All Australian Team 2016

[Bomberblitzer]

Yeah we all know about your captain.
When's he mailing his Chas back to the AFL??

He will forever remain a Brownlow medalist. Selwood will be remembered as figjam.

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Well for selecting the captain surely these sorts of things are taken into account.

How do you judge a players leadership skills?

For me Selwood is just a sook, and one of the worst captains going around. His example of petulance permeates the whole Geelong FC, but this also comes from the coach.

 

[Proper Gander]

Am I the only person who voted for Jack Watts pretty much on the basis that it said (seriously for once) after his name?

Well that plus I routinely screw up all BF polls by voting for someone from my team without regard for the question posed.

 

[GroggSquad]

Rioli is a lock. That makes your side a failure.

Ahead of Bontempelli or Pendlebury? No thanks. Great player though.

 

[TiggerMan22]

1. I didn't realize there were set rules on who had to mention something before it was discussed.

2. You were the one who.compared a midfielder to his contemporaries. I merely did the same among forwards and as another poster rightly pointed out, on a per capita basis the comparison stood up.

We can discuss rance conceding far more goals than Harry Taylor next if you want.

Ah there isn't, but the question "Do only mid-fielders touch the ball?", probably should be directed at the person that mentioned midfielders and full forwards, instead of me.

No, no you didn't. I mentioned players that kicked 44 goals or more, regardless of position and also players that averaged 24 touches or more, regardless of position. I never said midfielders and full fowards.

 

[fpm84]

Well for selecting the captain surely these sorts of things are taken into account.

How do you judge a players leadership skills?

For me Selwood is just a sook, and one of the worst captains going around. His example of petulance permeates the whole Geelong FC, but this also comes from the coach.

Yeah I'm really disappointed my captain doesn't drink drive and use goalposts to try to decapitate opposition players

 

[TiggerMan22]

Just wondering if your willingness to equate kicking 2 goals a game to being above average for a competition-best key forward is correlated to your own team"s willingness to chub up over perpetual mediocrity.

Lmao, what are you on about now?
2 goals is above average for the league, not for Kennedy. Cmon this really isn't hard.

 

[Scotland]

Last year for starters.
When a bloke is #1 in Contested ball and #1 for Clearances, Top 5 tkles, and misses out...its no wonder the entire footy world thought there was a typo when JPK wasn't picked. Not to mention top 5-10 in every other midfield rating worth a damn.
Deledio must have been better...missed 6 games during the season for starters. Equal 132nd for disposals, 56 tkls for an entire season (equal 167th), 98th for contested ball, etc etc, but they they had a hard on for the tiges who finished 5th. This was the AA quality season that got you selected ahead of the #1or#2 overall ball winning and influential midfielder in the game last season...22D, 6 Mks, 3 tkles a game. He became the darling of the commentators coz he was BOG against Hawthorn and got them over the line. He kicked GOALS...that's the clue to what the slectors truly want to see and apparently trumps winning the ball and having any sort of defensive aspect to your game as well...all score involvements rule with the selectors (when it suits). Never discount hype and a rolling perception amongst viccentric commentators. If you absolutely kill a season but get no press, dont win the adulation amongst the vic commentators, don't make a song and dance about it and just win matches without fanfare...you cant even expect the AA selectors will notice.
The moral is...when it comes to midfielders, the big name truly influential top 5/10 type AFL midfielders regularly need to live up to an entirely separate standard to the rest.
They have proven over and over (for mids) that kicking 1+ goals a game trumps virtually everything...even if you are catching your breath in the pocket when it falls in your lap...that becomes AA standard all of a sudden IFFF you win the game.

You only need to look at Riewoldts terrific season to notice the inconsistency though. Takes his mob to 12 wins with 40 goals, same touches as a mid, and 50 more marks than anyone else...bypassed even for the squad. Influenced the season...but a free kick early in the season at the death, that wasn't his fault, caused a loss against Hawthorn and a spot in finals. Otherwise he would probably have been an automatic pick and the darling of the commentary team for the entire season and won his umpteenth AA.
Before forced to cover defence..as a mid for 7-8 games he was running at 22D 11 Mks and three goals a game...that is truly massive. Screwed himself out of another AA simply by helping his team...and almost made finals. Played every position on the ground...that was his downfall.
So many midfield rotations these days I doubt they even notice actual influence.
Tis a fine line.

p.s. Congrats to McGovern.

The selectors make some puzzling decisions. They seem to swing between weight of numbers meaning something and not meaning something like a bunch of pendulums. Sorry I don't know if pendulums has its own collective noun. They also fluctuate on picking players on position vs performance/reputation. I was pleased that Andrew Gaff for example made the squad because even though I don't think he is in the best 22 players for the year he is a genuine wingman. In the end they opted for players who were better performed that play different roles.

RE: Riewoldt, I don't consider him a mid. He played this season as a forward / wingman. He took 222 marks which is a marvellous effort, that - and about twice as many as the next best mid, but it's not a metric midfielders are usually measured on. Dangerfield had 112 for the year, does anyone care? No. Riewoldt had 40 tackles and 12 clearances, appalling relative to other mids. Not because he's a dud footballer, but because he just doesn't play as a mid that contests stoppages and centre bounces - it's not his go.

IMO he was in the running for a spot on the wing or HFF. On the wings they opted for Sloane and Hannebery who are modern midfielders that play inside and out. Sloane had 500+ touches, Hannebery nearly 700. Both were in triple digits for clearances and tackles with a roughly 50/50 split between uncontested and contested ball. Neither are noted goalkickers. Riewoldt got 436 touches with a 3:1 split of uncontested to contested ball. Compare that to Gaff who I mentioned above who got it 600 times with a 3:1 split like Riewoldt. He isn't a big clearance winner and tackles about as often as Scott Cummings did.

As far as a HF spot goes, I think Riewoldt and Greene had comparable seasons. If Riewoldt was 183cm and not 193cm I reckon he'd probably be in, but the side looks unbalanced with him + the 3 talls they already picked even though he's played in a team with 2/3 other talls all season. If Roo was picked over one of the key forwards kicking 60+ there'd be an uproar. I think the Cyril hype has reached absurd levels but I'm pleased to see 3 smalls who genuinely played forward named. Betts and Cyril are both forward pockets but it's really just a 3 tall / 3 small mix however they line up.

I'd happily have Roo on the bench over Martin who had a good season but probably gets the most junk possessions of anyone.

 

[fpm84]

Geniunely perplexed by the Selwood inclusion. Has been OK this year but nothing more. Clearly outplayed by Dangerfield almost every week. Selwod has been good, but not great. Completely reputation based selection.

121 Patrick Dangerfield (Geel)
93 Rory Sloane (Adel)
90 Dustin Martin (Rich)
88 Marcus Bontempelli (WB)
86 Luke Parker (Syd)
86 Joel Selwood (Geel)
83 Dan Hannebery (Syd)
82 Luke Shuey (WC)
77 Robbie Gray (PA)
69 Josh Kennedy (Syd)
69 Josh Kennedy (WC)

Selwood came equal 5th in the coaches award. Did the coaches get it wrong, too?

 

[toxic]

121 Patrick Dangerfield (Geel)
93 Rory Sloane (Adel)
90 Dustin Martin (Rich)
88 Marcus Bontempelli (WB)
86 Luke Parker (Syd)
86 Joel Selwood (Geel)
83 Dan Hannebery (Syd)
82 Luke Shuey (WC)
77 Robbie Gray (PA)
69 Josh Kennedy (Syd)
69 Josh Kennedy (WC)

Selwood came equal 5th in the coaches award. Did the coaches get it wrong, too?

Where did
Gawn come?
Enright?
Talia?

 

[fpm84]

Where did
Gawn come?
Enright?
Talia?

No idea. Only the top 10 is published online.

I was responding to a poster who claimed Neale should have made the side. Maybe he should have, but not at Selwood's expense.

According to the coaches, Selwood was the equal 5th best performed midfielder this year behind Dangerfield, Sloane, Martin, Bontempelli, equal with Parker and ahead of Hannebery.

Funnily enough all six of those players made the AA team.

Those having a meltdown about last night should also be melting over the AFLCA award, right?

 

[toxic]

No idea. Only the top 10 is published online.

I was responding to a poster who claimed Neale should have made the side. Maybe he should have, but not at Selwood's expense.

According to the coaches, Selwood was the equal 5th best performed midfielder this year behind Dangerfield, Sloane, Martin, Bontempelli, equal with Parker and ahead of Hannebery.

Funnily enough all six of those players made the AA team.

Those having a meltdown about last night should also be melting over the AFLCA award, right?

My question was based around the merit of the coaches award?
Whats more valuable?
Enright holding Eddie Betts to no goals?
Or
Rance holding jjk to no goals
Or
Gawn having 60 hitouts, 30 to advantage
Or
Jelwood having 25+ possessions

Considering our game has become possession focused it seems all the coaches have voted on is midfield possessions and the value contributed by defenders is vastly underrated

 

[Sttew]

He displayed a far higher quantity of leadership despite not having the (C) next to his name at selection.

A "far higher quantity of leadership"? WTF measuring tool have you used?

 

[Smedts_2]

Cats bias alert: I honestly didn't realise the extent of the antipathy towards Selwood before reading this thread (I know all the ducking stuff, but this is a bit more than that).

My view is that he's had a great season the quality of which has been overshadowed a little bit by Dangerfield - but the guy who gets it to Dangerfield is more times than not Selwood. He deserves his spot IMHO albeit there have been some great individual midfield performances this year and a fair few people could claim to be hard done by.

 

[Art Vandelay_]

No idea. Only the top 10 is published online.

I was responding to a poster who claimed Neale should have made the side. Maybe he should have, but not at Selwood's expense.

According to the coaches, Selwood was the equal 5th best performed midfielder this year behind Dangerfield, Sloane, Martin, Bontempelli, equal with Parker and ahead of Hannebery.

Funnily enough all six of those players made the AA team.

Those having a meltdown about last night should also be melting over the AFLCA award, right?

10-8 votes AFLCA (i.e BOG or near on BOG)
Dangerfield: 5x10; 1x9; 1x8
Selwood: 3x10; 2x9; 2x8

Both have 7 games as pretty much the best on ground in the coaches eyes. One is the hot brownlow favourite and AA lock. The other doesn't deserve selection. Top 5 AFLCA. Never change Bigfooty, never change.

 

[Watson_my_mind]

FFS. Selwood had a blinder of a season. How good Danger played this season is blurring your judgement. Go back and look through each of the games Selwood played this season. Will probably finish 2nd in the brownlow.

 

[Sttew]

Cats bias alert: I honestly didn't realise the extent of the antipathy towards Selwood before reading this thread (I know all the ducking stuff, but this is a bit more than that).

My view is that he's had a great season the quality of which has been overshadowed a little bit by Dangerfield - but the guy who gets it to Dangerfield is more times than not Selwood. He deserves his spot IMHO albeit there have been some great individual midfield performances this year and a fair few people could claim to be hard done by.

As an Essendon poster in another thread pointed out, not only did Selwood finish 5th in the AFLCA award but he averaged 112 Champion Data points per game, more than the likes of Bontempelli.

 

[Toump Ass]

Last night I was watching the Footy Show and Maxy Gawn said if you're taking a shit, and it's a "clean snap", you don't need to wipe your arse.

That's captain material right there.

Selwood can gagf.

 

[Scotland]

Rance holding jjk to no goals

He wishes.

 

[Thrawn]

You really must not of rated Andrew McKay.

I don't follow?

 

[Smedts_2]

My question was based around the merit of the coaches award?
Whats more valuable?
Enright holding Eddie Betts to no goals?
Or
Rance holding jjk to no goals
Or
Gawn having 60 hitouts, 30 to advantage
Or
Jelwood having 25+ possessions

Considering our game has become possession focused it seems all the coaches have voted on is midfield possessions and the value contributed by defenders is vastly underrated

Agree that it is midfield focussed but even so, on that measure Selwood deserves his place as a starter for the AA team.

 

[MarkT2]

pendlebury has no reputation?

Not many non finalists selected.

 

[Scotland]

I was a bit surprised that Selwood was named first rover and captain but the carry-on has been ridiculous. Hardly a left field selection.

I was also a bit surprised that the team reads:

C: Syd Syd Adel
Foll: Melb Geel Geel

4 of 5 starting mid positions taken up by 2 teams. That's pretty rare.

 

[JCHolmes]

I think you could have picked Shuey or Selwood for rovers, almost no difference. Both had great years. Selwood as Captain makes sense.

 

[PhatBoy]

Lmao, what are you on about now?
2 goals is above average for the league, not for Kennedy. Cmon this really isn't hard.

24 touches or whatever that initial figure was is also above average for the league.