It took Nathan Wright until Round 12 to break into the senior side this season, but from there, the hard-nosed utility never looked back, entrenching himself inside St Kilda’s best 22 across the back half of 2016.

Having never played more than eight games prior to this year, Wright played 10 of the final 11 games, performing a defensive forward role built from applying pressure to help create scoring opportunities.

Wright began the year at Sandringham before gradually mounting his case for another opportunity at AFL level. The 22-year-old literally beat the door down by Round 12, on the back of a month of strong football in the VFL.

Playing a role where statistics don’t expose the real story, Wright was instrumental in the Saints’ stunning upset over Geelong in Round 14.

An early collision with Josh Bruce left the Dandenong Stingrays product with a broken scapula, but he courageously battled on, continuously putting his body on the line across the entire game to help St Kilda to a gutsy three-point win.

Wright polled votes in the Trevor Barker Award in each of the final three games to help finish the year strongly, before he inked a two-year contract extension shortly after the season drew to a close for 2016.

Alan Richardson’s Views:

“‘Wrighty’ had a bit of a transformational year, he went from a dour, dynamic defender and someone who is an aggressive player and aggressive in the contest to being able to introduce those skills to the front half. He did a really good job for us, his pressure was exceptional, his want to play his role and do what he could to help his teammates was extremely impressive.

“He was able to hit the scoreboard every now and then; I challenged him in the last game to make sure he finished up with two and he finished up with two – he’d been kicking ones a bit. He had a really positive year and now we go into next year knowing we’ve got a player who can play back, potentially as a negating type midfielder and as a forward; he can play as a forward or play a role as a forward.

“He’s a tough kid, there’s no greater example than in Round 14 against Geelong when ‘Joey’ fractured his jaw early and continued to play, ‘Wrighty’ was very similar, he fractured his scapula and he continued to play despite being in a lot of pain. He just continued to play for his teammates. I reckon there was about a dozen quite physical efforts after that which involved using his arms and by extension his shoulder; he didn’t hesitate he just did it because that’s the sort of person he is.”

The Numbers:

10 games
7 goals
8.9 disposals
3.6 tackles
35.0 pressure points

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