Richmond development coach and VFL backline coach Ryan Ferguson provides ‘Roar Vision’ with an insight into the development of promising recruit Sydney Stack.
Initial thoughts
"We're all really proud of how Sydney's gone about his business since he first walked in the door in late December. He was a late pick-up, but we really like how he's gone about it."
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Earning his spot at Tigerland
"He trained for a couple of weeks before we committed to him, so he had to earn his spot. But everyone's been really impressed with how he's gone about getting down to business."
His pre-season
"He had a bit of character, a really respectful person and got on well with all the guys, but his fitness wasn't where it needed to be originally. But he just worked so hard, he'd run until he threw up before he got his fitness up where it needed to be. Just that work rate and desire to be better and to train at a high level was really impressive."
His natural skill
"From the first day, you could see he had some traits with the ball in hand that he could just see the game, spatial awareness, composure with the football, ability to make good decisions."
VFL practice match form
"He plays every moment on its merits; just sees the ball, understands where his opponent is, attacks the ball. He defends really hard but also wins the ball back as well which, for a young guy, you can think about a lot of things and maybe overthink the game. He just sees the ball and attacks it on his merits."
Ability at half-back
"I'm not sure what the initial thought process was, but once we tried him at half-back he looked like he would settle in there really well."
Round three debut performance
"He's got a lot of work to do still, he's only played one game, but we were really impressed with how he attacked it. We thought he might attack the game and handle the pressure well because he's that sort of character that is quite unflappable and he loves the contest and loves doing the hard things, and he's a real team player as well, so we thought he would step up. He's a really hard worker."
Composed nature
"You want young guys playing like that, playing with that spirit and edge, and just playing the ball on its merits. He does that as well as anyone at this stage."
Personality
"You warm to him pretty quick, it's hard not to like him and want to be around the guy because he's got some spark about him."
