In the space of four years, Giants forward Jake Riccardi has gone from being an 'average height' half-back flanker in school footy, to a burgeoning AFL star already drawing comparisons with Wayne Carey and Matthew Pavlich.
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On Friday night he'll tick another box in his fledgling AFL career, running out for the Giants at Manuka Oval for the first time against competition pacesetters the Western Bulldogs.
Two key junctures in Riccardi's life led him to the Giants at the end of 2019.
One was a late-teen growth spurt which shot him up to 195cm and propelled him into the forward line of every subsequent Australian Rules team he represented.
The second was a singular pre-draft meeting with GWS, whose recruiters left poker-faced and seemingly uninterested in the young man who had been overlooked twice already, before springing a surprise and nabbing Riccardi with pick number 51.
After just seven AFL games, the boy from Essendon has already emerged as a key piece of the Giants forward line in the post-Jeremy Cameron era - even if he thinks those Carey and Pavlich comparisons are perhaps a bit exaggerated.
"It's a pretty big call early on, I guess just the way that I was kicking a few goals, stuff like that, everyone got a big excited," Riccardi said.
"It was pretty cool hearing that stuff from a few of the commentators at the time saying it but you've just got to sit back and laugh at that stuff and not read too much into it and let it get into your head too much."
The comparisons to Carey and Pavlich were made after Riccardi burst on the scene in his first two AFL matches last year.
He kicked two goals on debut against West Coast, then backed it up with four more the following week playing the Fremantle Dockers, earning himself a Rising Star nomination in the process.
Riccardi missed the first three matches this season with an ankle injury, and his return to the side has paralleled with the Giants' return to winning form.
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From an 0-3 start after the departure of Cameron to Geelong, they've notched wins against Collingwood and the cross-town Sydney Swans to breathe new life into their season.
"Jeremy was obviously a star player for the club and one in the competition for years so losing him was never going to be easy," Riccardi said.
"The good thing about our group at the moment is we've got a real mindset that everyone is there to do something to benefit the team and play their role.
"Everyone always says that but when you get everyone buying into what we're doing, it makes everything a lot easier. That's what we hold each other accountable for.
"It always helps when Tobes [Toby Greene] is kicking five or six a game as well."
A timely growth spurt when Riccardi was 17 reshaped his prospective AFL career.
In his first year with the Calder Cannons, he started retraining as a key forward.
Then after being overlooked when nominating for the AFL draft, he joined Werribee in the VFL, roughly at the same time former Richmond star Nick Daffy landed at the club as forwards coach.
The pair struck up an immediate bond.
"Early on he was always working with us forwards and when I played a few more games, we were just always working on stuff together," Riccardi said.
"I'm forever grateful for Daff, he took me down the right path. He paved the way and showed me how to play. I've got to give a lot of credit to him for where I am now, because I feel like without him I probably wouldn't be here today."
Moving to Sydney has taken Riccardi's game to another level still.
He's highly regarded by GWS coaching staff as a future key position player, and landing in rugby league heartland has eliminated most of the distractions that come with being an AFL star in Melbourne.
"It's worlds apart in terms of sport and how much everyone follows the AFL around here, if I was living in Essendon, it probably feels as if every single person would be talking about footy or know what's going on," Riccardi said.
"I actually really like it, it makes you feel normal in a way. The environment of Sydney and the beaches and all that, I really love living here. You hardly get any distraction."