Best Full Back Ever

[Herne Hill Hammer]

I think it might be time to realise the modern defender now has to do so much more than just be dour and beat one opponent 1v1.

The best and most valuable players in defence nowadays are all players that do more than 1v1 defend, they zone, they intercept, they defend more than one opponenet and they control their entire teams backlines. Rance might not destroy 1 opponent every game any more. Rance stops goals, not one opponent. Goals from opposition are reduced because he is on the field. This is so, so valuable.

McGovern 2018, Easton Wood in 2016, Josh Gibson and Brian Lake of 13,14,15.
These players are the most important to their premiership defences, and all of them float, zone, intercept and attack. They don't play 1v1 all game every game.

Welcome to 2019 people. The game has changed, keep up please.

Dench certainly wasn't dour and Lake is as good as anyone in that poll list with the exception of the first two whom I never saw. Lake and Rance are both absolutely in the conversation before the likes of Kel Moore, Langford and Southby

 

[Procrastinator35]

Dench certainly wasn't dour and Lake is as good as anyone in that poll list with the exception of the first two whom I never saw. Lake and Rance are both absolutely in the conversation before the likes of Kel Moore, Langford and Southby

Tend to agree with your comments with regards Lake.....Best reader of the ball in flight I've seen.

However, all of Kel Moore, Geoff Southby & David Dench were premier full-backs in their day, Whom I find it difficult to separate….They had to counter the likes of Hudson, McKenna, Jesaulenko, Wade & Blight.

Langford was easily the equal of Silvagni & more often than not had the better of both Carey & Kernahan before age caught up with him.... 4 time premiership full-back to boot.

 

[Kram]

Stephen 'scragger' Silvagni has got to be one of the most overrated players in the history of the game.

 

[Procrastinator35]

Stephen 'scragger' Silvagni has got to be one of the most overrated players in the history of the game.

Goes without saying really….If not for the name & the fact he played for Carlton, he'd of been umpired out of the game & rightly so.

His mauling tactics are right up there alongside of Selwoods' ducking, as complete blights on our game.....And the umpires bear a fair amount of the blame & responsibility for both.

 

[Vindicater]

how would someone like sos, southby etc go in an era where you cant defend by punching the arms of the forward?

comparisons like this annoy me

Probably as well as Rance would do in an era where you could not milk free kicks?

 

[theyellowsash]

Probably as well as Rance would do in an era where you could not milk free kicks?

So you mean just before Mathew Lloyd started playing?

 

[Vindicater]

So you mean just before Mathew Lloyd started playing?

Yeah but this is not a thread about best full forwards ever.

 

[Michael Jezz]

Silvagni record in finals tick
Silvagni record against best full forwards to ever play tick
Silvagni as an attacking modern backman tick
Silvagni as a defensive stopper tick
Silvagni as a multi positional player tick
Silvagni 200 goals tick

NO OTHER FULL BACK AFFIRMS ALL THE CRITERIA

 

[Procrastinator35]

Yeah but this is not a thread about best full forwards ever.

True....and Lloyd would not belong in that conversation either.

 

[Procrastinator35]

Silvagni record in finals tick
Silvagni record against best full forwards to ever play tick
Silvagni as an attacking modern backman tick
Silvagni as a defensive stopper tick
Silvagni as a multi positional player tick
Silvagni 200 goals tick

NO OTHER FULL BACK AFFIRMS ALL THE CRITERIA

Langford has a better finals record than Silvagni.

I saw an old man in Peter Knights kick 9 on Souvlaki out at Princes Park one day.
Lockett tore Silvagni a new one on a number of occasions.
Dench was a better running & attacking defender.
Silvagni's tactics were illegal & he got away with murder from the umps.
Peter Knights was also multipoisitional & also kicked over 200 goals.

Over-rated chopping, holding, scragging, mauling hack.

 

[Shazza_]

Rance by a mile

Silvagni should not even be in the poll

 

[iameviljez]

Silvagni 200 goals tick

Slightly selective though. Dench, Rance, Fletcher and Scarlett never actually got to play full-forward, and especially (for the latter three) not in eras when big bags were actually kicked on a regular basis.

 

[Michael Jezz]

Langford has a better finals record than Silvagni.

I saw an old man in Peter Knights kick 9 on Souvlaki out at Princes Park one day.
Lockett tore Silvagni a new one on a number of occasions.
Dench was a better running & attacking defender.
Silvagni's tactics were illegal & he got away with murder from the umps.
Peter Knights was also multipoisitional & also kicked over 200 goals.

Over-rated chopping, holding, scragging, mauling hack.

Knights was not a fullback
Knights kicked 9 on Silvagni when he was 18.
The best season by a teenage fullback on debut.
Silvagni was a fullback who kicked 200 goals. Knights was closer to goal

 

[Michael Jezz]

Slightly selective though. Dench, Rance, Fletcher and Scarlett never actually got to play full-forward, and especially (for the latter three) not in eras when big bags were actually kicked on a regular basis.

Pull the other one. They did not play on the forwardline because they were not good enough

 

[Procrastinator35]

Knights was not a fullback
Knights kicked 9 on Silvagni when he was 18.
The best season by a teenage fullback on debut.
Silvagni was a fullback who kicked 200 goals. Knights was closer to goal

Knightsy played predominantly centre half back, Yes.....But he also filled-in at full-back on occasion, depending on team balance & match-ups.....He could also play full-forward, centre-half Forward, Back flank & forward flank, such was his athleticism, versatility & speed.....Think Paul Roos.

Knights kicked 6 filling in at full-forward in the 1983 Qualifying Final against Fitzroy, to help get us over the line that day....He also played full forward in the second half of the 1978 Grand Final, after being cleaned up early on in that match.....He played as a half forward in the 1983 Grand Final.

Put simply, Knights was a far better footballer than Souvlaki & how it was that both Ted Whitten & Stephen Souvlaki scored a gig in the team of the century ahead of him, is a bona-fide joke.

 

[Procrastinator35]

I see that Jack Regan scored a vote....Obviously there's a poster on Big Footy who is over a 100 years old, to recall having seen him played.

 

[Michael Jezz]

Knightsy played predominantly centre half back, Yes.....But he also filled-in at full-back on occasion, depending on team balance & match-ups.....He could also play full-forward, centre-half Forward, Back flank & forward flank, such was his athleticism, versatility & speed.....Think Paul Roos.

Knights kicked 6 filling in at full-forward in the 1983 Qualifying Final against Fitzroy, to help get us over the line that day....He also played full forward in the second half of the 1978 Grand Final, after being cleaned up early on in that match.....He played as a half forward in the 1983 Grand Final.

Put simply, Knights was a far better footballer than Souvlaki & how it was that both Ted Whitten & Stephen Souvlaki scored a gig in the team of the century ahead of him, is a bona-fide joke.

Knights played fullback & full forward for 5 minutes. He played was a a centre half back. It is where you play the majority of your footy. Time to take off the brown and gold goggles

 

[James Colorado]

I always wonder just how much of SOS posters who make these comments actually saw. I watched a lot of his games and it seems these comments are based more on cliche than reality.

SOS is best known as a FB, but he was capable playing roles all over the ground. He could play forward and kick big bags, or spend a season at CHB and almost win the Brownlow. He was a great all round defender, which is why he’d usually take the best, be it Ablett at FB, or Carey at CHB, or Hird, who once moved into the midfield trying to get himself into the game, so SOS followed and still beat him, getting BOG and 3 Brownlow votes along the way.

I’m pretty sure given how adaptable SOS proved himself over his career, that he’d adapt to modern rule changes like he did everything else, with aplomb, particularly now the deck is now stacked in the defenders favour. He’d have a freaking field day with his marking prowess and play reading ability.

Not making any sort of comparison between them besides mentioning them in the same post because there is a massive gulf, but I'm loving the versatility that Sicily gives us. Not sure he's capable of standing the all-time greats like SOS did throughout his career (he wouldn't hesitate to, though) or can follow an opponent into the midfield like you mentioned, but he has a real ability to read the play better than anyone else in his half of the ground which makes him an elite interceptor, and to go forward too.

That sort of ability to play at each end is invaluable, and it seems to me that if there'd been two SOSs in the same team, one would be one of the greatest FBs ever and the other would be a highly rated forward amongst peers that formed the strongest era for FFs the game has seen to this point. I'd love for us to have two Sicilys for what he brings to each half, though I'm not sure the one we have now would get along with someone just like himself!

 

[iameviljez]

Not sure he's capable of standing the all-time greats like SOS did throughout his career (he wouldn't hesitate to, though)

Could you imagine Sicily on Lockett under 80s rules? I'd measure his life expectancy minutes.

 

[Procrastinator35]

Not making any sort of comparison between them besides mentioning them in the same post because there is a massive gulf, but I'm loving the versatility that Sicily gives us. Not sure he's capable of standing the all-time greats like SOS did throughout his career (he wouldn't hesitate to, though) or can follow an opponent into the midfield like you mentioned, but he has a real ability to read the play better than anyone else in his half of the ground which makes him an elite interceptor, and to go forward too.

That sort of ability to play at each end is invaluable, and it seems to me that if there'd been two SOSs in the same team, one would be one of the greatest FBs ever and the other would be a highly rated forward amongst peers that formed the strongest era for FFs the game has seen to this point. I'd love for us to have two Sicilys for what he brings to each half, though I'm not sure the one we have now would get along with someone just like himself!

Sicily does not belong in this conversation.

 

[James Colorado]

Sicily does not belong in this conversation.

Not comparing him to the great FBs (he isn't a FB anyway), just that I like his versatility, and that I think SOSs versatility tends to get underrated due to the focus on his work as a FB; had things been different, SOS would have been a great CHB or forward, too.

Could you imagine Sicily on Lockett under 80s rules? I'd measure his life expectancy minutes.

Peter Caven-esque.

 

[brutus76]

Scarlett, Dench, Southby top 3
Langford SOS Fletcher next

 

[the nail]

Stephen 'scragger' Silvagni has got to be one of the most overrated players in the history of the game.

sure was...only kicked over 220 goals pinch hitting now and then....yeah guess you have a point.

 

[Mighty Eagles]

Can only judge on what I saw.

Voted for Scarlett.

Reckon Darren Glass is unlucky not to be considered in this poll.

 

[Thrawn]

Stephen 'scragger' Silvagni has got to be one of the most overrated players in the history of the game.

Every FB, even today, is a "scragger". Scarlett disguised it very well... you can ask Brendan Fevola.