Opinion Geelong Team of the 21st Century

[Claude Balls]

Can you have Egan in, despite the brevity of his career? At his best (2007), he was imo behind only Scarlett as a tall defender. A much better player than Lonergan and a shade ahead of Taylor, though the latter obviously had the better career.

Agree Stewart needs a few more runs on the board before overtaking Mackie.

 

[you pick one]

5 Great Games: Andrew Mackie

As a Cats favourite prepares to play his 250th game, we look back on his career highlights

www.geelongcats.com.au

 

[Hoops]

The 21st century started in 2001. Just sayin'

 

[thecatattack]

Can you have Egan in, despite the brevity of his career? At his best (2007), he was imo behind only Scarlett as a tall defender. A much better player than Lonergan and a shade ahead of Taylor, though the latter obviously had the better career.

Agree Stewart needs a few more runs on the board before overtaking Mackie.

As awesome as both are/were, I'd say both don't make it simply due to them having played a limited amount of games.

As amazing as Stewart is, Mackie played 280 games for us and won 3 flags and Stew hasn't even passed 70 games for us.

 

[Seeds]

As awesome as both are/were, I'd say both don't make it simply due to them having played a limited amount of games.

As amazing as Stewart is, Mackie played 280 games for us and won 3 flags and Stew hasn't even passed 70 games for us.

Polly Farmer only played 20 more games then stewart. So I gather you don't think Polly should be in our team of the century. Newman played 300 games.

Mackie 280 games - 1 all australian
Stewart 70 games - 2 all australians and counting. One averages an all australian every 280 games and the other averages it every 35.

Premierships is irrelevant unless you can prove that player was the sole difference between winning and losing one.

 

[thecatattack]

Polly Farmer only played 20 more games then stewart. So I gather you don't think Polly should be in our team of the century. Newman played 300 games.

Mackie 280 games - 1 all australian
Stewart 70 games - 2 all australians and counting. One averages an all australian every 280 games and the other averages it every 35.

Premierships is irrelevant unless you can prove that player was the sole difference between winning and losing one.

Polly Farmer literally revolutionised the game. He and Stewart or Newman are incomparable.

Mackie was a lot more deserving than 1 AA too but you're living with revisionist history.

His 3 flags aren't irrelevant either considering he was good enough to play in our greatest team ever, in one of the greatest defences ever and never looked like being dropped.

Don't forget he's literally a Geelong Cats Hall of Famer.

 

[Vdubs]

Hardest players to access are Bizzell Kingsley and Burns

try twitter or instagram

 

[Vdubs]

Egan was a gun. Power and quickness would have been Rance before Rance.

Egan-For one season only.
That Rance appraisal sums up Scarlett.

 

[Vdubs]

Surely tom lonergan gets the full back role in atleast the b team? The guy who made franklin his bunny. The guy who stopped travis cloke dead in his track in the 11 GF after he was murdering taylor.

Also surely some of the likes of gary hocking, glenn kilpatrick, brad sholl, clint bizzell, david mensch and touhy get in ahead of the likes of shannon byrnes, Prismall, menegola and bews. Dont think we need blake either as mumford is good enough on his own. He carried our ruck division in the 2009 season when blake proved useless without ottens around.

Rubbish. Why was Blake in the 09 flag team? He carried the ruck when Ottens was injured.

 

[DAlembert]

King won an all australian as first ruck. Ottens never got close to all australian whilst at geelong. In saying that its about line ball for me.

Ottens was sensational during the Premiership years. King was ok but Ottens kicked goals and was more effective around the ground. Ottens comfortably for me.

 

[Seeds]

Ottens was sensational during the Premiership years. King was ok but Ottens kicked goals and was more effective around the ground. Ottens comfortably for me.

Apparently everyone was sensational during our premiership years. Im just wondering why we didnt win every game by 100 points. Ottens was very good. Sensational would of won him an all australian or atleast be in serious contention which he never was.

 

[Seeds]

Polly Farmer literally revolutionised the game. He and Stewart or Newman are incomparable.

Mackie was a lot more deserving than 1 AA too but you're living with revisionist history.

His 3 flags aren't irrelevant either considering he was good enough to play in our greatest team ever, in one of the greatest defences ever and never looked like being dropped.

Don't forget he's literally a Geelong Cats Hall of Famer.

So games dont matter now. Which is it? You are being inconsistent.

The gap between stewart and mackie in ability is probably not all that different between farmer and newman.

 

[Lana]

FB Milburn Scarlett Enright
HB Stewart Taylor Mackie
C Duncan Selwood Bartel
HF Chapman Mooney Ablett
FF Stokes Hawkins Johnson
Fol Ottens Dangerfield Ling
Int King Kelly Corey Blicavs

 

[DAlembert]

Apparently everyone was sensational during our premiership years. Im just wondering why we didnt win every game by 100 points. Ottens was very good. Sensational would of won him an all australian or atleast be in serious contention which he never was.

Just because your memory has faded does not mean mine has. I am happy with Very good..."sensational" is over the top could not agree more.. my apologies. Steve King AA 2000.mmm Ottens up against Sandilands and Cox who were both "very good" Brendon Lade just shaded him in 2006 and that year I think he went very close to AA. Not saying King was no good just saying in those " big " years Ottens stood out for the Cats

 

[thecatattack]

So games dont matter now. Which is it? You are being inconsistent.

The gap between stewart and mackie in ability is probably not all that different between farmer and newman.

What?

I said there's a difference between arguably the greatest player to ever play at his position and another amazing player, thus their game difference isn't as big of a deal. You're just being hyperbolic by using them as an example.

Stewart is a great player but has played less than 70 games and thus I don't think deserves a position in a 21st-century squad over a 3x flag winner who played almost 300 games and is in our Hall of Fame and based on that he deserves a spot over someone who's played 3 seasons here.

 

[Seeds]

Rubbish. Why was Blake in the 09 flag team? He carried the ruck when Ottens was injured.

No mumford carried the ruck when ottens was injured. Mumford rucked every game from round 4 (ottens went down in round 3) to round 21. They tried blake and mumford together at first but blake was very average without ottens. In the end they dropped blake to the vfl for 6 weeks. This forced mumford to do it all on his own as a sole ruck in his first afl season whilst the more senior ruckman blake played vfl. It wore mumford out by the end. They brought blake back at the end of the season just before ottens returned. The refeshed blake got the nod over the worn out mumford. It was a shockingly unjust call. Mumford should of got a rest for a week or two and been brought back to partner ottens in finals rather then blake who was the weaker ruckman compared to mumford for most of the season. Mumford would of been our main ruck for the next decade if that happened. It probably cost us multple flags.

 

[Burtyl78]

FB: T.STEWART* - M.SCARLETT - T.HARLEY (c)
HB: C.ENRIGHT - H.TAYLOR* - D.MILBURN
C: J.BARTEL - J.SELWOOD* (vc) - J.COREY
HF: P.CHAPMAN - C.MOONEY - S.JOHNSON
FF: S.MOTLOP - T.HAWKINS* - R.BURNS
RR: S.KING - P.DANGERFIELD* - G.ABLETT*
INT: C.LING - M.BLICAVS* - B.GRAHAM - J.KELLY
COACH: MARK THOMPSON

Minimum 50 games qualification.

I think Geelong's is the best of all the teams. Especially considering players the calibre of duncan, sanderson, riccardi and mackie just to name a few who missed out but would be a walk up in almost every other team.

I tried to play everyone in position so the forward pockets are not at the same standard as the other positions but I don't like the idea of taking out the gun on ballers to cover those spots.

Motlop!

 

[Footy_Fan2007]

Not enough Rooke love in a lot of these teams and too much blitz. No way he's in the best 22

 

[Ricky Vaughn]

Motlop who has come second in the best and fariest in 2015. Stokes not even close. In 2013 motlop before he injured himself late in the season was looking a cert for the all australian. Stokes never elevated himself from a bottom 6 player in the starting side let alone even get close to being thought about in that company. Motlop is two classes above.

And why does kelly not make a team in two seasons?

Stokes came 4th in 2013. Motlop 5th.

 

[Ricky Vaughn]

Trying to pick a team to win me a game.

B: Enright - Scarlett - Harley
HB: Stewart - Taylor - Milburn
C: Bartel - Dangerfield - T. Kelly
HF: Johnson - Mooney - Riccardi
F: Motlop - Hawkins - Chapman
R: Ottens - Ablett - Selwood
I: Corey - King - Mackie - J. Kelly

Every player here was AA except Ottens, Riccardi and Motlop (for Geelong).
Ling unluckiest, but was trying to balance the side.

If you were picking a best of the century group, Geelong’s back 6 would be so far ahead of the rest.
03-04 Scarlett
13-14 Taylor
05 Milburn
08 Harley
17-18 Stewart
09 -13, 16 Enright

If I can get those versions of that 6, we’d concede soccer scores.

 

[Vdubs]

No mumford carried the ruck when ottens was injured. Mumford rucked every game from round 4 (ottens went down in round 3) to round 21. They tried blake and mumford together at first but blake was very average without ottens. In the end they dropped blake to the vfl for 6 weeks. This forced mumford to do it all on his own as a sole ruck in his first afl season whilst the more senior ruckman blake played vfl. It wore mumford out by the end. They brought blake back at the end of the season just before ottens returned. The refeshed blake got the nod over the worn out mumford. It was a shockingly unjust call. Mumford should of got a rest for a week or two and been brought back to partner ottens in finals rather then blake who was the weaker ruckman compared to mumford for most of the season. Mumford would of been our main ruck for the next decade if that happened. It probably cost us multple flags.

Interesting way you recall the season. Not my recollection. Blake was more than useful as a tap ruckman while Ottens was out. In the end, it worked out as it should have. We had 3 supporting rucks for Ottens who all were involved in premierships, and greedy Mummy left for greener pastures, and also played in a flag team.

 

[Cursed Cat]

Can you have Egan in, despite the brevity of his career? At his best (2007), he was imo behind only Scarlett as a tall defender. A much better player than Lonergan and a shade ahead of Taylor, though the latter obviously had the better career.

Agree Stewart needs a few more runs on the board before overtaking Mackie.

For pure talent he was shaping to be ahead of Harley, too - I only had the pleasure of seeing Egan play live once, but he absolutely turned it on.
Excellent above his head and in the contest, just had a ton of composure - quick hands too.
For talent I have only Scarlett ahead of him as a key defender - Taylor and Harley superior careers, but what might have been ..


B T. Harley M. Scarlett J. Kelly
HB D. Milburn T. Taylor C. Enright
C C. Ling J. Selwood J. Corey
HF P. Chapman C. Mooney S. Johnson
F M. Stokes T. Hawkins P. Dangerfield

R B. Ottens J. Bartel G. Ablett

I/C P. Riccardi, A. Mackie, S. King, D, Wojcinski

 

[cats_09]

No mumford carried the ruck when ottens was injured. Mumford rucked every game from round 4 (ottens went down in round 3) to round 21. They tried blake and mumford together at first but blake was very average without ottens. In the end they dropped blake to the vfl for 6 weeks. This forced mumford to do it all on his own as a sole ruck in his first afl season whilst the more senior ruckman blake played vfl. It wore mumford out by the end. They brought blake back at the end of the season just before ottens returned. The refeshed blake got the nod over the worn out mumford. It was a shockingly unjust call. Mumford should of got a rest for a week or two and been brought back to partner ottens in finals rather then blake who was the weaker ruckman compared to mumford for most of the season. Mumford would of been our main ruck for the next decade if that happened. It probably cost us multple flags.

Looking back over things, it seems the season played out differently from above.

Blake didn't struggle that much in the absence of Ottens and having a new ruck partner in Mumford. He had 3 "down" weeks over rounds 11, 12 & 13 before he missed 4 weeks between rounds 16 & 19 (it wasn't a 6 week period).

Yes Mumford did ok as the second ruck that year (definitely didn't carry us), but he's most impressive games were in the absence of another recognised ruck - so maybe the coaches had concerns about how well he would work with Ottens back in the side.

Blake's 2009 stats:


Mumford’s 2009 stats:

 

[DAlembert]

No mumford carried the ruck when ottens was injured. Mumford rucked every game from round 4 (ottens went down in round 3) to round 21. They tried blake and mumford together at first but blake was very average without ottens. In the end they dropped blake to the vfl for 6 weeks. This forced mumford to do it all on his own as a sole ruck in his first afl season whilst the more senior ruckman blake played vfl. It wore mumford out by the end. They brought blake back at the end of the season just before ottens returned. The refeshed blake got the nod over the worn out mumford. It was a shockingly unjust call. Mumford should of got a rest for a week or two and been brought back to partner ottens in finals rather then blake who was the weaker ruckman compared to mumford for most of the season. Mumford would of been our main ruck for the next decade if that happened. It probably cost us multple flags.

Spot on Seeds. The treatment of Mumford vis a v Blake was terrible. WE lost as you say a very good ruckman to a son of , who was not up to it. To be fair Blake showed glimpses but Mumford was the better long term prospect.

 

[DAlembert]

Interesting way you recall the season. Not my recollection. Blake was more than useful as a tap ruckman while Ottens was out. In the end, it worked out as it should have. We had 3 supporting rucks for Ottens who all were involved in premierships, and greedy Mummy left for greener pastures, and also played in a flag team.

He was not greedy...he knew his own worth. The son of Blake issue is what did him in. Geelong made the wrong choice. Simple as that.