Cats top 10 players since 2000

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What was Kent Kingsley’s middle name? I hope it wasn’t Kevin would be horrible initials.

Who else has played for the cats with the same initial first and last name?
Billy Brownless sort of but he has the name William really.

Sean Simpson... Sam Simpson

Michael Mansfield...

Peter Pianto.

Craig Cleave.

Damian Drum.

Russell Renfrey...
 
Solid list from Slobbo, all champions. From an outsiders perspective who saw a lot of these Cats dominate... I'd have to have Chapman in the top 10. He was just so damaging and kicked big goals in big moments. My big call who to leave out might be Bartel who I still rate highly. Chappy just always seemed to hurt us more with those 25 touch games with 3 goals.
 

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I already have bartel ahead of enright and taylor.

Chapman its a close one. They are pretty line ball. Ive ranked chapman one spot higher but could easily flip them. That still only moves bartel from 10 to 9 for me.

Im not ranking service to the team in my list. Thus the reason cameron is higher on my list then others.
Yeah definitely have Jimmy ahead of Enright and Taylor but with SJ, Chapman and Bartel it's line ball, toss a coin but regardless, how bloody lucky were we to have such a great group and 3 flags.... 'In Wells we trust' along with Mackie his partner in crime now! GO CATS !!!
 
He was put where the team needed him to get the job done because he would do it better than anyone we had. His versatility is why he was moved. The coaches would have kept him as a starting rover if they didnt need to move him to fill gaps we potentially had.
Yeah, exactly. Ablett, Selwood and Corey were the starting inside mids - there's only so many spots on Broadway.

There were a lot of players at Geelong in that era who would have been leading inside mids at other clubs - Enright, Bartel, SJ, Milburn, Hunt, Chapman, Ling...
 
1. David Johnson
2. Paul Kolouriotis
3. Henry Playfair
4. Kane Tenace
5. Kent Kingsley
6. Mark Blake
7. David Spriggs
8. Charlie Gardener
9. Esava Ratagolea
10. Mark O'Connor
Superlative list, but I'd make a few swaps:
- Brent Grgic for Henry Playfair
- Paul Chambers for Mark Blake
- Josh Cowan for David Spriggs
- James Parsons for Charlie Gardiner
- Daniel Foster for Esava
 
Solid list from Slobbo, all champions. From an outsiders perspective who saw a lot of these Cats dominate... I'd have to have Chapman in the top 10. He was just so damaging and kicked big goals in big moments. My big call who to leave out might be Bartel who I still rate highly. Chappy just always seemed to hurt us more with those 25 touch games with 3 goals.
For me it's line ball, but Jimmy marginally ahead. Think 09 GF. Jimmy sacrificed his usual high possession game to negate Lenny Hayes. It stemmed the bleeding and helped Cats win. Then of course his game in the 2011. Then I think how Chappy potentially cost us a GF getting suspended for a stupid act, was it in 2014? Don't get me wrong; I loved Chappy, but I loved Jimmy a little more!

It's a good dilemma to ponder over.
 
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For me it's line ball, but Jimmy marginally ahead. Think 09 GF. Jimmy sacrificed his usual high possession game to negate Lenny Hayes. It stemmed the bleeding and helped Cats win. Then of course his game in the 2011. Then I think how Chappy potentially cost us a GF getting suspended for a stupid act, was it in 2014? Don't get me wrong; I loved Chappy, but I loved Jimmy a little more!

It's a good dilemma to ponder over.
I actually rethought this again last night in my brain. Chapman in and Cameron out. Don't get me wrong, Cameron is a fantastic player, and had he spent his entire career at Geelong, I would have him top 3 in the list without a shadow of doubt. Chapman was one of the main reasons Hawthorn were unable to beat Geelong in that 2009 to 2012 period. Just tough and determined as they came.
Most Hawthorn supporters including myself would choose Bartel as the Cat from this era they would love as a Hawk.
 
Our top 10 list since 2000 is an embarrassment of riches.

On Bartel, his peak was short but unbelievable. He was better than Ablett sooner, and in today's league he would be a 4/5 x AA. Made the squad many times but missed the cut. I'd argue AA was a tougher nut to crack then than in some previous years in recent history.

Many would forget he was even heavily favoured to go back to back in 2008 for the Brownlow, but he oddly polled poorly.

I'd argue his peak was 2006-2010, but even in 2011 he was still excellent. His finals series in 2010 was stupidly good. I'd encourage anyone to re-watch the 2010 QF and some of his efforts in the 2009 regular season match against the Saints.

He always striked me as someone who was team first and that reflected in his versatility in the second half of his career. He wasn't always after the cheap ball and looking after his stats first and foremost.

As a full time mid 2007-2009 his stats are elite, and this was in an era where midfielders did not rack up the same degree of touches as you may see today.

Had the most contested marks for a midfielder in this era as a well, and by some margin.

I think many forget how good this guy was at his best. He was a consistently good player post 2010/2011 but I agree he never had the sustained dominance that he had prior. I think this can be explained by becoming a Swisse army knife under Scott but also he played with less reckless abandon after Podsiadly knocked him out in 2011. He never flew for as many marks or went as brute force consistently after that.

If we are viewing players in the context of peak capability, Bartel is comfortably top 5. Throw in his longevity and ability to drift around the ground he was an all time great.
 
Our top 10 list since 2000 is an embarrassment of riches.

On Bartel, his peak was short but unbelievable. He was better than Ablett sooner, and in today's league he would be a 4/5 x AA. Made the squad many times but missed the cut. I'd argue AA was a tougher nut to crack then than in some previous years in recent history.

Many would forget he was even heavily favoured to go back to back in 2008 for the Brownlow, but he oddly polled poorly.

I'd argue his peak was 2006-2010, but even in 2011 he was still excellent. His finals series in 2010 was stupidly good. I'd encourage anyone to re-watch the 2010 QF and some of his efforts in the 2009 regular season match against the Saints.

He always striked me as someone who was team first and that reflected in his versatility in the second half of his career. He wasn't always after the cheap ball and looking after his stats first and foremost.

As a full time mid 2007-2009 his stats are elite, and this was in an era where midfielders did not rack up the same degree of touches as you may see today.

Had the most contested marks for a midfielder in this era as a well, and by some margin.

I think many forget how good this guy was at his best. He was a consistently good player post 2010/2011 but I agree he never had the sustained dominance that he had prior. I think this can be explained by becoming a Swisse army knife under Scott but also he played with less reckless abandon after Podsiadly knocked him out in 2011. He never flew for as many marks or went as brute force consistently after that.

If we are viewing players in the context of peak capability, Bartel is comfortably top 5. Throw in his longevity and ability to drift around the ground he was an all time great.
Remember thinking that Bartel's 08 season was much better than his 07 Brownlow season. Unfortunately GAJ was literally a god that year and somehow Clooney won the count indicating that voting was all over the shop.
 

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Remember thinking that Bartel's 08 season was much better than his 07 Brownlow season. Unfortunately GAJ was literally a god that year and somehow Clooney won the count indicating that voting was all over the shop.
Ablett should have won all three Brownlows from 07 to 09 (Swannie in 2010). Ridiculous that he didn't even win all 3 Carjis.

Guy got marked way too harshly, in retrospect.
 
Our top 10 list since 2000 is an embarrassment of riches.

On Bartel, his peak was short but unbelievable. He was better than Ablett sooner, and in today's league he would be a 4/5 x AA. Made the squad many times but missed the cut. I'd argue AA was a tougher nut to crack then than in some previous years in recent history.

Many would forget he was even heavily favoured to go back to back in 2008 for the Brownlow, but he oddly polled poorly.

I'd argue his peak was 2006-2010, but even in 2011 he was still excellent. His finals series in 2010 was stupidly good. I'd encourage anyone to re-watch the 2010 QF and some of his efforts in the 2009 regular season match against the Saints.

He always striked me as someone who was team first and that reflected in his versatility in the second half of his career. He wasn't always after the cheap ball and looking after his stats first and foremost.

As a full time mid 2007-2009 his stats are elite, and this was in an era where midfielders did not rack up the same degree of touches as you may see today.

Had the most contested marks for a midfielder in this era as a well, and by some margin.

I think many forget how good this guy was at his best. He was a consistently good player post 2010/2011 but I agree he never had the sustained dominance that he had prior. I think this can be explained by becoming a Swisse army knife under Scott but also he played with less reckless abandon after Podsiadly knocked him out in 2011. He never flew for as many marks or went as brute force consistently after that.

If we are viewing players in the context of peak capability, Bartel is comfortably top 5. Throw in his longevity and ability to drift around the ground he was an all time great.

Dont agree with the bold, but the rest is spot on. Nice post.
 
Are we talking about their careers overall or just their contributions to Geelong? Are we rating them on what they accomplished or how important they would be to a team playing the game? Depending on the metrics we're using, the ranking changes.

Cameron out, Chappy in.

If we're talking contributions to Geelong then I'd have Harley in there somewhere.
 
For me:

1. Selwood - from start to finish, he didn't just play for the club, he made the club.
2. Hawkins - He and Selwood very hard to split for me. Both legends. Hawkins brought teammates into the game in a way that you just don't see from a dominant key forward. Tom played more games but Sel gets in ahead because of the captaincy.
3. Ablett Jnr - simply a star who at his peak could not be contained. The envy of the competition. Can only judge on the years at the cats and those years were something special.
4. Enright - gets in ahead of a few others because of the longevity of his career. So super reliable. Master of defence and attack all at once.
5. Bartel - biggest of big game players. So cool under pressure. So courageous.
6. Scarlett - revolutionised the FB position at his peak when he could play on no1 key forwards and still destroy opposition with his attacking set-ups. Later became more of an interceptor and backline general.
7. Dangerfield - what can you say? The nature of Danger is.. irrepressible!
8. Taylor - the names of the key forwards he shut down week after week and in the biggest games says it all for me. Generally underrated what he did for the club.
9. Stewart - Doesn't quite knock Enright or Scarlo off their perches... yet.. If he can lead the club to another flag as VC while mastering a totally new role, I will reconsider.
10. Ling - Last spot is hard. Never a flashy player Ling. He gets my tick because of his captaincy, at a critical period for the club, and his on-field importance to the team. I love players who do the hard jobs and make those around them better players. Ling went head-to-head with the competition's best midfielders most weeks and usually won. No team gets to play the scintillating football we did without players like that.
 
1. Selwood helped change the club and maintained the excellence for a generation

2. Scarlett was great when we where shit. Changed they way blackman played forever.

3. Hawkins a champion in the hardest position on the ground.

4. Enright didn’t make a mistake for 300 games.

5. Ablett was the best player but wasn’t there for his full career.

6. Danger is similar to Ablett and only down the list due to games at other clubs.

7. Stewart has stellar career from humble beginnings.

8. Bartel was great however even with the Brownlow he never felt like a top 5 player in the league.

9. Steve J had the highest footy IQ and talent to pull off the unthinkable

10. Cameron may end up above a few more in a couple of years
 

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Cats top 10 players since 2000

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