Richmond’s General Manager of Football Talent Blair Hartley is confident the Tigers have the depth of ruck talent to cover the recent loss of tall pair Callum Coleman-Jones and Mabior Chol.
Coleman-Jones’ trade to North Melbourne and Chol’s signing with Gold Coast as an unrestricted free agent has had some football critics casting doubt about the Richmond ruck stocks going into season 2022.
The Tigers, however, believe they have significant, emerging, big-man back-up for triple premiership No. 1 ruckman Toby Nankervis and his 2019 flag teammate Ivan Soldo, who is on the comeback trail after missing the entire 2021 season with a serious knee injury.
“We’ve got a guy called Samson Ryan that played his first game this year. We probably didn’t anticipate him playing for the first couple of years of his career, but he’s someone we’re excited about,” Hartley said on SEN.
“(Noah) Balta has shown he can play through the ruck, and we’ve got a guy called Mate Colina (213cm) who is a Category B rookie that we took last year, and he did some pretty exciting things during some scrimmages last year.
“He’s exciting, he can really run, he can catch it.
“We look forward to welcoming him back next year, when he returns from playing basketball in Hawaii.”
