Grant Birchall; Tasmania's best player ever?

[Luke_Hodgey_15]

3 Premiership, elite foot skills, immense leadership and a proper hatred for Essendon.

Well, is he?

 

[Messenger]

Triple Brownlow Medallist Ian Stewart.

 

[Luke_Hodgey_15]

And we enter the age old debate Premierships Vs. Brownlows!

 

[Lethality]

I think the sum of his career will see him as a great of the game, even if he doesn't have a single outstanding season.

 

[Brishawk]

Love Birchall but he is probably not even the best Hawthon player from Tassie . . . Peter Hudson would have to be our greatest Tasmanian however Birchall will be remembered as a great of our club no doubt.

 

[Gaston]

Darrin Pritchard anyone?

Wouldn't be Tasmania's best ever, wasn't Baldock from those parts?

 

[arupist]

Baldock, Hudson, Stewart - some great footballers there.

 

[Hawker55]

3 Premiership, elite foot skills, immense leadership and a proper hatred for Essendon.

Well, is he?

How old are you? He's not even the best Hawthorn player from Tassie.

 

[play2win]

mitch thorp needs a mention in this thread too

 

[Dixie Flatline]

Hudson is Hawthorn's best ever player from Tasmania and arguably in the top three in VFL/AFL history.

As great as Birch is, and although they play different positions, Hudson outranks Birchall significantly.

I'd put Birchall on the same tier as Matthew Richardson. Richo played almost 16 years for the Tigers in a pretty fallow period for them and kicked 800 goals for the Tigers as their main focal point up forward for much of that time. Then he reinvented himself as a winger in 2008 and almost won a Brownlow (scored 22 votes, his best ever single season result).

People remember Richo's dummy spits at his teammates but I too would have felt pretty frustrated at different times with the effort and skills of his teammates.

 

[savagelunchbox]

Peter Hudson then daylight.

 

[Lord Mud of Glenferrie]

Baldock, Hudson, Stewart - some great footballers there.

And Royce Hart and about a dozen others.

Birch is a great player and one of the best half backs I have seen at Hawthorn. If you want to talk about the best Taswegian at Hawthorn you start and stop with Peter Hudson.

 

[BullyWee]

Obviously Hudson, but consider also Ian Stewart, Darryl Baldock, Royce Hart and Brent Crosswell

 

[arupist]

And Royce Hart and about a dozen others.

Birch is a great player and one of the best half backs I have seen at Hawthorn. If you want to talk about the best Taswegian at Hawthorn you start and stop with Peter Hudson.

Absolutely. It really is a great pity that most of the posters on this board never got to see Huddo.

 

[arupist]

Obviously Hudson, but consider also Ian Stewart, Darryl Baldock, Royce Hart and Brent Crosswell

Crosswell doesn't belong in that sentence. The rest are outstanding champions of the game.

 

[Brishawk]

Absolutely. It really is a great pity that most of the posters on this board never got to see Huddo.

I have seen him kick into the man on the mark going for goal 151 about a thousand times and only seen highlights a few times (plus a couple of classic matches)

Just not enough of his games on film. Heck you can't even get Dunstall's 17 goals game on DVD!

 

[BullyWee]

Crosswell doesn't belong in that sentence. The rest are outstanding champions of the game.

Four premierships is not a bad record

 

[Lord Mud of Glenferrie]

I have seen him kick into the man on the mark going for goal 151 about a thousand times and only seen highlights a few times (plus a couple of classic matches)

Just not enough of his games on film. Heck you can't even get Dunstall's 17 goals game on DVD!

There has to be a lot more videos around. The camera was definitely there the day Huddo kicked 16. It would be criminal if all these treasures have been lost. Langers71 have you been able to find more and are you having any luck with Peter Haby? If not, what is the point in having a museum that surely must have the videos we have spoken about yet not making them available to the general public?

 

[Flag08]

Four premierships is not a bad record

And he was BOG in at least 2 of those.

 

[rick_422]

You could make a case for 'most successful'
But to say the best would be a very big call!

 

[dixyland]

As much as I loveBirchall, it's Hudson by a mile.

 

[Randy Campbell]

Only if you count, the players still playing.

 

[Brishawk]

There has to be a lot more videos around. The camera was definitely there the day Huddo kicked 16. It would be criminal if all these treasures have been lost. Langers71 have you been able to find more and are you having any luck with Peter Haby? If not, what is the point in having a museum that surely must have the videos we have spoken about yet not making them available to the general public?

I can't speak for Hudo games but my brother tried to obtain the Dunstall 17 goals game and he was told it would cost $1000 because the game was only on film and someone had to manually transfer it onto DVD. You would think the club would track down special games like that one and get them in a format that fans can view/buy even if only as a webstream online for members only. I would think it worth doing just so people don't forget about the feats of our past champions even if it is not particularly commercial. Even if the club put together a collection of 50 games of significance that you can't already buy (and assuming $1000 per game) we are only talking $50,000 plus whatever it costs to stream them online (inclusive of rights).

 

[worthy]

I'd have Birchall alongside Pritchard, and both well behind Hudson, also behind Baldock, Stewart, Richo, Hart, and prob a few others, that's not to say Birchall isn't a very good player.

 

[Luke_Hodgey_15]

Clearly showing my age on this one!

Plot twist, Tasmania's best 22?