Not all AAs are born equal. Pretty clear IMO that Geelong has had four absolute star players - Ablett, Danger, Selwood and Scarlett are well above the others.
Cats top 10 players since 2000
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And Ablett Snr i think he has only got the one Geel Best and Fairest to his name
And he has got them all covered by the length of the Randwick straight !!!!!
Art Vandelay_
TheBrownDog
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I wouldn't have Danger or Scarlett ahead of Enright.
Scarlett wasn't the best defender in his team, Enright was. Enright's equal and contemporaries in his position is Bruce Doull.
Enright top 3 is a hill I will die on. How quickly people forget how good he was as a defender. I suggest people rewatch all his games on Cyril, and watch the Hawks game from '09 where he and Mackie took down prime Franklin and Roughead.
Chinacats
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I’d have Dangerfield no.1. Gaz Ablett was great from 07-10 for those 4 years. Came back and did well at half forward in 18-19.
Danger has been our best player from 16-22. And still very important now in the finals in 24.
Ablett had great years at the suns from 11-13 then half of 14. Probably better than cat years.
Danger has been our best player from 16-22. And still very important now in the finals in 24.
Ablett had great years at the suns from 11-13 then half of 14. Probably better than cat years.
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Charlie Constable
Meg McDonald, Kate Kenny ...
catempire
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Yeah, wasn’t really thinking about order. Agree with you.
catempire
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I can thread the needle that there are players who aren’t stars who are better than stars. Enright is one. Never considered him a star but one of the best Cats I’ve seen for impact over a long period.
Also, Hawkins has been a star.
???
Scarlett was, by the length of the Flemington, the best defender in the whole AFL from roughly 2003 till 2008.
He was that good, that it prompted debates as to whether a defender could be regarded as the best player in the AFL.
If an AFL/VFL all time team was picked tomorrow, Scarlett vs Silvagni is pretty much a coin toss. He was that good.
Absolutely one of the best, but Enright wasn’t a superstar who could turn a game with a 10/10 performance in the same way the others could. He was sustained excellence, but the others had another gear to go to.
Hawkins was that kind of player, but only for a year before injuries ruined him.
Most clubs would be lucky to get more than one Scarlett/GAJ/Danger/Selwood in a lifetime.
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TheBrownDog
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In your opinion.
In mine Enright is up the top all time cats.
GAS
Farmer
Enright
Selwood
Clear top 4
Scarlett does have Silvagni comparisons and is undoubtedly the best FB this century.
Enright has Doull comparisons as was a better defender than Scarlett.
catempire
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Another way to say what I said is I value sustained excellence over the ability to turn a game.
The other four had both, though.
The_Koulouriotis_Fan
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Very hard to label Cats top 10 since 2000. Everyone will have a different opinion and they're all valid.
One thing I will say is that we shouldn't overrate a player because the play midfield. The AFL tends to do that too much. Eg. I love Danger and he is a supreme midfielder who can provide an option up forward, Enright was a supreme defender, Danger could never be the defender Enright was and Enright never the midfielder Danger is, Danger playing as a midfielder shouldn't automatically make him seen as the 'better' player imho.
Basically it's an impossible task because we have been truly blessed and I'm too much of a coward to make a definitive top 10
So...
My top '10' in no particular order
Danger
Ablett Jr
Scarlett
Enright
Stewart
Hawkins
SJ
Ottens
Chapman
Selwood
Cameron
Bartel
Blitz
Honourable mentions
Taylor
Joel Corey
Cameron Ling
Duncan
Wojo
Mackie
Mooney
Lonergan
Milburn
Varcoe
Touhy
Guthrie
Rooke
Smith
The future
Miers
Holmes
Close
Stengle
SDK
Dempsey
J. Henry
Humphries
Z. Guthrie
One thing I will say is that we shouldn't overrate a player because the play midfield. The AFL tends to do that too much. Eg. I love Danger and he is a supreme midfielder who can provide an option up forward, Enright was a supreme defender, Danger could never be the defender Enright was and Enright never the midfielder Danger is, Danger playing as a midfielder shouldn't automatically make him seen as the 'better' player imho.
Basically it's an impossible task because we have been truly blessed and I'm too much of a coward to make a definitive top 10
So...
My top '10' in no particular order
Danger
Ablett Jr
Scarlett
Enright
Stewart
Hawkins
SJ
Ottens
Chapman
Selwood
Cameron
Bartel
Blitz
Honourable mentions
Taylor
Joel Corey
Cameron Ling
Duncan
Wojo
Mackie
Mooney
Lonergan
Milburn
Varcoe
Touhy
Guthrie
Rooke
Smith
The future
Miers
Holmes
Close
Stengle
SDK
Dempsey
J. Henry
Humphries
Z. Guthrie
The_Koulouriotis_Fan
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Don't know what you're on about with Hawkins, he consistently did that his entire career, including the 2022 GF. Off the top of my head - not a 4 quarter performance but his 2nd quarter first Crows game this year, the 2020 game v Port, one of his all time great games was the Round 18, 2018, completely turned the game in the last quarter.
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catempire
Premium Platinum
Nah, not Scarlett. At least no more so than Enright.
He was good in the 2022 GF, but not blow-the-game-to-pieces good like PFD was in that very same game.
Though I do concede your point on the Melbourne last quarter game.
I still think Hawkins' best games were the two Hawthorn games in 2012, and the Brisbane in the wet game of the same year. They were just incredible.
Hawk, if anything, was born in the wrong era. If he had been able to play out of the goalsquare a la the 80s and early 90s, he would have been a megastar.
Thats ridiculous. Stewart and scarlett both clearly ahead of enright. Both of those two regularly could be best player on the ground. Enright hardly achieved that any time in his career. He just wasnt at their level in terms of being able to dominate a game. Stewart (and obviously scarlett) being ahead of enright now is the general consensus by the way. Basically all commentators have stewart and scarlett ahead. Who is the best half back flanker of all time? Bruce doull or tom stewart. That is the debate. Enright no longer in the equation.
I remember cyril kicking 5 goals on enright once and cyril only did that a handful of times in his career. Enright also had his great games on cyril. As did superstars like josh hunt. Not the best example to use. And enright did not play on roughhead in a game in 2009. Mackie played on a very injured franklin in the second half. Enright helped along with a group of others.
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Art Vandelay_
TheBrownDog
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2015. Re-watch the game. Enright wasn't on him for all the goals, and our turnovers allowed lots of Joe goose goals. Not a true reflection.
I give your argument zero credence or credibility by trying (laughably) to assert Stewart is better. Utter hogwash.
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This is the most distorted version of Enright's record on Rioli ever. You have cherry-picked the ONLY time Rioli had a decent game against Enright. Other than that, Boris beat him literally every time they came up against one another. There was no other player with a more one-sided head-to-head record against Rioli than Enright.
Scarlett was a top 3 player in numerous geelong finals. If they had a gary ayres medal in 2007 then scarlett probably wins it. Enright only 1 final where he was top 3 and in that one game scarlett was clearly ahead of him with one of the all time great defender finals.
Lol no i havent. I said enright had great games against him too. But so did josh hunt. Who had plenty as well. Rioli struggled against geelong regardless of who played on him. Except for one game when it was enright who played on him.
Bruce Doull who i think is one of the genuine greats of the game ( and Enright isnt in the same street as him as a footballer ) but Doull played CHB in quite a few games , he eclipsed Royce Hart ( who was a superstar CHF ) in a GF , and Hart rated him his best opponent for a number of reasons , but the most important in that he was quick , really really quick
Doull also unfortunately put out of business a young Geel CHF Stephen Reynoldson ( who looked like he was going to be a superstar ) , played on him 3-4 times and killed him every time
Enright was a very good Geel player , but this lovefest that he was one of the all time greats is ridiculous
If you were building a side from scratch you would pick Dangerfield 1st every day of the week
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How blessed are we that we could probably collectively come up with 20 blokes who could be considered top 10 all time Cats, AND that top 10 would likely be the envy of almost every other club, if not all.
Our top 11 would all make the top 5 in the majority of clubs.
Not just my argument. Its general consensus. You arent just disagreeing with me.
There currently is no argument that I can see that enright is better. Those few who still think it dont have any argument. Its just feels. I could point to stewart incredible record of achieving 5 all australians in only 7 seasons (and all starting team all australians unlike enright). The fact he dominates games and has numerous clear best on grounds like no half back flanker ever has (has more then 100 percent higher brownlow votes per game then enright - and this ratio would be even higher if enright wasnt a midfielder early in his career). No team ever felt the need to tag enright. He just never dominated games. The argument for enright being better ..... it used to be that he had two best and fairests but stewart has that too now and unlike enright he won them both outright.
Enrights greatness is that he was unbelievably consistent and was both good at keeping an opponent quiet, intercepting ground balls and attacking off half back. Enright has stewart covered easily for keeping a foward quiet but stewart is far better at interception (possibly the best ive ever seen) as he is atleast as good as enright for ground balls (possibly better with his extra pace) and one of the all time greats for aerial balls. Stewarts attack off half back is also vastly superior to enrights.
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