Opinion Which players would have been the best if not for injury?

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Nathan Brown was close to the best player in the game before he broke his leg, was never the same after that.
 
Would love to have seen Charlie Curnow without all the knee injuries. Still a freak but doesn't leap over blokes like he used to and doubt we ever get to see him role through the midfield like he was hinted at doing before going down years back.
 

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Mark Coughlan
Anthony Banik
John Pitura
 
Mark Lecras.

He still achieved a lot but at the end of the day he only played 219 games with the latter half of his career being played under some duress.

Averages just over 2 goals per game, including his two "poorer" years at the end where he still kicked 32 goals.

Without the ACL, subsequent arm break and ongoing wrist injuries he'd have had more continuity in his prime and I think his average would have been even higher than it was.
 
Sean Rusling
 
Bowen Lockwood
 
The Right Honourable The Lord Mayor of Melbourne Anthony Koutoufides.
 

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Brad Dick was a deadly fwd pocket cut down early.

The "greats who could've been greater" is an interesting category, Salmon is an excellent example. Massively dominant,that 80s Bombers outfit was incredible despite Neale Daniher and Salmons injuries. ND was the most skilled of the four brothers, TD a consistent high quality leader and the best of them but Neale looked to be on another level.

I'm told Polly Farmer wasn't the same after doing his knee and for many still the GOAT ruck.

Phil Carman did his foot halfway through 1975. Came second in the Brownlow from 10 and a half games. Lost his way a bit but he says himself he was a loner, so maybe the injury wasn't the problem.
 
Allan Jakovich for mine.

Understand it was a different era for forwards kicking bags but still...

  • For the dees he played 47 games for 201 goals, averaging more goals than Gary Ablett and and Gordon Coventry in his time there
  • Kicked 50 goals in his first 9 games, breaking Colemans record for least amount of games to reach 50 goals
  • Kicked 100 goals in his first 21 games, equaling a record from 1901
  • Had the 10th most scoring shots in a game in AFL history in his 9th game of football, kicking 11.8
  • In his 4th to 9th career games he kicked bags of 8.8, 6.2, 6.7, 8.5, 7.4 and 11.8= 80 scoring shots in 6 games of football in his debut season
  • Obviously, if he could kick straight he would've been even more impressive, kicking 208.173 for his career including games of 4.9 and 4.10.
  • Still ended up the overall 12th highest goals per game average in history despite only playing 54 games total and being injured

Back was stuffed, took a whole year off in 1995 after 47 games and was done after a mini stint at the dogs when he was cooked at 54 games.
 
Fadge said:
Some fantastic nominations in this thread.

Kouta? He was doing things on the footy field that I'd never seen previously, and haven't seen since, before his knee injuries in 2000 and 2001, and didn't reach those levels when he returned.
Click to expand...
Yep, shone as brightly as any Ive seen for a couple of years before injury.
As you’ve said, he was an athletic freak who could do things that others simply couldn’t once he “learned” the game.
Was a bit of a slow burn at first as his footy brain wasn’t at the level his athletic abilities were.

What was underrated post injury, and very similar to Judd, is that after injury subdued their one wood of being athletically superior to their peers, they were both able to turn themselves into contested beasts whilst still be considered top 10 players in the comp.

Only special players can pivot and become something else and still be considered great. Matthews & P Daicos being others whom went mid - forward and still were greats.

Matthews ‘77 season, 658 disposals, 91 goals, 51 points……..WTF…..Daicos, 410 disposals, 97.46.

If a player did that today with the hype around nowadays……..
 
StackedHunch said:
Dunstall would have easily been the goal kicking record holder without his head injury and later body breaking down.
Click to expand...

Peter Hudson would have broken the most goals in a season record if not knocked out by a king hit in the 1st quarter of the 71 Grand Final.

He would have kicked 1,500 goals if he had never been injured too.
 
Ablett's the modern GOAT as is but he was an almost unbackable favourite to win his third Brownlow in 2014 before his shoulder got wrecked in a regulation tackle, he was already stiff to not have four or five of them to his name before that and he'd have probably finished up with at least ten All Australians as well.
 

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Opinion Which players would have been the best if not for injury?

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