All Australian Team 2008

[Falchoon]

Alrighty then:

Franklin 108
Fevola 85
Black 77
Bartel 75
Corey 73
K Cornes 73
Mitchell 73

Yeah, that doesn't seem to disqualify anyone.

They obviously didn't consider only stats

 

[Mephistopheles929]

I'm pretty happy overall with the team. One of the better efforts in recent years IMO.

Sam Mitchell is incredibly stiff to miss out. Had an absolutely outstanding season as the number one midfielder in one of the prime on-ball units in the competition. Doesn't get enough of the credit for the input he has at Hawthorn.

Judd probably deserves to be in the team but he doesn't deserve to be the starting ruck-rover ahead of Bartel, Cooney, Mitchell. Not sure about his captaincy either. I would've gone Harley or Riewoldt. I'm not overly surprised though, given Robert Walls is on the selection panel.

 

[strategy]

Judd .. a weak first half of the season and some good games in the second BUT he shouldnt have been in the team .Kirk has been more consistent and better .

Cooney a good first half of the season BUT a weak second half .Should not have been in the team .Cross more consistent and better.

I forgot ..Harley OUt and Mackie IN .Mackie is a player most teams under rate and has a great vertical leap and so does Harry Taylor .

 

[getthefooty]

Anyone see Rohan Connolly's team in The Age?

FB: Morris, Scarlett, Fisher
HB: Mackie, Bock, Hodge
C: Judd, Mitchell, Bartel
HF: Medhurst, Pavlich, S Johnson
FF: Riewoldt, Franklin, Harvey

FOLL: Cox, Corey, Ablett
INTER: Cooney, Ling, Hille Fevola

Changes from original team: Harley out all together, replaced by Mackie. Enright, Sandilands, Richardson out and replaced by Ling, Hille and Mitchell. Pav to CHF, Fev to bench, Cooney to bench replaced by Mitchell.

How he can't have Richo in is beyond me.

 

[Falchoon]

19 of my 22 made it - i'm surprised !!

differences of opinion:

1) the back 6 make no sense. they have effectively chosen 5 talls, with Hodgey as a loose. how would they stack up against Collingwood forwardline of Davis/Didak/Medhurst/Thomas ??? i would've at least had Enright in the starting18 with Fisher on the bench.

Fisher stacked up pretty well on Medhurst the other night, in fact a taller player with agility is the ideal match up for Medhurst.

 

[mcglee]

Fisher stacked up pretty well on Medhurst the other night, in fact a taller player with agility is the ideal match up for Medhurst.

Exactly. Ryan Hargrave did the job on him when the dogs played him. Beats up on average small defenders, not so good against the best midsized athletic types.

 

[legitimatic]

To start off with, I'll say Pavlich is an absolute super player and would probably get the Bulldogs a premiership BUT
He was Freo's ONLY focal point up forward and only kicked 67 goals ( I know he missed a couple of games at the end )
Scott Cummings won the Coleman Medal and couldn't get in!
Lucas kicked more last year and couldn't get in.
Then again Riewoldt kicked less and got in so........( but I think he has won more games for the Saints)

I just think some players get in ahead of others without valid reasons.
Yes Pav had another good season (not great but good)
Yes the coaches rate him highly but the AA award is like the Brownlow - it's for the current season(or should be), not reputation. That's why Woewodin, Brian Wilson and Libber are Brownlow medalists but not rated with Carey, Ablett Snr, Whitten, Matthews etc.

Pav made full back one year when he never played there. He is a terrific player but not sure he is 6 time AA terrific when others have never been selected. How many games did he WIN for his club this year and how many did he LOSE?

Again I love him as a player and would dearly love him in our side but I think THIS YEAR Mitchell has contributed more to Hawthorn's winning season, Murphy and O'Keefe to Dogs and Swans and even Selwood and definitely Black to their club's results than Pav.

3 talls on the bench is overkill and I just think Pav needed to do more THIS year to earn a bench spot ahead of others. (Not under-rating him, have actually watched a few Freo games this year on Foxtel, and feel free to disagree)

WOW!

 

[rgauci]

To start off with, I'll say Pavlich is an absolute super player and would probably get the Bulldogs a premiership BUT
He was Freo's ONLY focal point up forward and only kicked 67 goals ( I know he missed a couple of games at the end )
Scott Cummings won the Coleman Medal and couldn't get in!
Lucas kicked more last year and couldn't get in.
Then again Riewoldt kicked less and got in so........( but I think he has won more games for the Saints)

I just think some players get in ahead of others without valid reasons.
Yes Pav had another good season (not great but good)
Yes the coaches rate him highly but the AA award is like the Brownlow - it's for the current season(or should be), not reputation. That's why Woewodin, Brian Wilson and Libber are Brownlow medalists but not rated with Carey, Ablett Snr, Whitten, Matthews etc.

Pav made full back one year when he never played there. He is a terrific player but not sure he is 6 time AA terrific when others have never been selected. How many games did he WIN for his club this year and how many did he LOSE?

Again I love him as a player and would dearly love him in our side but I think THIS YEAR Mitchell has contributed more to Hawthorn's winning season, Murphy and O'Keefe to Dogs and Swans and even Selwood and definitely Black to their club's results than Pav.

3 talls on the bench is overkill and I just think Pav needed to do more THIS year to earn a bench spot ahead of others. (Not under-rating him, have actually watched a few Freo games this year on Foxtel, and feel free to disagree)

Teams win games. 1 player can't carry a team.

I think if the Coaches award ranks Pav the 3rd most influential player. I think he's worthy of AA.

 

[Finley Hawk]

I am stunned - How can the selectors leave out Sam Mitchell, Joel Selwood & Ryan O'Keefe.

And I can't believe they named Sandilands & Medhurst in the squad.
Pavlich can count himself lucky to be in there as well.

I also cant work out why they have named Richo on the Bench, he should be named on the Wing.

What an absolute Joke...

 

[_Interpol_]

The team was about what i expected

I correctly picked 20 of the 22 named. I had bradshaw/deledio in ahead of medhurst/johnson. Also picked 13 players in their exact correct position

See, anyone can do AA teams, shows how wonky it can be sometimes

 

[_Interpol_]

Ps: Pav 6 times AA - what a champ!

 

[AG]

The team was about what i expected

I correctly picked 20 of the 22 named. I had bradshaw/deledio in ahead of medhurst/johnson. Also picked 13 players in their exact correct position

See, anyone can do AA teams, shows how wonky it can be sometimes

Why did you choose Deledio as a forward when he was in the midfield category?

 

[legend166]

How many goals did these guys kick this year?

I think they had a huge emphasis on goal kicking midfielders. During the broadcast I think they said Cooney was 2nd among Top 10 ball getters?

Think they would have had a look at McVeigh, then.

 

[rgauci]

If anyone doesn't think Sandilands is worthy of AA selection they haven't seen him play. He's had 88 clearances. Thats more than Joel Selwood.

He was top 5 in both hardball gets and contested possessions. Thats in the whole league!

 

[Bollox]

Paul Roos was correct...with the bullshit surrounding Carlton u;d swear they'd finished somewhere decent.

A bloke that shouldnt have made the team even snares the captaincy...coz its true captaincy material to chase the almighty dollar and achieve 10th.

The only silly thing in the team...disappointed they couldnt choose a more worthy captain.

Team ios very sound otherwise...well selected and apart from a top heacy bench its well balanced.

 

[Sausage roll]

Fit Richo in where ?
On wing u have Bartel one of the Fav's for the Brownlow.
The other wing you have Cooney , also one fav's for the Brownlow
And in the foward line you 5 players who are ahead on form in front of Richo , the only one who isn't is medhurst but the place is for a small foward

Open your eyes

Well move the wigman, flogjockey!

Richo was nearly favourite for the brownlow half way through the year and was clearly the best wingman-clearly.

move the other wingman somewhere else

 

[Koki Freelander]

No selections wrong? Didn't notice Medhurst in the side?

How are those sour grapes. Are they delicious?

 

[Digby_from_Dingley]

Well move the wigman, flogjockey!

Richo was nearly favourite for the brownlow half way through the year and was clearly the best wingman-clearly.

move the other wingman somewhere else

If he was a wingman, he wasnt a very good one. Last in the league for wingman for clearances, tackles, errors, 1%ers and getting the ball into forward 50, 5 pretty big tasks fo a wingman.

So you want Nick Stevens on the other wing? or Joel Bowden.

 

[Sausage roll]

If he was a wingman, he wasnt a very good one. Last in the league for wingman for clearances, tackles, errors, 1%ers and getting the ball into forward 50, 5 pretty big tasks fo a wingman.

So you want Nick Stevens on the other wing? or Joel Bowden.

Last for errors? Can you the name the other 31 wingman you compared him to to create these stats?

How was he for marks?

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Ps: Pav 6 times AA - what a champ!

Including berths at Full-Back and CHB too, from memory?

What an absolute superstar.

 

[Mervyn Beasley]

If Tom Harley was NOT captain of Geelong...

...would he be in the AA team?

I doubt it.

Geelong could quite feasibly have chosen Ablett, Milburn, or Chapman as their Captain and if so the footy world would not be completely and utterly seduced by him and he would not be in that side.
He is obviously a very good club captain, and obviously a very smart choice as club captain, but his footy is not quite AA standard for mine.

If (yes I know these are all if's!) Geelong were a few rungs down the ladder and his form was exactly the same, I guarantee you he would not be chosen in the AA side.

If (and this is a real if) you are chosen as a big bodied defender in the AA side, you need to be good enough to regularly play on the big bodied forwards also chosen in the AA side and we all know Tom is not good enough for this.

It's not Tom's fault he was chosen and I mean no disrespect to him but I firmly believe this was a bad choice. Hudghton Rutten or Croad are better big bodied defenders, and from his own team, Milburn or Mackie are better choices to take the not so big bodied AA forwards. Even Taylor gets the big jobs ahead of him.

The love for Harley in the Footy world has surpassed that of Judd at the moment. Apart from him being a smart man and a good speaker I just dont get it.

 

[Judd2Sewell]

In fairness to Richo he wasn't exactly playing as a conventional wingman, he was pushing back and forward and generally running around where he liked.

I think the bench is a perfect spot to represent this.

How Deledio missed out, on the other hand, is bermusing.

 

[Turkey Tom]

Re: If Tom Harley was NOT captain of Geelong...

What a surprise, a Hawthorn supporter posting about Geelong!

Being surrounded by other great defenders did help. He could feel free to leave his opponent to go for his marks knowing that guys like Scarlett and Milburn were around to back him up.

But if the AA side ever did play a game, he would be able to do the same thing, as his fellow defenders are class players.

But that is the same with the majority of players selected. Being surrounded by other good players certainly helps. Buddy getting good delivery etc..

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Re: If Tom Harley was NOT captain of Geelong...

Pratt would be in the side.

Though Harley has been very good this season.

 

[clobba]

Re: If Tom Harley was NOT captain of Geelong...

I'd agree with that pretty much.