stat breakdown:

Q1

Marks : 1
Kicks : 1
Handballs : 1
Tackles: 1
Handball Receives : 0

Q2

Nothing

Q3

Marks : 0
Kicks : 2
Handballs : 1
Tackles : 2
Handball Receives : 2

Q4

Marks : 1
Kicks : 4
Handballs : 3
Tackles : 1
Handball Receives : 3


Overall

Marks : 2
Kicks : 7
Handballs : 5
Tackles : 4
Handball Receives : 5
 
Re: Rookie List Player - Aidan Riley

Welcome to the AFC Aidan.

Lets hope you can kick arse and take names.

(Hard nuts are always welcome:thumbsu:)
 
Re: Rookie List Player - Aidan Riley

he needs a nickname...we can't have two Rileys at the AFC!
 
Re: Rookie List Player - Aidan Riley

that's great for him
but Sydney AFL isnt really a high standard, so im not really excited about Aidan.
 
Re: Rookie List Player - Aidan Riley

Riggy1 said:
that's great for him
but Sydney AFL isnt really a high standard, so im not really excited about Aidan.
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Fortunately he's fair dominated Sydney AFL so even though it's a poor standard, he's well and truly risen above it.

He's certainly worth a rookie pick. Wouldn't give much more than that for him but as far as rookie picks go, he's coming in with more promise than, say, Donnelly :p
 

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cmndstab said:
Congratulations to A&R on receiving his new guernsey, #43, and participating in his first training sessions for the Crows today :thumbsu:


Here's hoping we can have our second success from the NSW Scholarship program :thumbsu:
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Lets hope we have 2 more sucess stories with duncan and martin in the future noticed duncan and his brother have been training with the GWS team in sydney what tha?
 
For some reason after being super impressive his whole junior career St. Kilda have decided not to rookie Josh. Don't quite understand that.

Aaron is still very much tied to the Crows though.


Sam Martyn is the one I'm most excited about - absolutely elite runner and a tall body. Hopefully he can play well in a better league in 2010.
 
cmndstab said:
For some reason after being super impressive his whole junior career St. Kilda have decided not to rookie Josh. Don't quite understand that.

Aaron is still very much tied to the Crows though.


Sam Martyn is the one I'm most excited about - absolutely elite runner and a tall body. Hopefully he can play well in a better league in 2010.
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When are both Martyn and Duncan eligible to be drafted?
 
Two articles on AFC.com.au about Riley:


http://www.afc.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/4417/newsid/87966/default.aspx

Rookie Riley finding feet

Riley said he has taken a lot of out of what Walker was able to achieve so far coming from a similar background.

“He’s done exactly what I’ve done playing for the NSW/ACT Rams and then played in the SANFL for Norwood and he’s done what the club has asked him to do,” Riley said.

“Now he’s reaping the rewards, playing his first game this season and it’s a great confidence booster for someone like that to play league footy and it’s something I hope to achieve as well.”
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http://www.afc.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/4417/newsid/87964/default.aspx

Aiden Riley Q&A

You’re here full time now, what’s it like being at the club permanently?
“Yeah, it’s heaps different. I do more of the training now than when I was over here on a visit. I could only do bits and pieces whereas now I’m involved in full training and getting a good feel for the club and all of the boys. When I was over here only for a couple of days I didn’t really get to see how hard the boys work throughout a weekly period. It’s a much more intense obviously when you’re here full time compared to when it was only a week or so.”
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http://www.afc.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/4417/newsid/88165/default.aspx


Selection No.58: Aiden Riley (NSW Scholarship player)
DOB: 13/12/91, Height: 181cm, Weight: TBA
Recruited from: Wollongong Lions (NSW)
“We saw Aiden play a bit earlier in the year. He had some injury problems, but he played enough to impress us. He played for NSW in the U18 Championships and played quite well. We brought him over to play a game in the Sturt reserves and after a slow start he was pretty good in the last three quarters. He’s a tough nut and puts his head over the ball. He’s doing pretty well. It’s been tough for him, but he’s fitted in okay.”
Click to expand...
 
Re: NSW Scholarship Player - Aidan Riley

cmndstab said:
The stats aren't yet up but Riley was 4th best in the RAMS this week in a 15 point loss to the Oakley Chargers (103-88). No goals.


Edit: Hahahaha, the RAMS have the player with the most awesome name ever, Leroy Eggmolesse. We need to scholarship list him for that name alone! :p
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Leroy's name is a name that is synonamous in Rugby League circles throughout country Queensland mainly the Coastal area. Eggmolesse is the name of a large South Sea Islander family in Queensland. Leroy's Great G/Dad & G/Mum on his Farther's side were transported to Queensland from the Islands of Vanuatu formerly New-Hebridies to cut the sugar cane years ago. He is Indigenous on his Mother's side, Brakinji tribe Murray River people. Check out Leroy's profile page on mysportsbay.com:D Leroy is also the Cousin of Ken Nagas X-Canberra Raider winger.:thumbsu:
 
Re: NSW Scholarship Player - Aidan Riley

Check out the highlights of his SANFL league debut if you haven't already; extremely impresseive. Someone said he had similar qualities to Judd, or something along those lines, and I thought they were crazy. However watching his highlights, he certainly does move a bit like Judd around the packs, has a similar running style or something. I thought he was this pretty slow player but he looks rather explosive in congested situations. A lot to like. :thumbsu:
 
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