Our best AFL era side

Football Discussion Dustin Fletcher Hangar
21

Yeah, not knocking Harves as he was my favourite player for many years, but the concept of just one starting defender being over 184cm is silly.

He’d die trying, though.

22

Needs more Micky Symons at FF…but starting his set shot from the centre circle.

23

Harvs was a bustling winger wasn’t he?.. i’m confused.

24

My turn:

b: Wanganeen, Fletcher, Thompson

hb: Hardwick, Wellman, Harvey

c: Long, Misiti, Caracella

hf: Mercuri, Lucas, Hird

f: Bewick, Lloyd, Salmon

foll: Ryder, Watson, J Johnson

int: Blumfield, Stanton, O’Donnell, Denham

Wish I could have got M. Johnson in :frowning:

25
Dean Wallis? What in the actual? And... (counts on fingers) 5 tall backs? Nup, nuppity nup nup.

Hooker v Hurley v Harvey v Wellman is interesting. I think there’s every chance the current 2 surpass (in Harvey’s case, the 2nd half of) the older 2, but not quite yet. And you just can’t have all of them.

B: Damien Hardwick, Dustin Fletcher, Mark Harvey
HB: Gavin Wanganeen, Sean Wellman, Mark Thompson

C: Michael Long, Jason Johnson, Brent Stanton

HF: Mark Mercuri, Scott Lucas, James Hird
F: Darren Bewick, Matthew Lloyd, Paul Salmon

R: David Hille, Joe Misiti, Jobe Watson ©
I: Mark Johnson, Gary O Donnell, Adam Ramanauskas, Dyson Heppell

Coach: Kevin Sheedy

Works for me.
Nobody could seriously take Dean Wallis - as a 5th in line tall back - over Hepp (or Hilley or Rama or McVeigh or Blumfield or… ), could they? Loved the guy, but he was a grunt.

Hille (12.9d / 4.3m / 14.4ho / 0.8g) over Ryder (11.7d / 4.2m / 15.9ho / 0.7g) over Alessio (11.2d / 4.2m / 9.1ho / 1.1g) for mine.

Hille, McVeigh and Blumfield do not make the best team for the last 25 years and as likeable and talented as he was, not even Rama. I agree though Wallis doesn’t make it either. Hepp has the spot for mine.

26
It's the best players by position from over 30 or so years, it's not supposed to be a balanced team that's going to play a game.
Is that the criteria for Wallis getting in before Hurley?
27

Knew someone was missing.
Dean Rioli.

28
It's the best players by position from over 30 or so years, it's not supposed to be a balanced team that's going to play a game.

Also there’s no way Ryder gets in before Ces, on the back of one good season. You’d have Barnes in there on that criteria. Ryder is an overall better player, though.

Stants is a club champ, and I love him, but I’m not sure he makes it in before a number of others.


Barnes doesn’t make the grade - 5 seasons or 100 games after 1990 - he played 2 seasons for us after 1990.

The ruck’s clearly the weak spot. 3 or 4 decent rucks - no gun.

29

Its a pretty good side to keep out Andrew Welsh… Dean Solomon was pretty handy in his day too. We were spoilt.

30
It's the best players by position from over 30 or so years, it's not supposed to be a balanced team that's going to play a game.
Is that the criteria for Wallis getting in before Hurley?

No, that’s just a case of NFI.

31
Dean Wallis? What in the actual? And... (counts on fingers) 5 tall backs? Nup, nuppity nup nup.

Hooker v Hurley v Harvey v Wellman is interesting. I think there’s every chance the current 2 surpass (in Harvey’s case, the 2nd half of) the older 2, but not quite yet. And you just can’t have all of them.

B: Damien Hardwick, Dustin Fletcher, Mark Harvey
HB: Gavin Wanganeen, Sean Wellman, Mark Thompson

C: Michael Long, Jason Johnson, Brent Stanton

HF: Mark Mercuri, Scott Lucas, James Hird
F: Darren Bewick, Matthew Lloyd, Paul Salmon

R: David Hille, Joe Misiti, Jobe Watson ©
I: Mark Johnson, Gary O Donnell, Adam Ramanauskas, Dyson Heppell

Coach: Kevin Sheedy

Works for me.
Nobody could seriously take Dean Wallis - as a 5th in line tall back - over Hepp (or Hilley or Rama or McVeigh or Blumfield or… ), could they? Loved the guy, but he was a grunt.

Hille (12.9d / 4.3m / 14.4ho / 0.8g) over Ryder (11.7d / 4.2m / 15.9ho / 0.7g) over Alessio (11.2d / 4.2m / 9.1ho / 1.1g) for mine.

Hille, McVeigh and Blumfield do not make the best team for the last 25 years and as likeable and talented as he was, not even Rama. I agree though Wallis doesn’t make it either. Hepp has the spot for mine.

If you're making it look anything like a team - and they've named forwards, rucks, backs, so of course you do- some of those guys have to make it.

And regarding Hille not being close. How good exactly do you all think Alessio was? He was 2IC to Somerville, FFS. Between Salmon, then Somerville, then Barnes, how often did he actually lead the ruck? Maybe a couple of seasons?

If Ryder’s getting in on ‘one great season’ then Alessio’s getting in on zero great seasons. Alessio’s strength was he was much better forward than your average ruckman. But you couldn’t pick him as a ruckman, he wasn’t particularly good at it.

32
Its a pretty good side to keep out Andrew Welsh.. Dean Solomon was pretty handy in his day too. We were spoilt.
I reckon Sheedy's era produced the best small backs/half backs of just about any team, ever. ODonnell, Hardwick, MJ, Solly, Wanga, Harves, Bomba - list goes on.
33
It's the best players by position from over 30 or so years, it's not supposed to be a balanced team that's going to play a game.

Also there’s no way Ryder gets in before Ces, on the back of one good season. You’d have Barnes in there on that criteria. Ryder is an overall better player, though.

Stants is a club champ, and I love him, but I’m not sure he makes it in before a number of others.


Barnes doesn’t make the grade - 5 seasons or 100 games after 1990 - he played 2 seasons for us after 1990.

The ruck’s clearly the weak spot. 3 or 4 decent rucks - no gun.

Salmon couldn’t possibly have 100 games after 1990!

Edit: gosh, he was injured a lot less in the early 90s than I thought.
21 Brownlow votes from '91-'93 gets him in for mine.

34
It's the best players by position from over 30 or so years, it's not supposed to be a balanced team that's going to play a game.

Also there’s no way Ryder gets in before Ces, on the back of one good season. You’d have Barnes in there on that criteria. Ryder is an overall better player, though.

Stants is a club champ, and I love him, but I’m not sure he makes it in before a number of others.


Barnes doesn’t make the grade - 5 seasons or 100 games after 1990 - he played 2 seasons for us after 1990.

The ruck’s clearly the weak spot. 3 or 4 decent rucks - no gun.

Salmon couldn’t possibly have 100 games after 1990!

Edit: gosh, he was injured a lot less in the early 90s than I thought.
21 Brownlow votes from '91-'93 gets him in for mine.


People don’t realise how old he was when he “left”, he was closer to 31 than 30.
35
Knew someone was missing. Dean Rioli.
I don't know if you could, with a straight face. Loved him and rated him immensely highly, but he played 3 good seasons, spread over about 8. And I do mean spread.
36

You’ve got Salmon in on the basis of three seasons.
Dean is not only one of the best Essendon players I’ve ever seen, he’s one of the best players I’ve ever seen.

Walks into that side.

37
Its a pretty good side to keep out Andrew Welsh.. Dean Solomon was pretty handy in his day too. We were spoilt.
I reckon Sheedy's era produced the best small backs/half backs of just about any team, ever. ODonnell, Hardwick, MJ, Solly, Wanga, Harves, Bomba - list goes on.
It does indeed go on. Remember how we used to torture Freo's star small forwards?

Grenvold was pretty damn solid, too.

38
You've got Salmon in on the basis of three seasons. Dean is not only one of the best Essendon players I've ever seen, he's one of the best players I've ever seen.
I do.

Are you dropping Bewick, Hird or Mercuri for Rioli?
We just haven’t had that many good big men.

39

Can’t T.Watson be technically counted here?

40

This is my best AFL era Essendon team:

B: Mark Thompson, Dustin Fletcher, Gavin Wanganeen
HB: Mark Harvey, Sean Wellman, Damien Hardwick
C: Michael Long, Joe Misiti , Jason Johnson
HF: James Hird ©, Scott Lucas, Mark Mercuri,
F: Paul Salmon, Matthew Lloyd, Darren Bewick
R: David Hille, Gary O’Donnell, Jobe Watson
I: Mark Johnson, Dyson Heppell, Dean Rioli, Brent Stanton
Coach: Kevin Sheedy

Ruck is the only real weak point for Essendon since 1990. But that’s only been smacking us in the face every year since Madden retired hasn’t it?

Regarding Alessio, even though I liked him and he was very good from 99-01, in no way was he ever a number 1 ruck. He couldn’t beat Somerville for the position, or Barnes, or the 2nd coming of Salmon, or Hille and in the end they preferred Matthew Allen to him. Essendon stalwart, great clubman, not our best ruckman of the past 25 years.