Geelong coach Chris Scott has praised the development of first-year defender Ryan Gardner after the 20-year-old kept Collingwood star Travis Cloke goalless at VFL level last week.

The young Tasmanian gave away some 19 kilograms to the Pies’ forward but accounted for himself remarkably well to be named as one of the VFL Cats’ best players in their 20-point loss.

As past of the round nine episode of #TweetTheCoach, Chris Scott said it was an unexpected opportunity which Gardner grabbed with both hands.

“It was really positive. It was a rare opportunity for a first year key defender to get the opportunity to play on a player of Travis Cloke’s calibre at VFL level,” Scott said.

“He really embraced it. If we had’ve thought in November that we’d be throwing Ryan onto Travis Cloke we would’ve been a bit nervous.”

“He’s still got a lot of developing obviously Ryan, but he really took on the challenge and, you know, didn’t beat him every time but really won his fair share of 50-50s.”

Gardner will look to continue his form away to Frankston this Sunday for the VFL Cats.

The game will be broadcast live on Channel Seven from 11:30am.

You can watch the full episode of #TweetTheCoach for round nine in the video player above.