Will the AFL's best player please stand up

By Mitch Brown / Roar Rookie

It’s one of the most debated questions in Australian Rules Football: who is the very best we have on offer? From a pool of worthy nominees, we want you to select the best players in the league.

Once we have everyone’s opinions, we will collate them and announce the best players in our league.

Please vote in a three votes, two votes and one vote poll, like the Brownlow, for each of the four categories.

The nominees for Most Outstanding Midfielder are:
– Chris JUDD (Carl)
– Gary ABLETT (GCS)
– Scott PENDLEBURY (Coll)
– Nick DAL SANTO (StK)
– Marc MURPHY (Carl)
– Dane SWAN (Coll)
– Scott THOMPSON (Adel)
– Simon BLACK (Bris)
– Joel SELWOOD (Gee)
– Matthew BOYD (WB)
– Jobe WATSON (Ess)
– Sam MITCHELL (Haw)
– Matt PRIDDIS (WCE)
– Tom ROCKLIFF (Bris)
– Luke HODGE (Haw)

The nominees for Most Outstanding Forward are:
– Lance FRANKLIN (Haw)
– Jack RIEWOLDT (Rich)
– Travis CLOKE (Coll)
– Jonathan BROWN (Bris)
– Jarrad WAITE (Carl)
– Nathan FYFE (Fre)
– Steve JOHNSON (Gee)
– Dustin MARTIN (Rich)
– Paul CHAPMAN (Gee)
– Brent HARVEY (NM)
– Adam GOODES (Syd)
– Cyril RIOLI (Haw)
– Matthew PAVLICH (Fre)
– Josh KENNEDY (WCE)

The nominees for Most Outstanding Ruckman are:
– Aaron SANDILANDS (Fre)
– Shane MUMFORD (Syd)
– Todd GOLDSTEIN (NM)
– Dean COX (WCE)
– Ben MCEVOY (StK)
– Matthew LEUENBERG (Bris)
– Matthew KREUZER (Car)
– Patrick RYDER (Ess)
– Nic NAITANUI (WCE)
– Mark JAMAR (Mel)

The nominees for Most oustanding defender are:
– Brendon GODDARD (StK)
– Brett DELEDIO (Rich)
– Heath SHAW (Coll)
– Sam FISHER (StK)
– Heath SCOTLAND (Car)
– Corey ENRIGHT (Gee)
– Chris YARRAN (Car)
– Chris NEWMAN (Rich)
– Matt SUCKLING (Haw)
– Robert MURPHY (WB)
– Jed ADCOCK (Bris)
– Josh GIBSON (Haw)
– Brian LAKE (WB)
– Michael JAMISON (Car)
– Alex RANCE (Rich)

The Crowd Says:

2012-08-29T10:06:15+00:00

RH35

Guest


Obviously steven milne isn't going to be in the list of forwards, a biased bunch of tards will also have to put "pendels" into the mix because he happens to be a ball magnet, but not a star player. no one will ever get it right.

2012-08-26T22:01:14+00:00

allesha

Guest


Can I ask why is there still no Patrick Dangerfield??? He is an amazing player

2012-08-26T09:38:29+00:00

Brenden

Guest


Mathew Boyd 3. Gary Ablett 2. Dane Swan 1. Mathew Scarlett 3. Harry O'Brien 2. Dustin Fletcher 1. Shane Munford 3. Dean Cox 2. Aaron Sandilands 1. Travis Cloke 3. Jack Reiwoldt 2. Lance Franklin 1.

2012-08-08T22:33:20+00:00

Dave

Guest


I know you can only have a handful of players in each category, when you can't fit Sam Jacobs in as a ruck nominee in a pole like this, its not worth voting at all. Its my opinion, and I'm sure he WILL pole more votes in the brownlow than other named ruckmen.

2012-07-21T05:34:56+00:00

Beth

Guest


3. Watson 2. Ablett 1. Dal Santo 3. Riewoldt 2. Goodes 1. Franklin 3. Ryder 2. Cox 1. Sandilands 3. Murphy 2. Goddard 1. Gibson Why isn't fletcher, crameri or zaharakis on the list?!

2012-06-11T07:02:17+00:00

Heno

Guest


1. Goddard 2. Delideo 3. Fisher 1. Ablett 2. Pendelbury 3. Swan 1. Franklin 2. Reidwolt 3. Cloke 1.Sandilands 2. Cox 3.Ryder

2012-06-05T09:20:05+00:00

SLR

Guest


Back: 3 Corey Enright 2 Brett Deledio 1 Brendan Goddard Mid: 3 Scott Pendlebury 2 Gary Ablett 1 Dane Swan Ruck: 3 Patrick Ryder 2 Dean Cox 1 Aaron Sandilands Forward: 3 Steve Johnson 2 Travis Cloke 1 Lance Franklin

2012-04-14T18:36:38+00:00

Bad list

Guest


No Glass, Scarlett or Bartel! Waste of time

2012-04-13T09:25:30+00:00

lachlan

Guest


yeh totally agree bartell and scarlett i reckon are in the top 10 in the afl and they cant even get mention in there own section btw im not a cats suporter

2012-04-13T09:03:13+00:00

Geoff Lemon

Expert


Funny how the Cats have been in four of the last five grand finals but can barely rate a mention on the list of suggestions. No Bartel, no Scarlett, no Taylor, no Kelly...

2012-04-13T05:30:30+00:00

lachlan

Guest


Dont want to bag any one for having an opinion but surely this is incredibly biased towards Brisbane i mean you cant be basing this on last year or the year before at all i mean simon black is an absolute champion same with jonathon brown but there not in the top 3 for midfielders or forwards and merret is alright but not in the top three defenders hardly makes the top ten

2012-04-13T05:24:12+00:00

lachlan

Guest


3 Pendles 2 Abblett 1 M Murphy 3 Buddy 2 Goodes 1 Cloke 3 Cox 2 Sandi 1 goldstein Sorry but IMO these are the three best defenders in league 3 Scarlett 2 Glass 1 Reid

2012-04-12T12:35:18+00:00

amazonfan

Roar Guru


Most Outstanding Midfielder: 3-Judd 2- Ablett 1- Hodge (Judd is IMO the best player in the AFL, and has been for quite some time.) Most Outstanding Forward: 3-Goodes 2-Pavlich 1-Franklin (I have Goodes & Pavlich above Franklin due to their versatility. If we were talking pure forwards, Franklin would battle it out with Cloke for three votes, however we aren't. Truth be told, I think that this whole categorization is quite antiquated, as one can't divide players by position as cleanly as in years past.) Most Outstanding Ruckman: 3-Cox 2-Sandilands 1-Mumford Most oustanding Defender: 3-Goddard 2-Enright 1-Shaw (I would give 3 votes to Scarlett, however, for some reason, he's not eligible.)

2012-04-12T12:20:19+00:00

AndyMack

Guest


Come over to the dark side Catters, I know you want to. Handing out all those 3-votes to Pies and then pretending that you dont like it....

2012-04-12T07:04:06+00:00

Tom of Darwin

Guest


3-Ablett 2-Watson 1-Thompson 3-Franklin 2-Fyfe 1-Cloke 3-Cox 2-Sandi 1-Kruezer 3-Goddard 2-Delidieo 1-Adcock

2012-04-12T04:37:23+00:00

Stewie

Guest


3 - Gary Ablett 2 - Pendles 1 - Judd 3 - Franklin 2 - Goodes 1 - S. Johnson 3 - Cox 2 - Sandilands 1 - Mumford 3 - Goddard 2 - Lids 1 - Shaw

2012-04-12T02:04:55+00:00

manalien

Roar Pro


3- Gary Ablett 2-Scott Pendelbury 1- Chris Judd 3- Lance Franklin 2- Jonathan Brown 1- Adam Goodes 3-Aaron Sandilands 2-Shane Mumford 1-Nic Naitanui 3- Brendan Goddard 2- Brett Deledio 1- Corey Enright

2012-04-12T00:57:24+00:00

Lost Earthling

Guest


Most Outstanding Midfielder: 3 - Chris JUDD (Carl) 2 - Gary ABLETT (GCS) 1 - Simon BLACK (Bris) Most Outstanding Forward: 3 - Lance FRANKLIN (Haw) 2 - Jonathan BROWN (Bris) 1 - Brent HARVEY (NM) Most Outstanding Ruckman: 3 - Dean COX (WCE) 2 - Aaron SANDILANDS (Fre) 1 - Mark JAMAR (Mel) Most oustanding Defender: 3 - Brendon GODDARD (StK) 2 - Daniel MERRETT (Bris) 1 - Corey ENRIGHT (Gee)

AUTHOR

2012-04-12T00:08:56+00:00

Mitch Brown

Roar Rookie


Unfortunately, we don't tend to rank the full back stoppers as highly as the classy runners that get most of the accolades. I would see Brian Lake, Josh Gibson and Michael Jamison as the best traditional full backs in the game, but they are not seen to be in the same league as the likes of Goddard, Shaw, Deledio, Enright etc.

2012-04-11T23:32:43+00:00

The Cattery

Roar Guru


Pendles 3 Judd 2 Yablett 1 Cloke 3 Buddy 2 Pav 1 Cox 3 NicNat 2 Cruiser 1 Goddard 3 Enright 2 Shaw 1 Hmm, can't believe of giving two lots of top votes to pies players, and that WCE ruck division looks scary!! With the defenders, who the big blokes minding the likes of Cloke and Buddy?

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