In the truest sense of the much-loved footballing phrase, AFL fans are seriously ‘getting around’ Nathan Fyfe in 2015. And how could they resist?
A generational player. The best in the game. Surpassing Gary Ablett. These are the words being thrown around.
Rightly so.
The 23-year-old is setting the bar at near-record heights, and doing it in the areas that fans love to celebrate, and importantly, cheer for. Contested marks, clearances and winning the footy – these are the avenues on which Fyfe has muscled his way to the top of the AFL’s pedestal in 2015.
In the lead-up to the man’s 100th game, discussion has ignited as admirers and pundits try to decipher just how good Nat is.
‘Have we just witnessed the best opening ton in the history of the game?’ is the question on many lips.
On Wednesday night, Gerard Whateley and Mark Robinson posed that very question on AFL 360, putting Fyfe up against the likes of Chris Judd, Gary Ablett, Joel Selwood and Scott Pendlebury.
With some compelling stats backing them up, the pair concluded that Judd’s first hundred had not been surpassed.
“In order, I’d pick Judd, Fyfe, Selwood,” Whateley affirmed. “I think the Brownlow Medal and the North Smith gets Judd over the line.”
Robinson agreed, before going on to add, “Don’t underestimate the players taking the MVP off Ablett and giving it to Fyfe… That is huge.”
Ablett of course claimed five AFL MVPs between 2007 and 2013, the two he missed were taken by fellow Brownlow Medalists Dane Swan and Chris Judd.
So yes, as Robbo says, that’s huge.
Now whether you agree that Fyfe has just fallen short of Judd up to this point or not is irrelevant, we can all agree he’s carving out quite the legacy.
But will that legacy be five MVPs strong? Or one?
We can be sure Fyfe is intending that it won’t be the MVPs that are rattled off first when people reflect on his career 20 years from now. He wants premierships. He wants that Brownlow.
The players Fyfe found himself compared to by Whateley and Robinson have all experienced the ultimate success, and they did it incredibly early in their careers, something Fyfe almost achieved.
I know, I know. There’s still time.
Selwood strode into a dynasty in 2007, winning the first of three premierships and the Rising Star award in his first year. He’d have his second premiership just two seasons later, and his third with game 99.
Pendlebury stacked his cabinet in 2010 with a Pies premiership and a Norm Smith Medal, 92 games into his career.
Judd, well, he had the first of two Brownlow Medals under his belt after just 65 games. He went on to win a Norm Smith in his 86th, before completing the trifecta with the 2006 premiership in his 105th game in the AFL.
Ablett, well known for a comparatively slow start to his career, played 117 games before Geelong claimed the 2007 premiership. Perhaps Ablett can really join in the equation as Fyfe approaches his 200th.
Needless to say, if you want to overtake some of the game’s most impressive legacies, you need to get on your bike early, and really pump those legs.
Despite having played just 100 games, Nat Fyfe is widely considered the best in the game at present. (Photo: Michael Willson/AFL Media)
In his article introducing us to the ‘Nat Fyfe Quadrant’, The Roar‘s Ryan Buckland rightly commented on Fyfe, “It’s almost been a full career’s worth of events and achievements in just five-and-a-bit short years.”
There is no arguing with that statement. However, the word that draws my focus here is almost, and importantly how long that highly adherent ‘almost’ will take to depart.
Six-and-a-bit years? Seven? Ten?
The pressure on top players to consolidate their claim as a league’s best is real, and generally it’s not a title fans allow to be transferred easily – think about the criticism that ghosted LeBron James as he took longer than expected to lead a side to NBA glory.
The question is then whether AFL greats should be subjected to the same standards? And where a great legacy sits if it’s premiership-less?
There have been many great AFL players that have never won a premiership, just as there have been many exceptional athletes in every sport who haven’t managed to etch their name on the main prize.
As harsh as it is, it’s the nature of history that the names without a place are the ones that fade from memory.
So far Fyfe has his name on Fremantle’s best and fairest and a player-voted MVP award. If the current Brownlow odds are anything to go by, he looks bloody likely to complete the individual honours portion of his footballing CV come the end of the year.
But beyond that, a premiership is still required.
If Fremantle can claim the flag in 2015, Fyfe will have staked his claim to every piece of silverware a player dreams of getting their fingers on, all by the age of 24.
Following Freo’s barnstorming start to the season Glenn Mitchell argued that if the premiership is not claimed by the Dockers in 2015, it will have been an opportunity wasted.
Leading into 2015, many had the Dockers pegged as having missed their premiership window, with their close swipe at the Hawks in 2013 and famous fade out of the finals in 2014.
In 2015, the men from the west have proven they’re not on the descent just yet, but the opportunities for Fyfe to claim a flag appear destined, as they were for all his worthy opponents mentioned above, to be weighted to the front-end of his career.
Fyfe needs to ensure the Dockers succeed (and soon) because not many players get the chance to etch their name in AFL history to the depth that Fyfe can, nor do many actually have the ability to ensure it happens off their own bat.
Fyfe’s got the chisel in his hand, now it’s time to etch.
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