All Australian Team 08

[geelong_crazy26]

Well Morris in backline is a certainty so he will replace either Milburn or Harley.

Selwood won't be there Black or Thompson in there.
Johnson not in either, Medhurst, Murphy, Pavlich or Riewoldt there.

Rest will get in, Ling is a maybe though.

I think you are wrong on Selwood, he has been one of the best midfielders in the league the second half of the season, I dont think he is a certaintly but he is definately in contention for a spot in the team, has averaged around 30 possesions a game the second half of the year, he has been brilliant.

Steve Johnson is no certainty either but he is a very big chance as well, has been named in contention by some experts to be All australian again, Luke Darcy had him in his all australian side when he said it on radio a week or two ago.

 

[AG]

I think you are wrong on Selwood, he has been one of the best midfielders in the league the second half of the season, I dont think he is a certaintly but he is definately in contention for a spot in the team, has averaged around 30 possesions a game the second half of the year, he has been brilliant.

That's why I have a few midfielders ahead of him. Out of the team you did Ling is no chance. All the other are realistic.

 

[Chewy]

This is such a good example of your bias. Look, everyone has bias, but yours stretches to the extreme and you live in denial about it.

The fact that you think people are massively under-rating [Hodge] by not talking about him as AA and you believe he should be the AA starting centreman, yet on the other hand you think Judd is over-rated and should not be AA says it all.

It is absolute line ball as to who has had a better season.

If Judd played the role Hodge has this year off a hbf, you would be talking about how he gathers cheap and easy possessions and his stats are worth nothing. But Judd doesn't, he is a contested footy machine, constantly in the hardest part of the ground powering a midfield.

Like everyone on here, if we're honest, we'd both admit to being biased towards our own teams. Actually, I've never tried to hide it or make out otherwise. I think I used the term, "shamelessly biased" about myself earlier on this thread. But why would you continue to take digs at me for being biased about Hodge?

Using your own logic:

it's line-ball between Judd and Hodge as to who's had the better season

there are only a handful of players ahead of [Judd] this year. He is definitely in the AA mix.

So you acknowledge that Hodge is right in the mix. The problem (as always) is finding places for everyone. Earlier in this thread, my shamelessly-biased Hodge "spruik" concerned the fact that some people were leaving Hodge out of their sides in favour of midfielders who played purely as on-ballers. I questioned the validity of leaving out one the competition's premier footballers, penalising him for his versatility when he should get bonus points for his versatility. Drew Petrie was given as another example. He's had a far better season than David Hille and he should be right in the mix. Yet he suffers by comparison because his reputation as a frontline ruckman is not as good as Hille.

You've described Judd as contested footy machine and repeated that misguided old chestnut about Hodge winning cheap kicks. The fact is that Judd plays all his football in the centre. When Hodge plays in the centre, he is also a contested footy machine. James Bartel is a contested footy machine. So is Ablett, Cooney, Mitchell, Kirk, Cross or any of the other candidates for the prime midfield positions.

Daniel Bradshaw probably won't get in the team because he plays purely as a full forward, but he has Franklin and Fevola ahead of him in the pecking order. The selectors face a similar quandary with Judd. He's been good, but others have been better. The beauty of Hodge (and the one of the reasons he should be picked) is that he has performed brilliantly wherever the coach has seen fit to use him. If that means he gets picked as A/A half back, then so be it. My own biased view is that he's a better centreman than Bartel or Kirk (or Mitchell) but I acknowledge that the selectors will choose a 22 game centreman.

The idea that Hodge wins cheap kicks when he plays in defence is just garbage. It's typical of people on Big Footy (and clowns like Robert Walls) to stereotype footballers for the role they play, rather than how they play the role. There are some footballers who play the "quarterback" role and play loose, avoid contests and lurk for the easy receive. Not Hodgey! He reads the play and gets to every contest he can. He acts as a road block, backs in to backs, stands his ground against behemoths like Jonothan Brown, takes intercept marks, then follows up his own play.

 

[Merv]

Thread is now closed as it has reached the 1000 + posts mark.

How apt that Chewy got the last post in

Feel free to start a new thread at your leisure.