He’s never moved the magnets on the coaching board or recruited the club’s next star.

However, you could mount an argument to say that Ryan is just as important to the Pioneers as any coach, player or staff member.

Ryan is the Pioneers’ health and wellbeing officer.

Those outside of the club probably didn’t know the Pioneers had a health and wellbeing officer, but with 60-odd teenagers on a playing list in the highest profile under-age football competition in Australia, Ryan is a key component in the day-to-day running of the club.

“People look at this as a football program, but it’s so much more than that. It’s all about developing these teenagers as people,’’ Ryan, a qualified psychiatric nurse who previously worked for 14 years at Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre, said.

The TAC Cup is a breeding ground for the AFL and with that elite program comes high expectations from players and parents alike.

High expectations can equate to pressure and stress. That pressure and stress comes on top of the the everyday challenges 17 and 18-year-olds experience.

“We look at areas like mental health and wellbeing, we look at anxiety tests. People have to realise that one in four people under the age of 25 will have anxiety issues,’’ Ryan said.

“We have our fair share of anxiety issues here and we try to identify those issues early on and get them help and support they need.

“We drop down on the stigma because it’s really important that people know that everyone has their dramas.

“The players know they can access me or our club chaplain Greg Lyon for help.

“As well as footy there’s school work, girlfriends, parties, they can drive… there’s a lot of pressure on kids in that 17-18-year-old age group.

“A lot of pressure comes from themselves. They have high expectations on themselves and a lot of the time it’s unrealistic expectations.

“Some of these kids run around in local footy and dominate by picking up 30 possessions or so.  

“Then they get to TAC Cup level and might only get 12 or 14 possessions, which is actually pretty good, but they think they’re not going so well.

“Ultimately, all the kids need to do is play their role and do what the coaches want. That’s how they’ll be judged rather than possessions.”

Ryan’s role can be as simple as exchanging  messages with players on Facebook or a more formal, in-depth conversation.

“Most of my work is done on a one-on-one basis,’’ Ryan said.

“A lot of the time the players like to use Facebook to contact me. They might be struggling with something and they’ll send me a message to see if we can catch up.

“These kids might be elite footballers, but they have the same problems that all kids that age have.

“They might want to chat about a family problem or a girlfriend problem. It’s not always about footy.

“It’s about giving the kids someone to listen to because sometimes they feel as though they can’t talk to their parents or a family member.”

Ryan said teenagers respond best when they’re in a comfortable, relaxed environment. A quick chat over a drink at a café can be more beneficial than talking at the footy club.

“I’ve had a lot of milkshakes over the years and usually I have to shout,’’ Ryan said with a chuckle.

“For the Bendigo Senior Secondary College kids sometimes it might be just walking around Rosalind Park for a chat at lunch time.

“Sometimes as a group we might meet at The Coffee Club and just have a chat for a while. It’s an open session with no authority figure and the kids seem to be more confident in that type of situation.

“It’s all about a team environment where no-one is more important than the other.”

Ryan’s role is not limited to the players. He also deals with the players parents, who sometimes find it hard to cope with the pressures of having a teenager juggling school and football.

“The Pioneers players that relocate to Bendigo can find it difficult living away from their parents for the first time,’’ Ryan said.

“As a club we give those kids as much support as we can to make sure the move works for not just their footy, but their schooling and life in general.

“It’s not just the kids that need support. A lot of my work is dealing with parents.

“Some parents can have unrealistic expectations of their kids. Those expectations can really hurt the players’ progress and cause some issues.”

Ryan said tempering player and parent expectations was challenging, but necessary, not only for the individuals involved, but for the club’s culture.

“No matter what background you come from, everyone develops at a different rate,’’ he said.

“We might have 25 players training here tonight, but they’ll all be at different maturity level.

“At Malmsbury, I was working with 18-year-olds who might have the maturity level of a 12-year-old.

“Here at the Pioneers you don’t get examples that extreme, but you still get players who believe they are elite, but really they don’t have the maturity level to understand what elite is.”

Ryan’s role with the players doesn’t stop once they graduate from the Pioneers.

He keeps a close eye on their career and is always willing to catch up for a milkshake.

“They’re all great kids. I love working with kids because you can have an influence on their lives,’’ Ryan said.

“I get just as big a thrill out of watching former Pioneers players playing senior footy in Bendigo as I do in watching the kids that get drafted to the AFL.

“The fact these kids go from the Pioneers to play local footy is great for the community and I think some people forget about that.

“It’s not just about these kids making the AFL or the VFL.”