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Joined March 2020
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I care too much about the teams I support to actually watch them play. It's easy to watch with no investment but if Carlton, Sydney Thunder or Arizona Cardinals are on it's too stressful...! Fond of sporting history - there's a lot of that already so I struggle to keep up with new history every year.
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Now that we have 21 teams based on surnames, it’s time to look at a few selection changes based on feedback and additional research as well as compare each team to come out with an overall best letter.
The composite team has some of the greatest big men of all time, as well as some current players still going strong.
The W team has a prolific midfield, a talented forward line and a mercurial backline.
The V team might not have the depth of others, but there is enough quality to trouble some of the best sides.
With a forward line as potent as the one boasted by the T team, there would be plenty of shootouts.
The S team is surprisingly light for scoring options, but with a midfield as good as this, there will be plenty of opportunity.
The R team could have been a true family affair, with the likes of Rocca, Riewoldt, Rankin and Richards all having claims to multiple members of the family in the team.
The P team is one that has a fine balance of class, flash and toughness, with several milestone holders among their number.
The ‘O’ team doesn’t have much out-and-out star power, but can boast plenty of consistency across the board.
The N team is short on depth, but high on quality, with one team’s era heavily featured.
The M team has well over 1000 players eligible to be selected in the squad, so to have reached this 25 is no mean feat indeed.
We move now to the L team, with firepower enough up front to outscore almost anyone.
Up next is the K team, with three generations of one family all finding a spot in the squad.
We move to the J team, and one of the most dynamic forward lines of any squad thus far.
Time now for the H team, which combines class and toughness on every line.
We move now to the G team, which has a much more modern influence than we have seen so far.
We move on to the F team, with such a bevy of fantastic key position players that fitting them all in was a challenge in and of itself.
The E team doesn’t have quite the explosiveness or legends we have seen so far, but there are still plenty of revered names in the squad.
After a controversial selection for the C team, we come to the D outfit.
The C team contains some of the most famous names in Australian football history and a few members of a modern golden era, as well as one of the players who has a legitimate claim to be the greatest ever.
He didn’t go to a bottom 4 side though
AFL trades: The Brad Crouch compensation controversy and how to fix it
Given the AFL likes to put point values on their draft picks can’t they do some sort of equation with the money, age etc and come up with a “Brad Crouch’s contract = xxx points which is equivalent to pick yy to Adelaide” solution instead of relating the bands to the club’s finishing position? Takes away the inconsistencies of Frawley/Franklin comparisons and could offer even small compensation for the likes of Jarrad Waite when he went to the Roos (pick 60 is better than nothing ffs).
AFL trades: The Brad Crouch compensation controversy and how to fix it
This is a question that will bounce around in my head for ages. Best is a difficult answer but in terms of fun watching I would say in order:
Brisbane – Aker, Voss, Leppitsch, Shaun Hart in the headgear, there was just a lot of fun in watching them and it always felt like a surprise when they lost in 2002-4. Port Adelaide ending the dynasty felt like an event partly because it was the fourth straight GF, and that’s something Hawthorn didn’t have in 2016.
Geelong – Just classy the whole way around. Mooney gave that bit of mongrel but from Scarlett at the back to Johnson and Chapman up forward they just played a pleasing type of football to the eye. Plus, of course, Ablett.
Hawthorn – The Franklin-Roughead duo were great fun but generally the more unsavoury parts of things would come out to play what with Hodge and Lewis having a reputation for dirty hits, the umpire protection perception. When they were on, they were ON.
Richmond – It’s weird – despite the three flags (and both of the last two having a sense of inevitability around them) during the H&A season it always feels like they give you a chance. Rance out? No matter. Interstate hoodoo? What interstate hoodoo? Stars besides Martin, Riewoldt, Cotchin? Not needed. I’m sure there have been more “The Tigers won’t win the flag” takes the last two years than there were for any of the other three teams combined. It’s weird.
Brisbane, Geelong, Hawthorn or Richmond: Which dynasty has been the best?
Thanks Matt for everything, fantastic effort and an inspiration.
A few things not mentioned that would sit in my #100 slot:
Lance Whitnall in the 1999 PF – “It starts right, it swings back… WHAT A GOAL!!!”
Boonie’s catch to get Shane Warne his hattrick on the MCG
Benji Marshall’s flick passes
Mark Riddell jumping the fence and applauding himself after scoring a try (in… 2001 I think? I was sitting on the hill at WIN Stadium and everyone was cheering and carrying on after the try before I looked over and busted up laughing watching him)
Kouta in 2000
Michael Bevan’s last ball 4 against the Windies
Graeme Smith batting with a broken hand to attempt to save a test
Mark Webber and Paul Stoddart on the podium at the Australian GP in 2002 after finishing 5th
The Belgium GP 1998 starting crash, followed by Schumacher running up the back of Coulthard
A few individual deliveries always stand out to me: Johnson bowling Cook in the Johnson Ashes and the ball just sat right at the stumps, Johnson bowling Stokes in the World Cup and the ball pinging off to point and beyond, and Harris bowling Cook also in the Ashes.
Gee sport is great.
Celebrating a century: My sporting love affair
I want Geelong to win so Touhy gets a medal and Gaz goes out a winner, but I fear we’re in for another Richmond flag. Hoping for a closer match than their previous two premierships, mind
Grand final forecast: Richmond versus Geelong
I can see Wanganeen flinging himself across the goalsquare to knock away a Brent Harvey shot at goal in the last minutes and seal both the win and a Norm Smith. Naturally Ted Whitten has the ball when the siren goes.
Thanks for the kind words, this was a lot of fun.
The AFL all-time great alphabet teams: The wrap-up
Scott Prestwidge and Adam Dale – not just a fantastic catch in the MM Cup.
Analysing Australia’s Test cricket winners: The best of the best
I can’t think of who in the Lasties ODI XI would be the 5th bowler. The only one I’m aware of that rolls his arm over is Kohli but I can’t imagine he’d be good for a full 10 overs.
Surely Chris Tavare is at #3 for the ODI Firsties team 🙂
Boycott could replace either Boon or Abbas in the Lasties Test XI as a genuine opener. Probably Abbas as he was more of a middle order player I believe.
Good effort though and certainyl one that’s got me thinking. Cheers.
The all-time alphabetical XIs
And Peter Matera instead of Brandon…!
The AFL all-time great alphabet teams: The wrap-up
Thanks Andy, I kind of feel like I’m at a loose end now. What am I supposed to write about and research and work on at work? Work? Come on.
Schultz/Sandilands/Scott/Stynes/Salmon would stretch anyone for sure. I called Salmon a ‘maybe’ ruckman because he did spend all that time at full forward for Essendon.
Also, it was meant to be Trevor Barker mentioned in the B team, not John Barker. I mean John is fine and all but an all timer he ain’t.
The AFL all-time great alphabet teams: The wrap-up
Picking things apart is the fun part of this site 🙂
I think the biggest ‘Good’ is that the season got completed at all and with only the one positive case. Credit to the AFL, clubs and state leadership all to get it done.
Ratts getting another chance is well worth it. Giving him the boot after an injury hit season because there was a shiny old Malthouse on the market is one of the most shortsighted things Carlton has done for a very long time.
Walsh is a worthy MOTY winner. I wanted him to win for parochialism, expected Hill to win, but the running with the flight marks are always great IMO.
Holding the ball is a forever debacle.
The good, bad and ugly of AFL 2020
Regrettably it took me far too long to realise this related to the rain delay scoring system and not the umpiring snafu-stopper…
Very interested to follow along with this series as statistics and the like fascinate me.
Reinventing the DLS method: Part 1
Great article, this. It’s one of those arguments that has no right answer but plenty of depth and room for differing opinions. Bradman is numerically superior because he just would not get out but stylistically pales in comparison based on contemporary literature.
If I had a time machine I think the innings I would like to see most would be Trumper’s 104 in Manchester 1902 (heck, the whole Test is iconic) but Bradman’s remorseless run-getting is amazing in its own way. Either way we’re lucky to have had such legends still talked about for so long afterwards.
Australia's greatest: Bradman or Trumper?
Yes, that was a Haigh book and genuinely fascinating – going into depth about the method of photography at the time, George Beldam himself, and how it had been set up in 1905 – not Trumper’s 1902 masterpiece.
Reminds me of the football cards where they are clearly posed at training or something – Dick Reynolds in the 1930s comes immediately to mind as a similarly iconic look.
Australia's greatest: Bradman or Trumper?
Zanotti is in the back pocket.
Ugle didn’t have enough success for West Coast to be considered but a very decent WAFL career to be fair.
The AFL all-time great alphabet teams: Letters I, Q, U, Y and Z
Haha, you had me worried I’d forgotten someone from the SANFL. Having a look through the list of Watsons I can see:
Jobe – Even besides the drug thing he doesn’t compare to a full Team of the Century midfield
Colin – Would have been great fun to mention, 1925 Brownlow and all
Larry – 60-odd games for North Adelaide besides the VFL
Matthew – If he was as good as was hoped when Carlton drafted him in 2010 then maybe but let’s be real
The AFL all-time great alphabet teams: Letter W
Thanks Peter, much appreciated.
I’m planning a wrap-up article with some observations, stats, team changes based on feedback and a presumptive ladder with all 21 teams. W is certainly right up there in the top tier.
The AFL all-time great alphabet teams: Letter W
The Moody Blues
Long Distance Voyager
Track 7
We can but hope.
Season in review: Time for Essendon to face facts
I don’t understand the thinking – either from a footballing or marketing perspective. Brown is the most watchable player on the Kangaroos and to have him traded on top of cutting a quarter of the list reeks of desperation to me. Not quite Fevola levels but there’s not much else there to excite.
Trading Ben Brown could make or break Rhyce Shaw's coaching career
He’s been fine but 60-odd games in 10 years isn’t much to write about. Could have been an emergency over Dick Vernon but that’s as high as I’d have him.
The AFL all-time great alphabet teams: Letter V
First of all, I’m not Victorian.
Second of all, the Modra discussion took place in the M article. This is the S article, a full 5 teams later. That’s a full 125 extra selections to complain about if you so desire.
Third of all, if one game where Modra kicked 13 goals is the entire basis for SOS not being worthy of being in this team you’ll need to take it up with the panel that chose him as FB of the Century and didn’t put Modra in as FF of the Century.
Fourth of all, as I said yesterday, the criteria were laid out in the first article and have not changed. For instance, I hadn’t even heard of Paul Bagshaw until he was mentioned in the comments of the B article so it wouldn’t be fair or decent to try to select from the non-V/AFL teams given my lack of knowledge.
Fifth of all, literally only two WA players have been mentioned as possible selections: Nipper Truscott yesterday, and Stephen Michael earlier. Every other grievance has been about SA.
There are two Adelaide players in both the T and V teams published in the past few days, go and feel better about things there.
The AFL all-time great alphabet teams: Letter S
Yes, yes, you’ve made your point. It’s only been on, what, the last six articles now? Find a new angle.
The criteria were listed clearly in the first article and I haven’t deviated from that. I knew of some names from the SANFL such as Ebert, Robran, Farmer etc but I haven’t spent 3/4 of my life reading about the history of the game in those states. I’d be doing myself a disservice if I tried to include every league in selecting the teams.
The AFL all-time great alphabet teams: Letter T
Good get – certainly would have been in the 25 somewhere. Likely shifting Scott Thompson to the bench I’d say.
Just looking at Wiki now – 3 flags and 7 GF losses, wow.
Thanks for mentioning him, I had no idea about his success. There’s a lot of SA / WA football history I don’t know but would love to find out.
The AFL all-time great alphabet teams: Letter T
Slight amendment to the team – Mark Tandy would be in the starting 18 and Neil Trezise on the bench. A TOC berth and endorsement from an official Legend of the game is enough to outweigh two flags.
The AFL all-time great alphabet teams: Letter T
Chuck’s record is heavily hurt by The Oval 1938. Without that debacle he averages 31.02 – I know it’s a bit off to take away such an anomalous performance as it did occur, but it provides a bit of context.
When ten is the limit: Part 1