‘He does anything for this club’: Praise for returning Luke Ryan after Fremantle Dockers’ win over Melbourne

Fremantle teammate Jordan Clark has paid tribute to veteran defender Luke Ryan after he bounced back from being left out of the side — and a bout of COVID — in Saturday night’s win over Melbourne.

Ryan missed the Dockers’ clash with Geelong last week after an interrupted pre-season.

He was meant to head to Victoria as a travelling emergency but was then listed to play a practice match for Peel Thunder before he was pulled out with illness.

He missed selection for the match with the Demons but earned a late reprieve when Brandon Walker was ruled out.

The 30-year-old grew into the game, finishing with 24 disposals and 11 marks while being solid defensively.

Ryan wasted no time in taking up his customary role as his side’s deepest defender, starting opposed to former West Coast utility Jai Culley before quickly switching on to Brody Mihocek.

Fellow defender Jordan Clark praised his ability to bounce back.

“Up until last week, he had played 107 AFL games straight. He has played under a lot more duress than COVID,” he told The West Australian.

“He does anything for this club and we love playing with him and it’s great to have him back. We knew what we were going to get from him.”

Coach Justin Longmuir wouldn’t commit to Ryan staying in the team but said he “played his role really well”.

Longmuir also said the two-time All-Australian’s work getting to full fitness was starting to pay off.

“He was close last week. He was really crook, so he didn’t travel to Geelong and then probably because of that he found himself a bit behind a few of the others,” he said.

“Brandon hurt himself, well he had a bit of soreness late in the week ... thought he was a chance to get up, but we had to take him out today.

“Luke was well-prepared and fitted in seamlessly.

“He has done a lot of work to try and catch up to the rest of the pack and I think that work paid off for him tonight.”