In just his second season of AFL football, the statistics suggest Fremantle’s Luke Ryan has taken his game to another level.

The 22-year-old has been damaging out of half back, and is putting up almost league-leading numbers in some key defensive categories.

With 101 marks for the season, Ryan has taken the second-most marks for the season heading into Fremantle’s bye.

The no.66 draft pick is also in the top-10 for intercept marks, averaging 2.6 per game, and in the top-five for rebound 50s, averaging five per game.

Ryan also ranks highly at Fremantle in one of Champion Data’s most important stats – the all-encompassing Ranking Point.

Champion Data describes their Ranking Point stat as follows:

It is a comprehensive system for objectively measuring player performance through the use of statistical measures. The rankings are geared to reward the winning factors of a game of AFL football.

In summary, players who earn a lot of ranking points have the biggest impact on their team’s chances of winning a game.

When picking Fremantle’s highest-impact players, it’s not hard to reel off the following names; Nat Fyfe, Lachie Neale, David Mundy, Aaron Sandilands and Michael Walters.

In terms of ranking points, Luke Ryan is right among that group, averaging 97.8 ranking points per game.

FREO’S RANKING POINTS LEADERS (AVERAGE PER GAME)

Nat Fyfe – 123.8

Lachie Neale – 108.7

Aaron Sandilands – 98.4

Luke Ryan – 97.8

David Mundy – 93.0

Michael Walters – 90.1

Joel Hamling praised the emerging defender following Fremantle’s clash with North Melbourne in round 10 – where Luke Ryan pulled in 10 marks, had 10 rebound 50s and collected 28 disposals.

“He’s a star really,” Hamling said.

“You’d never know he’s only played around 20 games.

“He’s getting better every week, his leadership’s there and he’s continuing to grow.”