Richmond rising midfield star Brandon Ellis has worked hard to be a more rounded player, according to team-mate Ricky Petterd.

Ellis picked up 28 disposals against the Bombers last Friday night, to lift his average to 26.5 for the season.

And, he has leapt above Tigers’ skipper Trent Cotchin for most disposals at the Club this season, with 503 (ranked No.8 in the AFL).

Petterd believes hard work by Ellis on his deficiencies during the pre-season, has started to pay handsome dividends.

“He had a couple of issues earlier this year, and last year, with contested ball,” Petterd told AFL Live.

“To his credit, he’s worked on that with ‘Choco’ and a few of the other boys.  Matty Thomas has taken him under his wing.

“He’s worked on that, so now I think he’s becoming an all-round player.”

By his own admission, Ellis took a little while to hit form this season, averaging 16 disposals in the first three rounds, but since then he has not dipped below 20 possessions in any game.  And, he’s had 27 touches or more in each game since the Round 12 loss to North Melbourne.

“It was coming.  We all saw it before anyone else.  His work-rate is something I’ve never seen before,” Petterd said.

“He’s just got this running ability that can run other players into the ground.

“He gets up the ground really well.  He’s deep in defence, and then he’s kicking goals from the goal square.

“He finds it, which is really good for us, and he’s using it really well.”

Ellis also is ranked No. 2 in the entire competition for total uncontested possessions, with 362, which is just three behind the leader in this category, North Melbourne’s Sam Gibson.

In the statistical category of total kicks in the competition, Richmond has three of the top six players – Dustin Martin, second, with 329, Cotchin, third, with 315, and Ellis, sixth, with 297.  The competition’s leading kick-getter after Round 20 is Sydney veteran Nick Malceski, with 334.

Cotchin, who had more total disposals than any other Tiger player during the past two seasons (2012-13), has 502 so far in 2014.