Myrtleford's Brody Ricardi admits fitness had let him down previously

The 27-year-old has played some terrific football this year, but none more so than his stunning first half against Lavington on July 3, prior to Victoria's COVID lockdown the following week.

Co-coach Jake Sharp has been delighted with his improvement and Ricardi says his mentor deserves credit.

"I think having a more established fitness base (is the reason for my form), I did a fair bit of work with Jake to gain that fitness base," he revealed of the consistent turnaround in his form.

His partner is Myrtleford netballer Saige Broz, so during Victoria's various lockdowns over the past 12 months, the pair has also been able to lift the fitness levels.

"It's just consistency with my fitness and also consistency in one position led to more consistency in terms of performance," he suggested.

"Playing as a small forward, it's a pretty tough position to develop that consistency, so I'd play good quarters, but I couldn't string together four or five games, that's been the difference.

"I probably wasn't fit enough, not for the standard."

Ricardi had played predominantly as a forward, but has made the wing his own in showing strong form this season.

"I had three years down in Melbourne (2016-2018), one season was at Watsonia and two were at Northcote Park," he offered.

"Watsonia was in division three in the Northern Football League and the standard wasn't too crash hot, I probably lost all my fitness over that year and it just took a bit of time to build it back up.

"And even in division one in the NFL (with Northcote Park), because the grounds are so small, you can probably get away with being less conditioned, but when I came back to Myrtleford when Jake did (at the start of 2019), I was able to do plenty of pre-season running with (co-captain) Mitch Dalbosco."

Ricardi will be one of the club's senior players when they head into Saturday's home game against unbeaten Albury without the Melbourne-based players.

"It's disappointing for those boys to not be able to play, but it also provides others with an opportunity to play a role," he said.

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'Footy is such a role-play type game now, you can't rely on one, two or three individuals, you've got to be able to play a role for the team these days."

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