AFL Player #14: Jordan Ridley - Expected to play v Richmond - 22/5

[Beerfish]

Contract Status: Unrestricted Free Agent 2029
My Boy Draft 2024: Pick 3, Dave

 

[Don Won]

Half a game of VFL please.

What about half a game against a vfl standard opponent?

 

[joey_jo_jo]

Half a game of VFL please.

That would be a tougher hit out than north

 

[joey_jo_jo]

What about half a game against a vfl standard opponent?

Beat me to it!

 

[Kyptastic]

How was the podcast event yesterday and do Rids offer any other insights?

The day was brilliant.

I missed most of the interview because I was organising some things for our segment, but we’ve got the audio, so I’m sure the LCP guys will release it in the coming days

 

[Rick Ross]

Can the title of this thread be changed?
Bring the optimism!

Every time it floats to the top of the board, I have a mini heart attack thinking he’s re-injured his quad … all over again.

 

[Old Campaigner]

Can the title of this thread be changed?
Bring the optimism!

Every time it floats to the top of the board, I have a mini heart attack thinking he’s re-injured his quad … all over again.

Until the thread title changes to 're-re-injured' you can breath easy

 

[Beerfish]

Can the title of this thread be changed?
Bring the optimism!

Every time it floats to the top of the board, I have a mini heart attack thinking he’s re-injured his quad … all over again.

Better?

 

[Tazdog]

No way he should play this week. Want him to come back without any niggles at all, if that's against Richmond or Gold Coast, or even carlton. Nothing to gain by playing him this week except injury risk. Play him half a game in the Vfl if anything.

But when he does come back, Reid swaps with Laverde and Ridley surely releases Martin to the wing, Redman plays the spare? That's super super exciting. Not a single weak link in the defence.

 

[eth-dog]

No way he should play this week. Want him to come back without any niggles at all, if that's against Richmond or Gold Coast, or even carlton. Nothing to gain by playing him this week except injury risk. Play him half a game in the Vfl if anything.

But when he does come back, Reid swaps with Laverde and Ridley surely releases Martin to the wing, Redman plays the spare? That's super super exciting. Not a single weak link in the defence.

Probably:

Ridley - McKay - McGrath
Redman - Reid - Martin (Heppell). Martin has been excellent off HB, why would you move him unless it's an ANZAC Day situation?

 

[Tazdog]

Probably:

Ridley - McKay - McGrath
Redman - Reid - Martin (Heppell). Martin has been excellent off HB, why would you move him unless it's an ANZAC Day situation?

Because Kelly has been excellent in shutting down opposition small forwards, and I think wed get more out of the two of them if Kelly played down back and Martin on a wing rather than vice versa. Yes Martin is great off half back, but now having an elite distributor in Ridley (Reid?) as well as Redman (with the same license as Martin) I think will be just as effective. Then the link up to the wing with Martin distributing it inside 50 will be just salivating.
But in short it comes down to Kelly back, Martin wing/ Kelly wing, Martin back and I know which combo id prefer. Kelly and Heppell aren't getting dropped. They're playing well, and we need to have a balance of experience on the ground.

 

[Rick Ross]

100%
Cheers!

 

[Vindicater]

Can't wait to have him back floating across had back.

 

[justlookingaround]

Injury news: Ridley eyeing off return

Read the latest injury update ahead of round 10.

www.essendonfc.com.au

Is a test to play on the weekend.

 

[Vander18]

Straight back in if he’s good to go.

The end game here is to have him ready for Carlton and Curnow (obviously without risking re-injury).

 

[bombreys]

Straight back in if he’s good to go.

The end game here is to have him ready for Carlton and Curnow (obviously without risking re-injury).

Agreed. He’s a pro - straight in

 

[blitzer]

I'm really not sure why we'd need to rush him back in to play North, we definitely don't need him to beat them. Surely lower risk if we just play him on limited minutes in the VFL and ease him back into it. Keeping in mind he's been perpetually injured since about Jan with only brief periods of fitness.

Even if you want him ready to play Carlton you could easily go - half a game in the VFL this week, 3/4 game VFL next week, plays vs Gold Coast and by then has a few games under his belt for Carlton with some match fitness.

I'd say the absolute priority is having Ridley fit and ready for the second half of the year. Whatever maximises the chance of that. In my mind he's our 2nd most important behind only Merrett but he's a lot more injury prone than Merrett. So managing him is much more challenging.

 

[boncer34]

I'm really not sure why we'd need to rush him back in to play North, we definitely don't need him to beat them. Surely lower risk if we just play him on limited minutes in the VFL and ease him back into it. Keeping in mind he's been perpetually injured since about Jan with only brief periods of fitness.

Even if you want him ready to play Carlton you could easily go - half a game in the VFL this week, 3/4 game VFL next week, plays vs Gold Coast and by then has a few games under his belt for Carlton with some match fitness.

I'd say the absolute priority is having Ridley fit and ready for the second half of the year. Whatever maximises the chance of that. In my mind he's our 2nd most important behind only Merrett but he's a lot more injury prone than Merrett. So managing him is much more challenging.

He's missed 9 weeks. What makes you think he's being rushed?

 

[blitzer]

He's missed 9 weeks. What makes you think he's being rushed?

I'm sure they believe he's fully recovered from the actual injury but he did reinjure the quad right when he was about to return or as they put it "had a setback". So it actually hasn't been 9 weeks since then, probably about 5ish.
With back to back injuries after a preseason that already included soft tissue injuries.

Just about any other player on our list would be playing VFL with that preparation.
It seems silly to do otherwise in order to play the bottom 2 teams in the comp.
But we'll see what happens.

 

[ghostdog]

No way he should play this week. Want him to come back without any niggles at all, if that's against Richmond or Gold Coast, or even carlton. Nothing to gain by playing him this week except injury risk. Play him half a game in the Vfl if anything.

But when he does come back, Reid swaps with Laverde and Ridley surely releases Martin to the wing, Redman plays the spare? That's super super exciting. Not a single weak link in the defence.

I've been critical of Laverde and I've also been looking forward to Reid getting some consistency as well, however, Reid playing a top line opponent at AFL level is still an unknown. I wouldn't go so far as to say there's not a single weak link yet until we see him stand up to some serious heat in seniors.

 

[ghostdog]

Because Kelly has been excellent in shutting down opposition small forwards, and I think wed get more out of the two of them if Kelly played down back and Martin on a wing rather than vice versa. Yes Martin is great off half back, but now having an elite distributor in Ridley (Reid?) as well as Redman (with the same license as Martin) I think will be just as effective. Then the link up to the wing with Martin distributing it inside 50 will be just salivating.
But in short it comes down to Kelly back, Martin wing/ Kelly wing, Martin back and I know which combo id prefer. Kelly and Heppell aren't getting dropped. They're playing well, and we need to have a balance of experience on the ground.

Actually, what I think Scott has started to demonstrate this year is that he expects to be able to move the players around according to the opposition we face. Sometimes Kelly's defensive work is needed further up the ground, other times he can play back, depending on what we need. The same with Martin. I think he's been developing the team's capacity for flexibility rather than setting them up for any kind of permanent switch of role.

Rutten gave our team this flexibility with Stringer and Cox. Scott's now building on it with Kelly, Martin, Redman (to a less extent by playing Ridley's role), Durham and Guelfi.

 

[mcgrath_truther]

I've been critical of Laverde and I've also been looking forward to Reid getting some consistency as well, however, Reid playing a top line opponent at AFL level is still an unknown. I wouldn't go so far as to say there's not a single weak link yet until we see him stand up to some serious heat in seniors.

dont think he’ll be up against a top line opponent vs norf this week

 

[Just A Tragic]

Bring him in and get some game intensity into those legs. The defensive unit will need to adjust, maybe with Kelly or Cox changing roles.

 

[TheUnicorn]

Please don’t rush Reid or Ridley I swear if Ridley does another quad and Reid breaks before the end of season, I’ll lose it.

 

[Maddogm]

He's missed 9 weeks. What makes you think he's being rushed?

It's bigfooty. First game back is always rushed.

 

[Old Campaigner]

If there's the choice to either bring him back via the VFL or bring him back against norf, norf probably presents the less strenuous option