Proof of contender\u2019s \u201824mth\u2019 evolution laid bare in thrilling heist<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cA lot of boys are ahead of me \u2013 unfortunately for Don (Walker), he got injured and it was my spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it can happen to anyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce one person goes down, the next person is in and plays a real role so it\u2019s hard to get back in (but) it\u2019s a great problem to have \u2013 that\u2019s what all good teams have.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce your in the team, you want to stay in the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Longmuir: ‘Just hung in there!’ | 08:56<\/p>\n
Ryan won plenty of praise for his efforts in Freo\u2019s fighting Gather Round win over Collingwood last Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cLuke Ryan was probably the one Fremantle defender that stood up in that first term. He\u2019s back in the side and back in form,\u201d Western Bulldogs great Brad Johnson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s having a field day back there Ryan, he\u2019s just picking everything off,\u201d Melbourne great Garry Lyon added, who described Ryan as \u201cthe quintessential old-fashioned footballer\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought he did an outstanding job.\u201d<\/p>\n
AFL great Jason Dunstall said Ryan was \u201cjust mopping everything up\u201d while triple premiership Cat Tom Hawkins described the defender as \u201ca key pillar\u201d.<\/p>\n
Luke Ryan has returned to Freo\u2019s best line up.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not the most athletically gifted player, but in terms of identifying the drop zone \u2014 as all key forwards do \u2014 he just seems to do it better than anyone else,\u201d Hawkins said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a remarkable return to form for Ryan after he missed a large part of the pre-season due to his shoulder reconstruction at the end of last year.<\/p>\n
As a result, he missed Freo practice and pre-season matches \u2013 instead playing at Reserves level to find his form and fitness.<\/p>\n
But after his stunning efforts in the wet on Friday, he drew high praise from his coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was super in the first half,\u201d Longmuir said of Ryan.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust was in some really vulnerable situations \u2013 we probably didn\u2019t defend the greatest up the ground.<\/p>\n
Butters GUILTY verdict breakdown | 04:14<\/p>\n
\u201cAt times he was two v. one and just had to come forward and make a play. In the end, that\u2019s why we won the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Collingwood had control of the game, field position, it was our backs to really hold the line and stand up.<\/p>\n
\u201cLuke was a massive part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was only weeks ago Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir said \u201cthere\u2019s others ahead\u201d of Luke Ryan as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[3443,9126,638,64,63,689,55,639,7488,49800,295434,9203,10133,10124,10145,2105,12149,10991,10400,275434,28267,677,148140,295429,668,295428,295431,295433,104901,124988,295430,1124,85,13154,295427,295432,698],"class_list":{"0":"post-607243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-adelaide","9":"tag-adelaide-crows","10":"tag-afl","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","14":"tag-australian-football-league","15":"tag-australianfootballleague","16":"tag-brad-johnson","17":"tag-brandon-walker","18":"tag-cat-tom-hawkins","19":"tag-catherine-healey","20":"tag-collingwood-magpies","21":"tag-fremantle-dockers","22":"tag-garry-lyon","23":"tag-getty-images-inc","24":"tag-jason-dunstall","25":"tag-josh-treacy","26":"tag-justin-longmuir","27":"tag-key-pillar","28":"tag-luke-ryan","29":"tag-oceania","30":"tag-practice-games","31":"tag-pre-season-matches","32":"tag-press-conference","33":"tag-quintessential-old-fashioned-footballer","34":"tag-rain-soaked-low-scoring-thriller","35":"tag-real-role","36":"tag-remarkable-return","37":"tag-shoulder-reconstruction","38":"tag-six-seven-blokes","39":"tag-south-australia","40":"tag-sports","41":"tag-triple-premiership","42":"tag-verdict-breakdown","43":"tag-vulnerable-situations","44":"tag-western-bulldogs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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