Imagine a starting team, full of supreme athletes, mind-blowing speed and endurance and awe-inspiring array of skill and imagination.
The template for the team is a fluid 4-3-3 formation. I’ve picked two rock-solid centre-halves with two versatile fullbacks.
In the midfield, we have two absolute box-to-box powerhouses, with the ability to win the ball and create. In the no.10 role, a magician of the highest order assumes responsibility.
Up front, we are led by an old-fashioned centre forward flanked by two delightfully gifted exponents of the skillful game.
You may say I am a dreamer. But I’m not the only one.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, the AFL Socceroo 11 Dream Team.
That’s right, this is the best possible team the AFL can dish up. And my word, what a sight to behold!
A goal-keeper is not required to be named. You could pretty much pick anyone from an AFL list and they would do the job for you.
Add to the fact, our two centre-halves would man such a closed shop that a goal-keeper would be spending most of his time picking his nose.
In Matthew Scarlett and Darren Glass, we have the perfect central defensive partnership that would cause fear and trembling in any attacker.
Glass is a defender of immense strength and competitiveness, supremely strong in the one-on-one contests and with a fierce tackle, would come away with the ball more often than not.
Scarlett is equally strong in the defensive battle but also adds an incredible ability to read the play and launch attacks from deep. He will sweep, tackle, clear the ball and bring the ball out with equal aplomb.
Fullback has evolved into being one of the most important positions in world football and the selection of Brendon Goddard
and Luke Hodge reflect this.
Goddard will defend robustly, and spread down the right flank with endless energy. His ability to impact in all areas of the park, including bombing forward and getting dangerous will cause havoc for opposition teams.
When you require leadership, commitment and sheer determination to impact a game, look no further than Hodge. A cultured left foot provides precision from wide and his versatility means he is able to drift back and centrally with devastating effect.
Under the reign of a dull and dour Pim Verbleak, central midfielders were rubbished and scorned for spending most of their time holding hands with their defenders. Not so with this team.
Gary Ablett Jr and Chris Judd offer a fanatical level of work rate, hunger to fight for and win the hard-contested ball and are also blessed with the sheer explosive power and skill to cover the field and drive the ball forward.
This duo is one of the greatest of the modern era and with the round ball at their feet, would happily boss any midfield battle.
Just in front of them sits Steve Johnson, the magician. A player of almost extra-terrestrial qualities, as any witness to his array of breathtaking skills, imagination and fantasy would attest to the idea that he operates on a higher plane than most.
Watch him receive the ball, take a step and fire a pass to a team-mate with bullet-like precision. Watch him attempt the outrageous, and execute with ridiculous assurance.
In Steve Johnson, we find a player worthy of assuming the play-making responsibilities of the team.
Our front three is blessed with all-round class. Cyril Rioli and Mark Lecras have the ability to create and score in equal measure.
Both possess the necessary incredients of a dangerous forward; the silky skills, the vision and fantasy and clinical finishing ability that is guaranteed to leave defenses all over down and dizzy with despair.
A tower of strength at the centre forward position in Jack Riewoldt is an indulgement of gluttonous proportions.
How a powerful athlete, blessed with the brute force of a truck and the deft touch of a wedding cake decorater, is able
to execute all manner of goals is beyond comprehension.
He completes the team and is the ideal focal point for this great team.
Now the dream is explained, I must acknowledge the heartbreaking decision to leave out the likes of Sam Mitchell, Daisy Thomas, Alan Didak, Rob Murphy, Jarred Brennan, Brent Harvey, Scott Pendlebury, Adam Goodes, Buddy Franklin and the mercurial talents of a Motlop out of this team.
The intention of this writer is twofold: to praise the wonderful attributes of the elite AFL football and wonder how their abilities would resonate with the world game. Could more be done by the world game at grassroots and junior level to keep these athletes in the game in their late teens? Surely, the Socceroos would benefit.
Bondy
Guest
There's only one code with the big money , football is the only sport that K,Hunt cant play,game set and match
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
As far as I remember, Forlan didn't like living in Manchester. Let's face it, as a Sth American would you rather be playing in Spain with better weather, lifestyle and similar culture or England? Heck, as an Aussie, I would choose Spain over England.
UK Steve
Guest
SAF also shattered Diego Forlan’s dream by saying “thanks, but no thanks” Yet, whilst he was not considered to be sufficiently talented to play football for Manchester United, Forlan became the La Liga top scorer a couple of times and received the Golden Ball as the best player at the 2010 world cup.
Midfielder
Guest
Wookie You have a excellent point ... no one will ever know if an AFL star would have made it in football or rugby or even cricket ... it depends on what you were brought up with... meaning if you spend 12 years learning a particular code it is difficult to switch... especially so in football were touch and ball control is so important. As some have already in the past many of football best left between 12 & 15 to other codes ... in fact many of the stars of AFL, Rugby & Cricket have come from football.... getting the best sports talent is a real battle royal now between the codes at grass roots level... Football for its part has under BB rule done an excellent job in keeping its best at the 12 to 15 age group... I was talking to a guy a few months back who told me football has lost no one they wanted to kept in about 3 years... the starting of the U 12 national and state sides and the idebtification of the top 60 players or actually top 180 players ... as its the top 60 players in three different age groups ... and developing these players is keeping the best in football... Football will still loose heaps but no where near as many of its very talented players
The_Wookie
Roar Guru
actually you'll find most players who can kick the - how you say - "eggball" - are already past it AFL speaking or couldnt make the senior level in AFL. EVIDENCE as you say - Bennett, Rocca were all finished at senior level, Bryan couldnt make it to senior level, and Graham is possibly the only exception to that rule, and even then he waited a number of years. So not quite the same. So it says something i guess, that the best - and I use the term loosely - can use the NFL as a glorified retirement fund. In truth, its only the masters of the "long kick" that make it as a punter. One specialised position in the NFL. You STILL miss the central point. If these players, instead of being devoted to Australian Football from their formative years, had instead been training and playing association football, the talent pool for players available to the sport would be higher. That is not to say that the central skils are not the same, there are some differences. However, we are far from alone on believing that without Australian football as the local behemoth on the scene, sporting success may have been more regular in other sporting endeavors. This has been reported here (and not just by the "blue opinion" guys), and in mainstream media. And almost never written by Australian football media, but journalists of other codes. Your vehement response to the whimsical nature of the original article however simply isnt warranted. Not everything is an attack on association football, and idly wondering who could make it from one sport to the next doesnt really harm anyone. Welcome to the internet.
Qantas supports Australian Football
Guest
Yes Fuss as I wrote to Tristan this article should have been taken off the Football Tab and put on the AFL Tab. These guys just have no idea.. The best athletes don't necessarily make the best Footballers. It's Football intelligence that make the best Footballers---years of Football education starting from the age of 5.
BigAl
Guest
all hyperbole Fuss ! - most guys play footy because they just love to play footy !
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
I don't know of ANY football fan, who would have given even 1/2 second of his life to wondering: "would this footballer be a good AFL/NRL/Rugby/Basketball/etc. player". In fact, I'd be surprised if any NRL/Rugby/Basketball fan has given even 1/2 second of his life pondering the same thing. It seems to me that such nonsensical fantasies are the domain of fans of only one sport. But, The_Wookie certainly makes one very VALID point when he suggests: "However, like business, in most cases, the best go where the money is." And the EVIDENCE tells us not a single AFL player considers he has the ability to compete as a Footballer. Using The_Wookie's argument of the best labour being attracted to the highest-paying jobs, AFL players, who have football ability, would have aspired to play football in Europe where they would have earned 5-10x their AFL wages and they would have earned these higher wages over a much longer period. This is why AFL players, who can actually kick the egg-ball properly have left AFL and signed lucrative careers in NFL, where the money is better. If Judd is, indeed, "the Australian Sneijder" then he would have earned 5-10x his current salary - and, it would have been earned EVERY YEAR over a 10 year period; same with Lloyd - if he could have been the equivalent of van Nistelrooy then Lloyd should have worked hard become a professional footballer. The truth is only one AFL player has ever tried to make it as a pro-footballer in Europe - Brad Green, who is the captain of AFL club Melbourne. Alas, for Green, playing Football was indeed a fantasy and SAF shattered his dream and told him: "thank, but no thanks". Yet, whilst he was not considered to be sufficiently talented to play football in Europe, Green is considered to be one of top 50 AFL players.
The_Wookie
Roar Guru
Who hasnt sat around at some point and wondered what would happen if a team of players from one sport tried to play another sport? It happens all the time, but only on the roar can it be interpreted as a slight on the code itself. Theres been numerous players over the years who have had those key moments where they've had to choose one sport over another, happens a fair bit with cricket and the AFL, union and league. There are players taken from soccer in recent times (particularly in Queensland, where oddly enough they became ruckmen - Zac Smith and Shaun hampson for example). AFL recruiters will take an athlete from any code, and try to use their strengths to turn them into an AFL player. Theres absolutely no reason why it couldnt go the other way. However, like business, in most cases, the best go where the money is. Which is why so many of assocation footballs best go overseas
The Cattery
Roar Guru
Ian Of course it was light hearted - on the part of the VFL players, who would have instinctively understood the concept of playing for charity - who went into a game they didn't play with one training session and no coach. But then you come back to the rabble rousing that Jack Dyer was doing, and attach that to these VFL blokes playing in a charity match, so from where I sit, there is a definite slanting of the story against the VFL blokes who were giving their time to raise money for charity - the Jack Dyer trash talking is a separate subject again - and in any case, he succeeded in getting a big crowd to the game.
gawa
Guest
Maybe Zac Smith just realised that it was easier to be a top level AFL player than a top level football player, the fact that he was able to switch sports at such a late age would also appear to agree with this viewpoint.
fatboi
Roar Rookie
@ apaway. I apologise for ruffling the feathers of the Goal Keepers Union! I will correct myself- Only a few would be able to command a position in between the posts. The role of a goal keeper requires courage, determination, selflessness and above all, the ability to take an almighty "Specky" on top of players in the penalty box to claim crosses and free kicks. -on a side note. I've always wondered why soccer goal keepers don't ever jump up on the defender's backs and give themself the extra leverage to rise and claim those high balls into the box
fatboi
Roar Rookie
@ Nathan. LMAO Joel Selwood has a crafty technique when tackled to ensure the tackling arms slide up to his neck, thus getting free kicks every time. Perhaps if the game is stuck at 0-0 with 10 minutes to go and needing a result, might be a good idea to throw Joel Selwood up forward, get him to poke his leg out everytime a defender comes close, invite the contact, go down and fool the ref into giving penalties
fatboi
Roar Rookie
@ The guru - LOL! personally for the best AFL players as astronauts i would have to pick players who excel in tight confined spaces. Matthew Priddis is one. To be joined by a player who really knows how to plant his foot on the ground and bouce high into the atmosphere. Nic Natinui.
fatboi
Roar Rookie
great points champ. I did flirt with the idea of a designated 'ball winner" in the defensive midfield role. the likes of Swan, Mitchell, Boyd, Hayes and Priddis comes to mind. But then Juddy and Gablett both win more than their fair share of hard ball gets, contested possesions and clearances! Adam Goodes was very very unlucky to miss out. But the fact that Stevie J creates so many goal opportunties and assists for his teamates got him the no.10 role. great to see someone who "got" the whole idea of the article haha
fatboi
Roar Rookie
classic nightmare scenario: slow, athletically lacking AND no skills haha. I wonder how hard it would be to beat a rough and tumble defender more concerned with hoofing the ball out of danger than dribbling around players and a short stumpy water carrier who struggles to pass to a teamate let alone think about dribbling.
fatboi
Roar Rookie
your statement that "AFL requires the least amount of skill" and [soccer] "requires the most skill" is as subjective as they come. Playing AFL requires an incredible level of skill, particularly if your job is to set up attacks and create goals. You must also realise I love soccer even more than I do AFL and I do agree that it probably requires the most skill out of the football codes. On the other hand I am also able to acknowledge the fact that the likes of Leigh Broxham, Terry McFlynn, Roddy Vargas, Jamie Coyne and Matt Simon are running around a soccer pitch and getting paid for it. Anyway it looks like many of the readers wrongly assumed that my point was to argue if you took the top AFL players out of their footy jumpers and dressed them in soccer gear TOMMOROW, that they could (in theory) be able to play soccer at a high level. The daydream exists in pondering how wonderful it would be if these athletically superior AFL footballers had been playing soccer from a young age, aquired all the technical skills and game sense through the junior years and were able to play soccer at a senior level bringing to the table all the much-admired attributes that we see on the AFL arena. At the end, I despair that our most skilful, sporty and athletic kids are playing AFL throughout their later teen years thus leaving the soccer community having to try to develop less skilful, second-rate athletes with average success. The performances and results of our Joeys, Young Socceroos and Olyroos reflect this. Ultimately this is a wake up call to FFA and the bodies involved with youth development. Are we getting it right?
hutch
Guest
I don't see the point of this article. Afl IMO, requires the least amount of skill of all 4 football codes, and you're making a hypothetical team for the sport that requires the most skill! Why?
Ian Syson
Guest
Cattery, I'm gobsmacked how you twist this story and give me motives and intentions that are just not what I'm about. Though it is impressive how you turn a positive soccer story into a negative one. Who said the soccer players employed dirty tricks? Gordon Collis did, forty-five years after the event; no-one else. Ted Whitten participated willingly in the publicity for the event and seemed to have had a good time by the way. You stick to the idea that I make a big deal out of things. All I see when I look back is points I made in passing. Your demand that the soccer players play 25 minutes of footy is absurd on two counts. Footy on Olympic Park with soccer goals? Enough said. The invitation to play footy was made in jest as a joking sign of resignation by the footy players. Secondly the soccer players were responding to an insult directed at them by Dyer. They never said they could play footy and accepted that they would have been completely hammered if they had played. You write as if you really did want Whitten and co to bash a few of the soccer fairies -- which, had they wanted to, they would have done quite easily I suppose, given that they were on average about 4 inches taller and three stone heavier. Would have looked ugly at a charity match though. The game was light-hearted fun that also proved a point in the process. Remember the game was conceived as a grudge match before it became a charity match. You seem offended by the idea that soccer might have got one over footy. For goodness' sake, give the game a break. And in any case, things reverted to business as usual pretty soon afterward. I'm troubled by your method of arguing here. You know that I am a serious professional historian and I have written historical and other pieces that you have actually praised -- on North in Hobart for example. I have not responded to you polemically or sarcastically or insultingly when I think you are being wrongheaded and yet you, behind the mask of a pseudonym, are happy to have a dig at me and question my ethics. For obvious professional reasons I can't be drawn into any kind of flaming exchange so having made my point I will just have to back out of this discussion.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
Really?