So who is the most underrated player in the AFL?

[TommyChafey]

Michael Hibberd. An insanely good (attacking) defender, especially for someone who has played relatively few senior games so far. Yet he barely ever seems to be noticed by the media whenever I watch or listen to Essendon games.

 

[Viney4PM]

Alipate Carlile

 

[JHF1870]

Alipate Carlile

Only really brought it on this season though

 

[craffles]

Leigh Montagna, has been a superstar for the saints for years but never gets mentioned in even the same breath as goddard, hayes or dal.

 

[tigerT]

Rance

 

[JoondalupJ]

Puopolo is great at the one percenters and tough and he deserves his success. But he is limited and is by no means a great player

Of course he is.

 

[ilikepotatoes]

Zac Dawson.

 

[Ancient Tiger]

Alex Rance. Should have been All Australian last year. His effect on the team was immediately apparent yesterday. Brave, defends well and rebounds well. I know a few kicks go astray but gee whiz the guy gives no less than 100% every time he is out there. What else could you ask from a player?

 

[TigerBlood87]

Hes just as good if not better than BF's golden boys Fyfe, Danger, Cotchin.

How often does he get tagged?

 

[entourage]

Mitch Duncan would be up there IMO. Very impressed with him. Not sure he's underrated just shadowed by heaps of team mates.

 

[pieman123]

How often does he get tagged?

Was tagged quite a bit in 2012 and still ended up as our BnF and AA

 

[Ambrosia]

Alex Rance. Should have been All Australian last year. His effect on the team was immediately apparent yesterday. Brave, defends well and rebounds well. I know a few kicks go astray but gee whiz the guy gives no less than 100% every time he is out there. What else could you ask from a player?

None of what you just said makes him an AA. The exact same thing could be said about Heath Hocking.

 

[Ancient Tiger]

None of what you just said makes him an AA. The exact same thing could be said about Heath Hocking.

I'll add he was only really beaten once all year. By Cloke.

 

[Man of Miracles]

Butcher, having a hard time coming back from injury and form loss

But seriously probably Montagna or Mundy

 

[Kaiser Powser]

From EFC; Cale Hooker.

Had a great season last year, but was overshadowed by the drugs saga and Carlisle playing well. This year he has gone to another level.
Has conceded only 3 goals all year while averaging 24 disposals at 84% DE and 11 marks (league high).

 

[Big Sauce 21]

good to see Rocky have another good game in a rubbish team while losing his lunch 5 or so times.

 

[Empire_Persian]

Eric Mackenzie and Luke McPharlin.

While they are not the most underrated players, they are certainly underrated.

 

[pokerspiv]

All Defenders, basically.

 

[Cudi]

After reading the Top Small Forwards thread; Luke Dahlhaus. The way his season is tracking he could soon be elite.

Also Tom Rockliff, Mike Sheahan not having him the Top 50 players in the league is laughable.

 

[krisholio14]

There's different kinds of underrated.

For example, I'd say Brent Harvey is underrated. Sure, he's rated highly on the balance of things, but relative to how he's rated on what he's actually achieved in the game compared to other less decorated stars? Grossly underrated.

Then you have the young emerging players that seem to fly under the radar for seasons on end before the wider footy consciousness finally becomes aware of how good they are. Eric McKenzie would be heading that list right now.

And then you get a bloke who has just got the job done at an exceptional level year after year with a minimum of fuss. I could argue that despite everything he's achieved in the game, his no nonsense style means a lot of people outside of Geelong supporters still don't realize exactly how good Corey Enright is. Yeah, they know he's good, but he's so unassuming it's easy to overlook the fact that you could argue he's not just one of the finest defenders of his era, but one of the finest defenders ever to play the game.

Having said that, he could also be in the Brent Harvey class of underrated, so as another example, i'd use David Mundy.

There's also the sneaky 'was an out and out shittruck for a number of years but has quietly developed into a very handy footballer' types, and Davis Hale could be the bloke currently the best example of that.

 

[hench]

Brett Deledio is underrated by Richmond fans.

 

[sprockets]

Yep, Deledio. Not a hard nut, not soft, will go in and get the ball when required, not a magician, more the Robbie Flower type but a bit more down the middle. Just oozes speed football and class. Great pair of hands and a very good kick.

 

[mehow2g]

Luke Dahlhaus, I have watched him carefully last year he continues to improve every game he has played a similar role and similar style to Abletts first few years (I did not call him Ablett calm down).

This year he is tracking extremely well if it keeps going he may end up being a top midfielder.

I would of said this 3 weeks ago but I was banned lol.

 

[Righteo]

+1 to MacKenzie, at worst in the top 3 key defenders in the comp IMO.

Agree with Hibberd too, also a huge fan of Stratton; I think he's close to the best medium sized defender atm.

I don't think we have too many candidates these days, our players have been well rated for the last couple of seasons and even role players like Clancee Pearce/Spurr/Mzungu etc get their due, more or less.

 

[Collins-Langford-Ayres]

Cyril