When Riley Thilthorpe finally took to the field in the 2024 season, it was as though the AFL world had its eyes pried open.
Open to what he was.
Open to what he could be.
Open to what he means to the future of the Adelaide Football Club.
He’d always been a big fella, but something happened to Thilthorpe between the end of the 2023 season and his 2024 debut.
He got bigger. He got stronger. And suddenly, he looked like the player the Crows had been waiting for him to be. No longer a kid with potential, he looked like a grown man, out there. A bigger, stronger man than just about every other play on the field.
It may have only been seven games, but make no mistake, in the late stages of the 2024 season, Riley Thilthorpe finally arrived.
In this series, I will be taking a look at some of the big names in the game that, for one reason or another, need to lift this season.
For some, it is their own form, for others, it is coming back from injury. And for others, still, it is because their club desperately needs them to be at their best when to contend this season.
With just those seven games under his belt in 2024, Thilthorpe gave Crows fans a glimpse of what was possible. He hit the scoreboard multiple times in six of the seven outings, and took multiple contested marks in five of those clashes. It was as though his time off afforded him the confidence and time he needed to become the biggest aerial threat on the team.
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