Jack Ross made the most of his opportunity in Richmond’s midfield against Port Adelaide at the MCG yesterday (Sunday).
The 23-year-old, playing his 66th game of AFL football, was used by the Tigers as an inside midfielder because of the absence of Jacob Hopper due to injury, and he excelled, finishing the match with an equal team-high 26 disposals, nine contested possessions, six marks, five inside-50s, four rebound-50s, five clearances, an equal team-high 12 score involvements, three intercepts and 307 metres gained.
Richmond coach Adem Yze was impressed with Ross’ performance as a midfielder and believes he can thrive in the role long term.
“Rossy’s been thrown around. He’s played forward, he’s played wing, and then Jacob Hopper going out, it gives him opportunity to go and play inside mid,” Yze said in his post-game press conference.
“There were patches in the game where he was really strong in that area, there were patches in the game where he feels like he could improve. But the synergy around just getting some continuity in that position is going to be really important.
“He’ll get an opportunity again next week to do the same thing.
“Hopefully he just gets better and better.”
