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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.
You think the century plus of rivalry between Carlton and Collingwood prior to the AFLW beginning doesn’t have anything to do with it?
Perhaps we should revoke the Showdown Medals awarded to Ricciuto, Stevens, Francou x 3, Schofield, Johncock and Burgoyne being as how they were the first 4 years worth of medals awarded…
2021 AFL Women's season: Round 1 preview
“Round 21, 2013 was the last time that Carlton beat Richmond.”
Pretty confident there was a game a few weeks later that Carlton also won 🙂
Which records will tumble in the season opener between Richmond and Carlton?
Aw, I was hoping maybe Brad Fisher would wheedle his way on to the bench. Really got robbed of 100 games in the end. Great mark though.
The best 22 from the 2002 draft class
Couple of little corrections to make:
Ben Johnson was drafted in 1999, Derek Kickett 1988. Pretty sure Robbo was a rookie pick in 1997 too – sure as heck wasn’t a 2010 draftee!
If you use the rookie draft for the ruck it has to be Sandilands over Sauce, no question.
How do the best draft gems in AFL history line up?
I forgive Lindsay Kline for the poor bowling considering his efforts with the willow in that match 🙂
Honestly surprised that Chuck reached double figures at The Oval. I knew he had the shocking bowling figures but never really looked at the Australian batting cards beyond Fingleton/Bradman Absent Hurt.
I’d be interested in team whose farewell tests were as close to average as possible – Boonie is one that comes to mind with scores of 43 and 35 (or thereabouts) in his final test while his batting average is 43.22.
Baggy green swansongs, Part 2: Going out not with a bang, but a whimper
“The start of the tour was in Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon and not having Test status) on 15 October 1960 and the last Test against South Africa ended on 10 March 1970.”
Nearly 10 years, quite a trek 🙂
I feel you’re a bit harsh on Gleeson here – I recall reading something from Graeme Pollock that mentioned he couldn’t pick CHO so the best way to play him was to skip out and hit him on the full. Plus the story of Boycott figuring out how to pick him in the 70-71 Ashes but not telling his teammates…
It’s a shame that the likes of Richards, Proctor etc didn’t get a true chance to show their wares in Test Cricket but I guess you can only play who you’re up against. Given they beat Australia pretty handily in 1966-67 it’s reasonable to assume they would have continued as a leading team had apartheid not intervened.
How a tired and ageing Australian cricket team made South Africa look great
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
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
So come back to us in 2040 when the Carlton/Collingwood rivalry has run for 20+ years.
Bit hard for them to have a longer rivalry than 4 years when the competition as a whole has only been around for that long.
Was the Showdown a rivalry in 1999?
2021 AFL Women's season: Round 1 preview