For several years now, Gary Ablett has been all but the unanimous choice as the AFL’s best player. But who is the next most potent footballer?
Not who has had the second best career, or who is having the second best season in 2014. Rather, if you had to pick one player to help you win a game of football tomorrow, who would he be?
Would you pick a midfield maestro capable of shaping the game over four quarters? Would you plump for a key forward who might tear the game apart by kicking a bag of goals?
Would you compromise and select a roaming half forward who can both set up the play and get on the end of attacking forays?
Would you go the conservative route and select a supreme tall defender who can consistently repel your opposition’s forward thrusts? Very few of us would go down that latter defence-first route. We’d pick a classy midfielder or forward who can win us a game.
Leading into this season, the leading candidates to be Ablett’s understudy as the best player in the competition were Collingwood playmaker Scott Pendlebury and Geelong kingpin Joel Selwood. Both players captain their sides in more than just title – they lead with not only words but with unrelenting endeavour and controlled aggression.
The difference between a very good player and an elite player is how frequently they influence games which are hanging in the balance. As we’ve seen at clubs like Richmond, if you don’t have a leader who consistently stands up under pressure and says, “come with me to victory”, you will falter when it really matters.
Pendlebury and Selwood regularly come to the fore at such crucial moments. In the case of the latter, even after having a very quiet game against Carlton two weeks ago, he didn’t wilt and coolly slotted the winning goal under immense pressure in the dying moments.
Both players are capable of winning their own ball, using their strength and desperation to shift opponents and snare the pill. But they are equally dangerous if given time and space. Pendlebury is famously clinical by foot, while Selwood, too, has become an elite user of the ball.
They both have a ferocious defensive aspect to their game and demand similar efforts of their teammates. But what makes them so potent is that they can hurt you on the scoreboard, both through regularly sending the ball inside 50m and by splitting the sticks themselves.
It is almost impossible to pick between the pair. So maybe I won’t. Maybe instead I will bypass them and pick the man who, right now, is arguably as influential than Ablett.
That would be the man on the nine-year-deal at Sydney. Lance Franklin has booted 4 goals or more six times this season and also had a massive say in the Swans tight win against his old side Hawthorn, when he had 21 touches and 9 scoring shots.
Last round he literally beat top-of-the-ladder Port off his own boot, kicking Sydney’s last 5 goals to secure them a four-point victory.
But his input this season has extended well beyond just bombing goals himself. Franklin often leads well up outside the 50m arc before swivelling and looking to spot up a teammate. His return of 4.6 inside 50s per game comfortably outstrips the next best return among the AFL’s top 20 goalkickers – Collingwoood’s Travis Cloke, with 3.5 per match.
It is this dual ability to either set up the play or be the target inside 50m himself which is making him so valuable.
I was one of the many people who questioned whether Franklin’s best footy may be behind him. On the evidence of recent weeks, he is as damaging as ever.
He’s the player I’d pick in my team after Ablett.
Gecko
Guest
Fevola might have been a Buddy Franklin if he'd played for a top team. OK that's an exaggeration but I mean Franklin and most other forwards will have quiet quarters more often than they have high-impact quarters, and will have quiet games more often than they have high-impact games. In contrast, the best midfielders (Ablett, Selwood, Pendlebury, Kennedy, Watson, Fyfe, etc) will perform in 3 out of 4 quarters and in 3 out of 4 games. Their output is far more reliable... And the forwards generally can't play well unless their midfielders play well.
Kaks
Roar Guru
Most power forwards wouldnt. The thing is that when his team needs him to kick a goal he will kick them a goal.
Jack Smith
Roar Guru
Put it this way - he is in the primetime of most careers. He will only get better.
trev
Guest
Probably Israel Folau cos he's the only one I've heard of
Don Freo
Guest
As loose as...! Just runs off into the spaces. Dashing, skilled...but playing for your life? Not even 5years ago when he was still inside the top 200 players in the AFL.
Steele
Guest
Tough decision for the mantle of number two. Buddy probably doesnt deserve to be, based on week in week out consistency. But i can understand the rationale behind it. Midfielders are plentiful, but great forwards are hard to come by. The coaches votes are always a good guide to a players impact and Buddy isnt even close to the top ten. Id have Selwood, or Fyfe before him but suspect most coaches would pick him in the schoolyard scenario. its a good debate!
Dalgety Carrington
Guest
Tippett's an awful shot on goal. Roughead has has the yips at times too, along with Riewoldt.
Dalgety Carrington
Guest
Who do you think gets paid more at Collingwood, Cloke or Pendlebury? Who are the two highest players at the Swans, midfielders or forwards? As Dermie says, midfielders win Brownlows, but the big bucks go to the big forwards for a reason. They are a rare commodity and the good ones can win you games in a very short space of time or at the very least give you scoreboard presence.
Dalgety Carrington
Guest
They're all midfielders, of course they're more freaking consistent than a forward. Midfielders win Brownlows because they get the most opportunity to be involved in the play. Forwards do rely more on supply, and forward lines are also more clogged than ever so it does make it much harder for a forward to do their jobs these days.
Dalgety Carrington
Guest
Sometimes being a great player in a weak team really simplifies things. You know you are the one who has to take responsibility and everyone conforms around you and your preferred style of play. That's why I'm not all that confident Ablett will be a hugely better a player when the Suns begin to reach their potential. He'll be fantastic icing that's for sure, but I think his game will go down a notch rather than up.
Aaron
Guest
There are also a lot of safer kicks in the key forward category, starting with Jack Riewoldt and then Roughhead, Shultz and Tipett in his own side
Aaron
Guest
he's too hot and cold to be the certain number 2, but he's definitely in the top 10, players like Wingard, Pendelbury, Selwood etc play good games nearly every week, buddy has a habit of going missing
Michael huston
Guest
Have you not been watching Essendon for the last two decades? By far the most reliable player I've ever seen.
Mango Jack
Guest
Agree, Lroy, but does he do it consistently? He is a big moment player, not a big game one.
Mango Jack
Guest
Have to disagree with "had a massive say in the Swans tight win against his old side Hawthorn, when he had 21 touches and 9 scoring shots". He was dreadful in that game until he snagged a couple of goals in the last quarter. He missed so many shots and his disposals were awful. Tippet and Hannebury were far more influential.
Two
Guest
Put him in a bottom side and see how great he is then. Your only as good as the team that feeds the ball to you. Why not have some articles about some consistant, humble game players. Instead if giving that show pony so much attention.
Don Freo
Guest
What?...not as funny as Fletcher to play for your life? Chortle, chortle!
Alex L
Roar Rookie
Buddy is as good as the kick to him.
Josh
Expert
Nah, not consistent enough. I'd take Scott Pendlebury any day of the week.
Michael huston
Guest
Just going to assume thats a joke.