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13-09-2020, 01:47 PM
Ryan ‘Plugger’ Gardner has found his groove (https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/western-bulldogs/western-bulldogs-defender-ryan-plugger-gardner-has-found-his-groove-in-coach-luke-beveridges-backline/news-story/fbee4fdee49c15d535c4c6459f80313d)
Ryan Gardner’s first AFL game in the backline triggered online abuse, and the second and third only brought more. How did the young Western Bulldogs defender — and his girlfriend and family — cope with the trolls?
https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/aecbe8a8438a138f7d7dc3e14df1c3a9?width=1024
Ryan Gardner sometimes feels like he has more names than the phonebook in Smithton, Tasmania, where he is from.
“From my last name there’s “Gardy”, “Garden Weed” or “Garden Gnome”,” the Western Bulldogs defender said.
“The Geelong boys call me ‘Plugger’ after that Carlton (VFL) game, where I kicked six.
“And then the one that’s stuck here at the Dogs is ‘Plums’.”
That nickname dropped at pre-season camp, when Gardner emerged from a rock pool diving challenge with his Speedos repositioned.
It should be as risqué as it gets.
Sadly, some Bulldog supporters have come up with their own hurtful names for Gardner this year, and loaded them on social media.
The nasty comments flooded the Dogs’ Instagram, Facebook and Twitter feeds after Gardner’s first three games in the backline.
Some trolls contacted the 23-year-old directly.
“I got my fair share of direct messages on Insta,” Gardner said.
“Obviously with COVID people are at home more and watching more footy and they’ve probably got more stress … I don’t really know what their intentions are.”
Gardner’s family — sisters Ella and Monique and parents Steven and Marelle — couldn’t help but read, and squirm, at what was being said.
His girlfriend, Lana, tried to block it out.
“I don’t even know if she likes (follows) the Bulldogs’ page anymore, because of that reason,” Gardner said.
“She doesn’t want to see it. They’re (family) a lot better now.
“It’s probably something that you don’t want to happen, but it’s part of the game.”
It shouldn’t be, and Dogs coach Luke Beveridge said it was “extremely disappointing” that a minority of fans turned on their own.
“I’m sensitive and aware to some of the things that happen with some of the trolls, even some of our supporters who get down on our players at times,” Beveridge said. “I’m hoping he (Gardner) doesn’t think about it too much.”
Thankfully, he doesn’t. The trolls are thickheaded, but Gardner is thick-skinned.
“When they came up it was more just straight in the trash — delete, delete button,” he said.
“I don’t really read it. On the flip side I’ve also had plenty of positive messages as well saying, ‘Keep your head up’ or ‘You played well this week, really like what you’re doing’.”
As teammate Aaron Naughton said: “He’s someone that doesn’t take it to heart, but you shouldn’t be copping those messages”.
Dig deeper and the abuse that Gardner has fielded becomes even more inexplicable.
Rewind 18 months and he was as busy as he was inconspicuous.
Delisted by Geelong at the end of 2018, Gardner settled on Footscray over Casey after being impressed by coach Daniel Giansiracusa.
Outside of training under lights at Whitten Oval the humble VFL player was juggling three jobs and a university degree.
He was pouring beers at Yarraville’s Railway Hotel, steam-cleaning carpets and bulk packing sports gear at a factory in Hawthorn.
“I’ve gone from being on an AFL list on good money to being back in the real world,” Gardner said.
“I was working somewhere between 30-40 hours a week as well as playing footy and trying to get picked back up.
“Obviously doing three jobs a week isn’t a life you want to live.”
Gardner was making $27 an hour on weekdays at the Railway and a few extra dollars cleaning carpets with David Johnson, who Gardner met through Geelong’s welfare program.
“I got to go on trips with him to NSW and it was hard work, because you’d be going through big schools trying to get it done as quick as you can,” Gardner said.
“It was a bit of pre-season fitness as well.”
Gardner would often start cleaning carpets at 8am and close the pub at midnight on the same day.
Shifts at the factory included a 90-minute commute from Geelong, where Gardner lived with Nakia Cockatoo.
Gardner grew up on a dairy farm — his parents would milk 1000 cows twice a day — and so the long journeys didn’t faze him.
Instead it was the dose of reality which got to him.
“Coming straight from school into AFL I hadn’t really lived in the real world apart from being a footballer,” Gardner said.
“It was definitely a real eye-opener to know that I’ve got to do my study so I’ve got a pathway after footy.”
Gardner is completing an advanced diploma of building design and then it will be on to an architecture degree.
That career should come as no surprise to Beveridge, who lauded Gardner’s attention to detail.
In 2010 Chris Grant said Josh Hill should never play for the club again after he walked away from the mark as Daniel Menzel approached for a set-shot.
Gardner is the opposite.
In Round 13 Gardner got a finger to Jake Melksham’s set-shot and last week he jumped so high that Jack Darling failed to clear the spring-heeled defender.
“Two similar examples of a young player who plays the game right to the line,” Beveridge said.
“We’ve won two games and it’s possible that if someone else is on mark we might have dropped them both.
“He’s very attentive to instruction. I think he’s been outstanding.”
Supporters were surprised Gardner made the Round 1 team and even more surprised when, 12 weeks later, he played again in Round 2.
When Gardner earned a recall in Round 11, the day Eric Hipwood kicked five goals, the keyboard cowards cut loose for a third time.
Matthew Lloyd said Beveridge gifted Hipwood the bag by picking Gardner although defensive coach Rohan Smith was forgiving in the review.
“Going back through the edits I was in the right spots,” Gardner said.
“It was more just the execution of me going to wrestle him and grabbing at the jumper or things like that.”
Since then Gardner has kept Taylor Walker and Tom McDonald to one goal each and held Darling goalless.
He has also spent time on Tom Hawkins and Jordan De Goey, with no challenge seemingly too big or too small.
‘Plugger’ is now plugging the Bulldogs backline.
“Some of the opposition key forwards he’s been able to either blanket or help defend in recent times has been very encouraging for us,” Beveridge said.
“He’s rarely in the wrong place with the way we want to defend,” said.
Gardner was thrilled when Geelong drafted him at pick No. 59 but it proved to be a double-edged sword.
The positive was he was learning from the likes of Harry Taylor, Tom Lonergan, Andrew Mackie and Corey Enright and defensive coach Matthew Scarlett.
The downside was he was competing with the likes of Taylor, Lonergan, Mackie and Enright for selection.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy task to get in the team, which I found impossible in the end,” he said.
In 2018 Cats coach Chris Scott swung Gardner forward, leading to his bag of six and the nickname “Plugger Gardner”.
But after for 52 VFL games and zero AFL games in three years the Cats cut him.
This is Gardner’s fifth consecutive season on an AFL list, but his first real one at the Bulldogs.
In May last year Gardner’s luck completed the sharpest of U-turns.
On a Monday night he was selected in the mid-season draft — taking Tom Boyd’s (retired) place on the Dogs’ list — and the very next day Beveridge told him he would be making his AFL debut that week.
Fancy that — three years at Geelong for no games and a few days at the Dogs for one game.
“He was pretty quickly taken off the roster,” Railway owner Jason Snedden said.
“He was literally serving beers one weekend and playing the Eagles in Perth the next.
“He’s gone from behind the bar to up on the wall on TV.”
Gardner also celebrated his 22nd birthday the day before his debut although only played one more match for the season and suffered a knee injury.
It was understandable.
While Gardner’s AFL opponents were training full-time over summer he’d been pouring beers and cleaning carpets.
“I’m never going to be a high possession player, it’s more just how much impact I have in each contest,” Gardner said.
“That’s my strength. I’m someone who enjoys getting in those big contests and trying to either spoil or take a mark.”
Gardner was confident he had done enough to “tick off getting a new contract”.
How does Beveridge see his new stopper?
“He’s a player who has great athletic qualities, an enormous amount of courage, he’s highly skilled with his feet and, like any player who’s introduced at the highest level of our game, it takes them a little while to settle,” Beveridge said.
“He’s a bright light, we feel like we’ve found a little diamond in the rough in Ryan and he’ll only continue to get better and better.”
In other words, a big tick.
Ryan Gardner’s first AFL game in the backline triggered online abuse, and the second and third only brought more. How did the young Western Bulldogs defender — and his girlfriend and family — cope with the trolls?
https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/aecbe8a8438a138f7d7dc3e14df1c3a9?width=1024
Ryan Gardner sometimes feels like he has more names than the phonebook in Smithton, Tasmania, where he is from.
“From my last name there’s “Gardy”, “Garden Weed” or “Garden Gnome”,” the Western Bulldogs defender said.
“The Geelong boys call me ‘Plugger’ after that Carlton (VFL) game, where I kicked six.
“And then the one that’s stuck here at the Dogs is ‘Plums’.”
That nickname dropped at pre-season camp, when Gardner emerged from a rock pool diving challenge with his Speedos repositioned.
It should be as risqué as it gets.
Sadly, some Bulldog supporters have come up with their own hurtful names for Gardner this year, and loaded them on social media.
The nasty comments flooded the Dogs’ Instagram, Facebook and Twitter feeds after Gardner’s first three games in the backline.
Some trolls contacted the 23-year-old directly.
“I got my fair share of direct messages on Insta,” Gardner said.
“Obviously with COVID people are at home more and watching more footy and they’ve probably got more stress … I don’t really know what their intentions are.”
Gardner’s family — sisters Ella and Monique and parents Steven and Marelle — couldn’t help but read, and squirm, at what was being said.
His girlfriend, Lana, tried to block it out.
“I don’t even know if she likes (follows) the Bulldogs’ page anymore, because of that reason,” Gardner said.
“She doesn’t want to see it. They’re (family) a lot better now.
“It’s probably something that you don’t want to happen, but it’s part of the game.”
It shouldn’t be, and Dogs coach Luke Beveridge said it was “extremely disappointing” that a minority of fans turned on their own.
“I’m sensitive and aware to some of the things that happen with some of the trolls, even some of our supporters who get down on our players at times,” Beveridge said. “I’m hoping he (Gardner) doesn’t think about it too much.”
Thankfully, he doesn’t. The trolls are thickheaded, but Gardner is thick-skinned.
“When they came up it was more just straight in the trash — delete, delete button,” he said.
“I don’t really read it. On the flip side I’ve also had plenty of positive messages as well saying, ‘Keep your head up’ or ‘You played well this week, really like what you’re doing’.”
As teammate Aaron Naughton said: “He’s someone that doesn’t take it to heart, but you shouldn’t be copping those messages”.
Dig deeper and the abuse that Gardner has fielded becomes even more inexplicable.
Rewind 18 months and he was as busy as he was inconspicuous.
Delisted by Geelong at the end of 2018, Gardner settled on Footscray over Casey after being impressed by coach Daniel Giansiracusa.
Outside of training under lights at Whitten Oval the humble VFL player was juggling three jobs and a university degree.
He was pouring beers at Yarraville’s Railway Hotel, steam-cleaning carpets and bulk packing sports gear at a factory in Hawthorn.
“I’ve gone from being on an AFL list on good money to being back in the real world,” Gardner said.
“I was working somewhere between 30-40 hours a week as well as playing footy and trying to get picked back up.
“Obviously doing three jobs a week isn’t a life you want to live.”
Gardner was making $27 an hour on weekdays at the Railway and a few extra dollars cleaning carpets with David Johnson, who Gardner met through Geelong’s welfare program.
“I got to go on trips with him to NSW and it was hard work, because you’d be going through big schools trying to get it done as quick as you can,” Gardner said.
“It was a bit of pre-season fitness as well.”
Gardner would often start cleaning carpets at 8am and close the pub at midnight on the same day.
Shifts at the factory included a 90-minute commute from Geelong, where Gardner lived with Nakia Cockatoo.
Gardner grew up on a dairy farm — his parents would milk 1000 cows twice a day — and so the long journeys didn’t faze him.
Instead it was the dose of reality which got to him.
“Coming straight from school into AFL I hadn’t really lived in the real world apart from being a footballer,” Gardner said.
“It was definitely a real eye-opener to know that I’ve got to do my study so I’ve got a pathway after footy.”
Gardner is completing an advanced diploma of building design and then it will be on to an architecture degree.
That career should come as no surprise to Beveridge, who lauded Gardner’s attention to detail.
In 2010 Chris Grant said Josh Hill should never play for the club again after he walked away from the mark as Daniel Menzel approached for a set-shot.
Gardner is the opposite.
In Round 13 Gardner got a finger to Jake Melksham’s set-shot and last week he jumped so high that Jack Darling failed to clear the spring-heeled defender.
“Two similar examples of a young player who plays the game right to the line,” Beveridge said.
“We’ve won two games and it’s possible that if someone else is on mark we might have dropped them both.
“He’s very attentive to instruction. I think he’s been outstanding.”
Supporters were surprised Gardner made the Round 1 team and even more surprised when, 12 weeks later, he played again in Round 2.
When Gardner earned a recall in Round 11, the day Eric Hipwood kicked five goals, the keyboard cowards cut loose for a third time.
Matthew Lloyd said Beveridge gifted Hipwood the bag by picking Gardner although defensive coach Rohan Smith was forgiving in the review.
“Going back through the edits I was in the right spots,” Gardner said.
“It was more just the execution of me going to wrestle him and grabbing at the jumper or things like that.”
Since then Gardner has kept Taylor Walker and Tom McDonald to one goal each and held Darling goalless.
He has also spent time on Tom Hawkins and Jordan De Goey, with no challenge seemingly too big or too small.
‘Plugger’ is now plugging the Bulldogs backline.
“Some of the opposition key forwards he’s been able to either blanket or help defend in recent times has been very encouraging for us,” Beveridge said.
“He’s rarely in the wrong place with the way we want to defend,” said.
Gardner was thrilled when Geelong drafted him at pick No. 59 but it proved to be a double-edged sword.
The positive was he was learning from the likes of Harry Taylor, Tom Lonergan, Andrew Mackie and Corey Enright and defensive coach Matthew Scarlett.
The downside was he was competing with the likes of Taylor, Lonergan, Mackie and Enright for selection.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy task to get in the team, which I found impossible in the end,” he said.
In 2018 Cats coach Chris Scott swung Gardner forward, leading to his bag of six and the nickname “Plugger Gardner”.
But after for 52 VFL games and zero AFL games in three years the Cats cut him.
This is Gardner’s fifth consecutive season on an AFL list, but his first real one at the Bulldogs.
In May last year Gardner’s luck completed the sharpest of U-turns.
On a Monday night he was selected in the mid-season draft — taking Tom Boyd’s (retired) place on the Dogs’ list — and the very next day Beveridge told him he would be making his AFL debut that week.
Fancy that — three years at Geelong for no games and a few days at the Dogs for one game.
“He was pretty quickly taken off the roster,” Railway owner Jason Snedden said.
“He was literally serving beers one weekend and playing the Eagles in Perth the next.
“He’s gone from behind the bar to up on the wall on TV.”
Gardner also celebrated his 22nd birthday the day before his debut although only played one more match for the season and suffered a knee injury.
It was understandable.
While Gardner’s AFL opponents were training full-time over summer he’d been pouring beers and cleaning carpets.
“I’m never going to be a high possession player, it’s more just how much impact I have in each contest,” Gardner said.
“That’s my strength. I’m someone who enjoys getting in those big contests and trying to either spoil or take a mark.”
Gardner was confident he had done enough to “tick off getting a new contract”.
How does Beveridge see his new stopper?
“He’s a player who has great athletic qualities, an enormous amount of courage, he’s highly skilled with his feet and, like any player who’s introduced at the highest level of our game, it takes them a little while to settle,” Beveridge said.
“He’s a bright light, we feel like we’ve found a little diamond in the rough in Ryan and he’ll only continue to get better and better.”
In other words, a big tick.