Best Essendon Team - Under 100 games

[No31]

Ben Doolan & Peter Cransberg

[smooth]

Cranners didn’t miss a game his first 2 years with us. Class act, had a lovely left foot on him and also pretty quick, but from ‘92 onwards he got injured a lot. Even his last year with us in ‘97 he played some really good games up forward. Could play.

[Henry_s_Angry_Pills]

@HirdMentality

Are we only considering their performances whilst with us

Have to.

Kelly would be close IMO.
Certainly ahead of the likes of Prismall and Reimers.

[Robin_Close]

Rene kink?

[Shelton10]

I wouldn’t have Des Tuddenham in any football team. Thug.

[Captain_Jack]

How many games did Greg Anderson play?

[KLRabbit]

Greg Anderson = 103 Bomber games

[Albert_Thurgood]

@Captain_Jack

How many games did Greg Anderson play?

https://lmgtfy.com/?q=How+many+games+did+Greg+Anderson+play%3F

[percebushby]

@Albert_Thurgood

@smooth

Given we’ve got no actual football to discuss, as part of the “Top 10/Best of” discussions, I thought one that might be a good one is the best Essendon team of players to have played under 100 games. Had a crack at this, I’ve probably got some recency bias in terms of when in doubt I’ve gone with players from my time watching the game (late-80s onwards), but I’ve tried to pay respects to players from past eras. PS: No current EFC players have been selected, can only be players who have finished playing at EFC.

B: Michael Hibberd (84 games), Tom Fitzmaurice (85), Harold Lambert (99)
HB: Neale Daniher (82), Ian Shelton (91), Paul Weston (60)
C: Ricky Olarenshaw (77), Derek Kickett (77), Des Tuddenham (69)
HF: Ted Leehane (83), Ron Evans (64), Tony Elshaug (65)
F: Geoff Blethyn (84), John Coleman (98), Albert Thurgood (46*)
R: Graham Moss (84), Leon Baker (86), Tony Buhagiar (83)
INT: Gary Moorcroft (95), Jake Carlisle (85), Che Cockatoo-Collins (85), James Kelly (40)

(*) This is Thurgood’s VFL games tally. He did play for us in the VFA era, however there is no record as to exactly how many games he played for EFC pre 1897.

Great idea for a topic. What a forward line!

You are right about the recency phenomenon though. Some of the recent ones really do not deserve to be in the company of those true champions.

Here is who I would select (those bolded were not in your team):

B: Bob McClure (90), Tom Fitzmaurice (85), Harold Lambert (99)
HB: Neale Daniher (82), Ian Shelton (91), Paul Weston (60)
C: George Stuckey (71) Leon Baker (86) Bryan Wood (44)
HF: Ted Leehane (83), **Jack McKenzie (81), Paul Sproule (60)
FF: Geoff Blethyn (84), *John Coleman (98), George Shorten (52)
R: Graham Moss (84), Albert Thurgood (46) Derek Kickett (77),

INT: John Cassin (51) Tony Buhagiar (83) Tony Elshaug (65) Phil Carman (10)

Albert Thurgood was simply far too good of a player to be stuck in the FP. He was the outstanding footballer of the 1890s - think Carey or Ablett at their peak. He could “play in any position at a moment’s notice and dominate the game”.

Leon Baker was an ideal centreman, and Derek Kickett on his day played like superman so named him as a second ruck rover. He also is too damaging to be limited to the forward line. If you prefer a classic rover, he could swap with George Shorten or one of the rovers on the bench.

Bob McClure was a champion ruckman and could also play in defence “He seemed to have the longest arms and stickiest hands in the game”. Does that remind you of someone? Named as a Champion of Essendon.

George Stuckey – described in the Champions of Essendon book as having the footballing ability of James Hird, he was named captain at only 25, and led the club to two Premierships, and he also won a Stawell Gift.

Bryan Wood was not too shabby, playing in the great 84-5 teams, including the ’85 premiership side. He also won 3 premierships at Richmond.

Jack McKenzie, also a Champion of Essendon and a ruckman, was one of the best players of his generation. His kicking for goal was “so accurate he barely missed a chance”. He was also described as “artistic” which may be an early 20th Century version of “silky smooth”. So he was sort of like a ruck version of Mark Mercuri, I give him a spot at CHF.

I named Paul Sproule on the HFF. He kicked 5 goals on debut, but ended up only playing 60 games for us during the dismal early ‘70s when the club was frankly mismanaged. He went on to be a premiership player at Richmond, playing in 3 GFs and winning two flags, almost BOG in one of those. (His total games tally was over 100. Does this disqualify him? Apparently not because James Kelly also played more games before coming to EFC).

George Shorten was one of our famous Mosquito Fleet in the 1920’s and came second in the Brownlow (missing by one vote) in its first year. He was BOG in the 1923 GF and also played in the next year’s Premiership winning team.

John Cassin was another tough and reliable player in the dismal years of the '70s, and another who left to win a Premiership elsewhere. He gets a spot on the interchange bench along with a couple of very good rovers.

The last interchange spot is a controversial one: the mercurial Phil Carman. Admittedly he played his best footy before coming to Essendon, but “he could have been anything”…!

For goodness’ sake, Albert, you’d play a ruckman at CHF and leave a genuine champion CHF mouldering at HFF ?

Give Ted Leehane his due respect, please…

I’d also have Bluey McClure starting in the ruck.

[theDJR]

List of EFC players for determining count of senior games:

https://afltables.com/afl/stats/alltime/essendon.html

[Captain_Jack]

@KLRabbit

Greg Anderson = 103 Bomber games

Damn, too many for this thread.
ONOH enough for a F/S draft pick.

[Diggers]

Tony Buhagiar

[No31]

Was a fan of Steven Clark

[frosty]

@Aceman

No disagreements there. Was a pure outside ball carrier and avoided the hard stuff but still thought he went alright

Outside, and very one sided. He was a decent player, but limited. He was the sort of guy that made that 1990-1992 Essendon side a step down from the teams that came before and afterwards, in spite of having some very good footballers.

(And I’d say the same about guys like Cransberg, Werner, etc etc etc)

These guys would be no where near a best Essendon team less than 100 games, even though we enjoyed watching them play and they were good footballers.

And Sporn was no where near as good as his sister!

[Captain_Jack]

@No31

Was a fan of Steven Clark

Me too. Gosh he had some pace.
Also was a big fan of Copping.
He came to Ess a little late. IIRC he kicked 100 + goals in SA from a HFF.
l saw him kick 5 in a second quarter to win a game for us off his own boot. Had the best 'tash going around as well. Played taller, a decent mark for his size, great goal sense.

[davethedon]

I was looking at having to play on Steven Clark in the ammos in 1985 when he got magically extracted out of Bullleen-Temp by the bombers, mid season.

[Aceman]

I can’t remember much of his early stuff at Glenelg but he won their Goal kicking award twice before he crossed over to us, think it was 48 or 49 goals in 1981 which is the year before he came over. When he returned to Glenelg in 1985 he kicked over 80 goals that season.

[davethedon]

Another Steven Clark story. In 1991 a mate had one of those 6 game bets and he had the bombers to win narrowly, along with a few upsets - main one being the appalling Brisbane to beat the swans. Anyway Clark has a long shot after the siren for Melb to draw Essendon but doesn’t get that close and we win by 6 at windy hill. I went to that game. Mate would have lost if they’d drawn. He’s excited thinking he’s made 2 or 3 k off a $100 bet. When he goes to collect the woman says ‘you’re the one’. He had the only live unit and won almost 100k. Bought a house (pretty much) off that.

[Elsternwickbomber]

Was at that game, too. Didn’t make any money though, sadly.