Ryan Collins is excited to be joining Collingullie-Glenfield Park

The 20-year-old will have his first taste of Riverina League football next season and he said that he was excited to get to work with the Demons.

"Yeah I can't wait," Collins said.

"Especially with Sparks (Shane Lenon) and Nick (Perryman) as co-coaches, it's going to be good."

The young forward makes the move across to the Demons having shown plenty of promise in the last few seasons at Osborne.

He revealed that the move to Collingullie was the result of a phone call from Lenon a few weeks after the Hume League had concluded.

"Sparks just gave me a ring really seeing if I was interested about a couple of weeks after the season had finished," he said.

"I was pretty keen once I got the phone call."

Collins said that having played previously at Lockhart, he already had a prior connection to Lenon.

"I played all of my juniors at Lockhart actually," he said.

"I made the switch to Osborne when I was 16 and he coached the seniors at Lockhart when I was about 13-14.

"I was pretty close with him then and I was doing the water and all that for the seniors at Lockhart so I already knew what he was about."

Currently living in Wagga, Collins revealed that the travel factor also played a big part in his decision to commit to the Demons for next season.

"The travel was a big thing," he said.

"I was kind of getting sick of travelling, then I've got a lot of mates at Collingullie that I went to school with.

"I thought it'd be a good idea."

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Having made just a single first grade appearance in 2019 and 2021 with the Tigers, 2022 is when Collins really took the Hume League by storm.

Collins kicked 51 goals in 20 games as the Tigers went through the season undefeated before falling to Holbrook in that year's grand final.

It was a breakout season from the talented young forward and Collins admitted he was pretty happy with his performance that year.

"2022 was my full season in the ones and I was basically the main target down forward," he said.

"I played pretty good and I think I kicked around 50 goals and I was pretty happy with that, but obviously we didn't win the grand final which is pretty disappointing after going in undefeated.

"I was actually considering moving to Gullie after that year because Osborne had signed George Alexander and Hayden Armstrong for the 2023 season and they are both key forwards.

"I stayed around hopefully to win one, but I actually got dropped for the grand final.

"That was pretty hard to take, I played in the first final and then Hayden Armstrong came back in and out I went."

Having kicked 63 goals from 32 senior games, Collins believed that he would more than likely be spending the majority of his time up forward for the Demons.

"Yeah hopefully forward," he said.

"Sparks said if I get fit enough then maybe up the ground more, but mostly forward I reckon."

Having played the entirety of his senior football in the Hume League, Collins said he was looking forward to testing himself in the Riverina League.

"That is another reason just testing myself in the RFL," he said.

"Every week the competition is so close, in the Hume League you can blow out the bottom teams but in the RFL comp, if you don't show up you are going to get beat."

Having enjoyed his time with the Tigers over the past couple of seasons, Collins conceded it was difficult to depart the club.

"It was really hard leaving Osborne," he said.

"It's such a great club and it was pretty hard to walk away without a senior premiership, but I had to do what I had to do.

"They've done a lot for me with Jason (Webster) and it's hard leaving Myles (Aalbers) because he was the new coach for 2024.

"It's pretty hard to leave."

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