AFL top 100: Grand final selection highlights

Of the 18 clubs in the AFL, Collingwood was the only one that did not welcome a new member to its top 100 game-players list.

Ben Reid, the only possibility to make the list at the start of the season, due to injury and form fell three games short of playing the nine games he needed to join Frank Murphy in the hot seat at 100th on the list.

Murphy, who played for the Magpies in the halcyon days from 1925 to 1934, played in the record fourpeat of 1927 to 1930 and two other grand finals, making him a famous name around the club.

Another famous Collingwood name is Richardson, and the Richardson dynasty comprised captain Wayne; his brother, Max, who also captained the club; and, later, Wayne’s son Mark. Between them they played 629 games and kicked 564 goals for Collingwood and should be well remembered at this grand final as each one’s position in the club’s hierarchy will be challenged by a current-day player, the usurpers being Scott Pendlebury, Steele Sidebottom and Jordan de Goey.

Captain Scott Pendlebury will join Wayne Richardson as the third greatest game-player at this famous club when he plays his 277th match on Saturday, and he will need all his silky skills if he is to hold the premiership cup on Saturday.

Steele Sidebottom, runner-up in the Brownlow Medal this year, will be hoping to take that form out onto the paddock for the biggest game of the year. It will be his 211th game for the Magpies, and he’ll join Max Richardson on that number in the top-30 game-players for the Pies.

(AAP Image/Julian Smith)

Jordan de Goey has to do more than run onto the field to be the third player to rub shoulders with a Richardson; he needs to kick two goals to join Mark Richardson and three others – Chris Dawes, Mac Holten and Teddy Lockwood – in 99th position on Collingwood’s top 100 goal-scorers list.

That would seem a reasonable challenge for de Goey, as in every game since Round 15 – with the one exception of Round 23 against Fremantle – he has scored a minimum of two goals. I would suggest that if he doesn’t kick at least two goals, Collingwood will not win.

Tyson Goldsack’s game will still leave him one game behind 1990 premiership hero Denis Banks but could take him one premiership past him given Goldsack was a member of the 2010 premiership side.

Surprisingly for West Coast, a much younger club, we have to go a fair way down the list to find some players who are matching the tallies of past players on the top 100 game-players list.

Luke Shuey will join Chris Waterman in 28th position, Jeremy McGovern will join Jason Ball and Daniel Chick in 61st position and Dom Sheed will join the A team of Andrew Lockyer, Ashley Sampi and Ashley Hansen in 75th position.

The Eagles, however, will have two AFL all-time top-100 goal-kickers who need only very modest totals to advance their cause up the list. Josh Kennedy needs two goals to join Paul Salmon in 43rd position, and Luke Shuey needs only one goal to join the top 80.