• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

AFL Team - 1997-Present

Matt79

Global Moderator
I thought we could do an AFL "best of" team in the style of Bagapath's "best of" cricket team threads - ie. a series of polls by specialisation within the team. I reckon with footy, even more so that cricket, you can't really make a sensible decision between players you haven't seen, so I think we should limit it to the modern era.

The AFL annouced it's official team of the Century in 1996 (1897-1996):
THE AFL TEAM OF THE CENTURY said:
B: B. Smith, S. Silvagni, J. Nicholls
HB: B. Doull, T. Whitten (c) K. Murray
C: F. Bourke, I. Stewart, K. Greig
HF: A. Jesaulenko, R. Hart, D. Reynolds
F: L. Matthews, J. Coleman, H. Bunton
R: G. Farmer, R. Barassi, B. Skilton
I/C: G. Ablett, J. Dyer, G. Williams
I reckon we should go 1997- onwards, to avoid overlap with those guys. 12 years ago should place it within the time frame most of us AFL fans here have been watching footy.

I thought we could have 7 categories:
- Midfielders
- Rucks
- Key Position Forwards
- Non-key Position Forwards
- Key Position Backs
- Non-key Position Backs
- Run-with players

The number of each category can be decided as we go, in the same way Bagapath handled the 3 or 4 quicks, or 1 or 2 spinners. We'll have the polls for the core number of each category, and in the end give people the choice, for instance, between a 3rd key forward, a 3rd non-key forward, or a 9th midfielder, in the one poll.

Run-With player is really a sub-category of midfielder, but I think the best teams have had a guy who can do a job on the opposition's most dangerous player WHILE still contributing to their team and I think it is worth having at least one such specialist in the team. Happy to go with group opinion however.

Obviously some of the categories are a bit blurry, especially around the midfielder category, eg is someone like James Hird or Koutafides a midfielder, a non-key forward, or even a key forward. Is McLeod a non-key back or a midfielder. I think if there's doubt we can nominate them for both, and obviously we can take into account, for instance, that we have Hird as a midfielder when deciding how many dedicated forwards we want, or vice versa.

The first step will be to get nominations for each category. I'll post some, but I'll obviously miss stacks in all likelihood, so grateful for further noms. Also I'm not trying to be biased towards Collingwood, but I've seen more of them play than anyone else in this time, so I'll probably include some that others will disagree with! :)
 
Last edited:

Matt79

Global Moderator
MIDFIELDERS:
Nathan Buckley
Michael Voss
Robert Harvey
James Hird
Gary Ablett Jr
Chris Judd
Ben Cousins
Daniel Kerr
Brent Harvey
Adam Goodes
Andrew McLeod
Mark Rusciutto (can never spell this right)
Simon Black
Sam Mitchell
Shane Crawford
Leon Davis
Nick Stevens
Josh Carr
Jimmy Bartel
Adam Simpson
Anthony Stevens
Anthony Koutafides
Joe Misiti
Paul Williams
Scott Burns
Scott West

And no doubt stacks more. Please feel free to add.
 

Matt79

Global Moderator
RUCKS:
Dean Cox
Paul Salmon
Aaron Sandilands
David Hille
Darren Jolly
Luke Darcy
Stephen King
Clarke Keating
Peter Everitt
Matthew Primus
 

cameeel

International Captain
Key Position Forwards:

Tony Lockett
Peter Everitt
David Neitz
Wayne Carey
Jonathon Brown
Brendan Fevola
Matthew Lloyd
 

Matt79

Global Moderator
KEY POSITION FORWARDS (this category will be a ****-fight)
Matthew Lloyd
Wayne Carey
Jonathon Brown
Warren Tredrea
Alistair Lynch
Tony Modra
Lance Franklin
Nick Riewoldt
Barry Hall
Saverio Rocca
Anthony Rocca
Justin Kosinthcke (sp?)
Brendan Fevola
Matthew Pavlich
Matthew Richardson
Scott Lucas
David Neitz
 
Last edited:

Matt79

Global Moderator
KEY POSITION BACKS:
Matthew Scarlett
Mal Michael
Darren Glass
Dustin Fletcher
Simon Prestigiacomo
Max Hudgton
Trent Croad
Justin Leppitsch
Sean Wellman
Chris Grant (could equally be a key forward)
Shane Wakelin
 

Matt79

Global Moderator
NON-KEY POSITION FORWARD
Steve Johnson
Jason Akermanis
Cyril Rioli
Paul Medhurst
Alan Didak
Nick Davis
Stephen Milne
Mick O'Laughlin (key or not?)
James Hird
Ryan O'Keefe
Phillip Matera
Jeff Farmer
 
Last edited:

Matt79

Global Moderator
NON KEY-POSITION BACKS
Taegh Kennally
James Clement
Tom Harley
Leo Barry
Heath Shaw
Darryl White
Darren Milburn
Chris Johnson
Andrew McLeod
 

FaaipDeOiad

Hall of Fame Member
Add Darren Jarman as a non-key position forward, and Rutten as a key position back. Leppitsch as a key position back, and Bradshaw and Chad Cornes as either a back or a forward. Kane Cornes as a "run with" I guess, and Lade as a ruck.

Maybe Rehn as a ruck too too, but he didn't play a lot in the time period in question, similar to guys like Lockett etc. Not sure how that should work.
 

Matt79

Global Moderator
Agree re Jarmen, Bradshaw, Rutten, and the Cornes boys. Leppitsch was already in as a key back.
 

irfan

State Captain
A case could be made for Bradshaw as key position forward

Good list tho Matt, covered all the usual suspects
 
Last edited:

Top