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Sport Nation
Watson: At what stage do the Bombers give up on Jordan Ridley?
Jaiden Sciberras • July 29th, 2025 6:45 pm
Essendon defender Jordan Ridley has endured a horror run with injury throughout his AFL career.
Drafted in 2016, Ridley has only managed 104 senior games despite being a crucial cog in the Bombers’ back half, nearly 100 games less than fellow draftee Hugh McCluggage, and over 70 less than teammate and 2016 No.1 pick Andrew McGrath.
In 2023, the star defender went down with a high-grade quad strain that ruled him out for the remainder of the season, missing the final six games of the home and away season and significantly denting the Bombers’ hopes of a finals appearance.
Since then, Ridley has only managed 19 games across two seasons, reinjuring his quad during a pre-season game in 2024, returning to play just nine games before straining his hip flexor in Round 20.
In 2025, Ridley has endured three significant hamstring complaints, the most recent of which occurred during their smashing at the hands of the Western Bulldogs on Friday night.
There is absolutely no doubting Ridley’s ability - in his first full season in 2020, the defender landed himself a nomination for the All-Australian 40-man squad and was awarded the best and fairest award at the Bombers all at just 21 years of age.
However, with constant reinjury and persisting soft tissue problems, Essendon legend Tim Watson has started to question if and when the club decide to move on from the luckless defender, given his unreliable nature.
“When you’ve got a player - and we’re seen this throughout the course of our playing and also observing of the game – who regularly breaks down with soft tissue injuries, how much then do you start to figure around them in terms of your future compilation of players?” Watson questioned on SEN Breakfast.
“When do you start to drop off somebody and go ‘okay, maybe this bloke is not going to be part of our back six going forward. We need to actually think differently than we have in the past.’
“I don’t want to be disrespectful to him because he is trying, and we’ve just seen some players who just break down regularly and consistently.
“For whatever reason, you just can’t rely on them anymore. They must almost be at that stage with Ridley.
“At what stage do you give up on somebody when they’ve got soft tissue injuries?”
Ridley signed an extension with the Bombers in 2024, seeing him through to the end of 2029.
Although the club is yet to confirm any sort of recovery time, the 26-year-old is expected to be put on ice for the remainder of the season.
