page_title: Ivan Soldo
section_title: 2019 season
hierarchical_section_title: Ivan Soldo / AFL career / 2019 season
caption_attribution_description: English: Ivan Soldo at the 2019 AFL Grand Final Parade
context_page_description: Ivan Soldo is a professional Australian rules footballer who plays for the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League. He is the cousin of former-Richmond ruck Ivan Maric. Soldo set the AFL record for most hit-outs in a debut game during his first match in 2017. In 2019 he became an AFL premiership player with Richmond.
context_section_description: Soldo spent the 2018/19 off-season preparing for the possibility of playing AFL football alongside Richmond's lead ruck Toby Nankervis. This came as a result of a serious injury to midfielder and relief ruck Shaun Grigg, as well as newly introduced league ruck rules that meant even upon a possible return, Grigg would be unlikely to play as ruck support to Nankervis. Soldo took the role as number one ruck in the first of two pre-season games, while Nankervis played in the same team but primarily as a forward. In the final pre-season match Soldo played a reduced role, relegated to third-string ruck behind Nankervis and the yet-to-debut tall utility Noah Balta. He was ultimately unable to gain AFL selection in round 1, with numerous media outlets attributing this largely to his poor positional versatility. Instead, Soldo was named AFL emergency for the opening matches of the season while playing VFL football where he was regularly impressive. In late April he was particularly noteworthy, recording 43 hitouts, 14 disposals and eight clearances in a VFL win over Casey. An injury to Nankervis in mid-May saw him likely to miss six-to-eight weeks of football and saw Soldo called in for his first AFL match of the season, a round 9 win over Hawthorn in which he managed 35 hitouts. He attracted the attention of the AFL's Match Review Officer in that match however, offered a one match suspension for strike on midfielder James Worpel which was graded intentional conduct with low impact to the head. Soldo challenged the finding at the AFL Tribunal but the ban was upheld, with Soldo subsequently missing the club's match against Essendon. Soldo was immediately recalled to AFL action in round 11, where he set a new career-best with seven tackles. He repeated that mark the following week, this time along with an equal career-best four clearances. Hours before round 13's Thursday night match up against Adelaide, Soldo was ruled out with illness. He made an immediate return to AFL level following that match and the club's mid-season bye. Soldo held his spot at senior level while Nankervis returned to football with three weeks on limited minutes in the VFL, with Soldo kicking four goals in the five matches up to and including round 20's win over Melbourne. Soldo was dropped back to VFL level the following week, with Nankervis elevated in his place. He would remain at the level for just one match however, recalled to replace Nankervis who was withdrawn from the round 22 clash with groin soreness. Soldo posted a season-best 40 hitouts and career-best six clearances in that match before setting new career-bests with 14 disposals, five marks and six score involvements in the final match of the season. So impressive were his performances over that span, Soldo held his spot for the club's qualifying final against the Brisbane Lions despite Nankervis' return to the team.  In his first time sharing ruck duties with Nankervis that season, Soldo bested his partner with 25 hitouts and seven disposals as Richmond won through to a home preliminary final against Geelong. He was again influential in that match with 23 hitouts and 10 disposals in another Richmond win.  In the grand final, Soldo had 20 hitouts, seven disposals and kicked a goal as Richmond defeated Greater Western Sydney by 89 points. He finished the season having played 14 matches and winning an AFL premiership in just his 22nd career AFL match.
caption: Soldo during the 2019 AFL grand final parade
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