Who is the best midfielder of the 21st century?

[Xtreme]

The fact that the others you named would struggle to make the top 5, shows your judgement, or lack thereof.

Oh please, Aker, Voss, Oliver, Mitchell were all proven game breakers and the best in their team on the day!

 

[Corn Cobbers]

Nah the bloke that has 5 AAs and a flag before entering his prime.

Cool, hopefully we get to see him in September again one day

On SM-A225F using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[EBERT THE KING]

Cool, hopefully we get to see him in September again one day

On SM-A225F using BigFooty.com mobile app

Insufferable you lot.

 

[STPer18]

Martin fred ain't gonna like this one bit...

 

[H00t]

Jordan Lewis talked about GAJ at GCS. They were happy for him to get the ball any time he wanted as long as he was outside forward 50.

They would corral him and make his disposal as inefficient as possible. He was only actually damaging when inside forward 50 because the rest of the GCS players simply werent that good.

I dare say every other team felt the same.

Kind of like FIGJAM's comment about Tom Mitchell not being damaging.

This isn’t a put down of GAJ. More a statement on the rest of the suns.

He was giving the ball on a silver platter and they still couldn’t do anything with it. His kicking was incredible just the suns were so bad they couldn’t take advantage.

Had he been kicking to some really good key forwards his full effectiveness would have been on show, which really only happened when he moved to Geelong the second time.

The reason teams didn’t run a tag on him was because it was pointless.

 

[PowerfulPies2023]

Andrea Pirlo
Andres Iniesta
Jude Bellingham
Xavi
Zidane

 

[GastevsBeard]

GAJ
Martin | Judd | Pendels to raffle for 2nd with vastly different strengths / weaknesses

 

[jakson68]

Oh please, Aker, Voss, Oliver, Mitchell were all proven game breakers and the best in their team on the day!

They were in the same team, so only one could be "the" best in their team.

Also Oliver and Mitchell do not come close to the likes of Judd and GAJ.

By your metric, when you think "game breaker",or "best in their team", you can look no further than Mr C Judd 3 votes.

 

[Xtreme]

They were in the same team, so only one could be "the" best in their team.

Also Oliver and Mitchell do not come close to the likes of Judd and GAJ.

By your metric, when you think "game breaker",or "best in their team", you can look no further than Mr C Judd 3 votes.

LOL
Oliver tore the Bulldogs a new one in the biggest game of the year BANG BANG BANG
Mitchell ran circles around all opposition for years even when he was the slowest on the ground - 4x premierships can't be wrong

GAJ and Judd lacked the killer instinct and were more individual players than team oriented. Thus they are low on the totem pole.

 

[WilloTree]

Ablett
Judd
-daylight-
Fyfe
-daylight
Probably West or Black but it's pretty even from there on.

 

[RonnieRaven]

Gaz jnr the most complete footballer I’ve seen.
If you were publishing a learn to football book jnr would be the example for every discipline
Irrespective of accolades was an absolute joy to watch.
Buddy barely marked over head
Dusty barely tackled
Judd had a poor left foot
Gaz did it all

 

[jakson68]

LOL
Oliver tore the Bulldogs a new one in the biggest game of the year BANG BANG BANG
Mitchell ran circles around all opposition for years even when he was the slowest on the ground - 4x premierships can't be wrong

GAJ and Judd lacked the killer instinct and were more individual players than team oriented. Thus they are low on the totem pole.

Oh where do I start with you.

Petracca was better than Oliver on that day, with twice as many meters gained, more goals, more possessions and a NS.
Not that it was difficult, as the Doggies were pretty poor that game.
Does this mean that now Trac is the best because it was he who was best on ground in that one game you speak of.

Mitchell ran circles around players and was slow you say. In that case Scott Pendelbury is slow and had been embarrassing other players with evasion and skill for nearly 400 games, so he must also be the best.

Your 4 x premiership comment, maybe he was surrounded by a team of good players, right place, right time.

Hell even Liam Shiels won three of them.

And if your Dusty is best because he wins NS theory holds water!!
Mitchell was in 4 premiership teams and didn't win any.

Yep sounds right, maybe it is back to the drawing board with you my friend and this time try not getting your graphs from your supercoach scores.

 

[Fadge]

LOL
Oliver tore the Bulldogs a new one in the biggest game of the year BANG BANG BANG
Mitchell ran circles around all opposition for years even when he was the slowest on the ground - 4x premierships can't be wrong

GAJ and Judd lacked the killer instinct and were more individual players than team oriented. Thus they are low on the totem pole.

So in a team of 23 players, Oliver and Mitchell were superior to Judd and GAJ because they played in premiership teams?

Even though Judd and GAJ also played in premiership teams?

And when their teams didn't win the premiership, I'm not sure what more Judd and GAJ could have done - referencing Judd's Norm Smith Medal when his team lost the Grand Final in 2005, and Ablett's near BOG in a Preliminary Final belting by Collingwood in his final game for the club, in addition to his BOG in the 2007 Preliminary Final, including sealing the game with the final goal of the match. Just a few examples...

 

[Fadge]

Your 4 x premiership comment, maybe he was surrounded by a team of good players, right place, right time.

Mitchell was in 4 premiership teams and didn't win any.

I rate Mitchell very highly, but he'd be the first to admit that his performances in his first three Grand Finals were well below par (I have heard him interviewed about this).

 

[PowerfulPies2023]

Dusty. Easily. Not even close. Any bloke that get's B.O.G in a granny 3 times deserves that title. Case closed. Nice charlie to go with them too.

Additionally, see that 6 goal haul in a final up at The GABBA in 2019 playing at FF. Yes. Full Forward.


Machine.

 

[Xtreme]

Dusty. Easily. Not even close. Any bloke that get's B.O.G in a granny 3 times deserves that title. Case closed. Nice charlie to go with them too


Machine.

You might be taking the mickey, but you're still accurate. He is easily the GOAT midfielder - AFL era for certain.... GOAT of all time periods he's certainly one of if not the very best.

 

[Caligo]

Gaj then Judd then a whole bunch close together.

 

[Dr Tigris]

GAJ = #1 mid

GAJ just did it all the time. Even at GC he was amazing every week.

Dusty's claim to fame is that he is supreme in finals and created that mid forward striker position. Which sort of loses him points on the pure mid category.

Judd is the other one I would look at as potentially #1. But GAJ was just better IMHO

 

[JaegarTime]

How is Sam Mitchell not on this list? Not saying he’d win it but Petracca doesn’t belong in this crowd yet.

Fyfe, GAJ or Judd for me.

 

[GoldbergsGold]

Judd at his peak would edge Ablett out, because Judd was a better contested player and was top tier in both contested/uncontested situations. I don't recall Ablett ever really being a great contested player like Voss, Judd or even Martin, he was really only top tier in uncontested situations.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Sam Mitchell better than half the players in the poll.

 

[bzparkes]

Judd at his peak would edge Ablett out, because Judd was a better contested player and was top tier in both contested/uncontested situations. I don't recall Ablett ever really being a great contested player like Voss, Judd or even Martin, he was really only top tier in uncontested situations.

Agreed but Ablett was just better for longer, even though Judd won a second Brownlow after his groin troubles

 

[Caligo]

Judd at his peak would edge Ablett out, because Judd was a better contested player and was top tier in both contested/uncontested situations. I don't recall Ablett ever really being a great contested player like Voss, Judd or even Martin, he was really only top tier in uncontested situations.

Ablett was a huge contested player. Big clearance rates and did really well in 1on1 match ups either for loose balls or in marking contests.

It is actually difficult to think of something gaj didn't do at an elite level (let others have the ball maybe?).

 

[Mr Meow]

Judd at his peak would edge Ablett out, because Judd was a better contested player and was top tier in both contested/uncontested situations. I don't recall Ablett ever really being a great contested player like Voss, Judd or even Martin, he was really only top tier in uncontested situations.

Ablett had 8 seasons going at 13+ contested possessions per game compared to 3 for Judd.

 

[GoldbergsGold]

Ablett was a huge contested player. Big clearance rates and did really well in 1on1 match ups either for loose balls or in marking contests.

It is actually difficult to think of something gaj didn't do at an elite level (let others have the ball maybe?).

More from a disputed ball play, like I never recall Ablett ripping it from other players like Martin, Voss or Judd would.