Top 10 Captains since the Turn of the Century

[Robroy22]

Don't recall anyone putting Cripps name forward as a top 10 captain this century.

Not sure why you're having a meltdown you over someone pointing out the bleating obvious re Pendles vs Cotchin as captains.

I dunno why anyone is suggesting Pendles is our best captain of the time indicated. Maxwell set the club up during his leadership and then came back to re-establish the leadership programs under Fly. Maxy wasn't the player that all those others were but he's right up there (I mean top 5) in terms of captaincy.

 

[Worm4]

I dunno why anyone is suggesting Pendles is our best captain of the time indicated. Maxwell set the club up during his leadership and then came back to re-establish the leadership programs under Fly. Maxy wasn't the player that all those others were but he's right up there (I mean top 5) in terms of captaincy.

Maxwell extremely under rated imo

 

[name change]

DJ Stratts.

I like Stratts, his pinches are the best

 

[name change]

Hahaha this thread is awesome. It was so cordial and well mannered this morning. Miracle it lasted so long. Gosh I love footy!

 

[Meteoric Rise]

Comedy thread. How the hell would anyone from outside the clubs be able to even start to divine how good a leader a player is?

How would an insider at one club be able to rate the leadership of a leader at another club?

For all we know Bob Murphy could be the actual best leader to play this century.

There are 3 with 3 flags. All pretty much fully franked truly great leaders, Voss, Cotchin, Hodge. The rest are open to certain questions, but who would really know.

 

[name change]

Comedy thread. How the hell would anyone from outside the clubs be able to even start to divine how good a leader a player is?

How would an insider at one club be able to rate the leadership of a leader at another club?

For all we know Bob Murphy could be the actual best leader to play this century.

There are 3 with 3 flags. All pretty much fully franked truly great leaders, Voss, Cotchin, Hodge. The rest are open to certain questions, but who would really know.

I dunno, I reckon you sound like you got it pretty sussed

 

[Kappa]

There has been a lot of discussion about the best players since the turn of the century over the off season, and many of us rate Leadership as a highly important attribute when ranking these players.

Which led me to thinking... Who have been the best playing leaders since the turn of the century?

To qualify, the player must have been a club captain for a period of time, but leadership outside of their captaincy term should also be taken into consideration.

Here are my Top 10:
1. Michael Voss (Brisbane Captain 2001 - 2006)
2. Luke Hodge (Hawthorn Captain 2011 - 2016)
3. Joel Selwood (Geelong Captain 2012 - 2022)
4. Trent Cotchin (Richmond Captain 2013 - 2021)
5. Scott Pendlebury (Collingwood Captain 2014 - 2022)
6. Max Gawn (Melbourne Captain 2020 - Present)
7. Nick Riewoldt (St. Kilda Captain 2005, 2007, 2009 - 2016)
8. Jonathon Brown (Brisbane Captain 2007 - 2013)
9. Matthew Pavlich (Fremantle Captain 2007 - 2015)
10. Mark Riccuito (Adelaide Captain 2001 - 2007)

Others considered - Darren Glass, Callan Ward, Lenny Hayes, Chris Grant, Marcus Bontempelli, Chris Judd, Patrick Cripps, Shane Crawford, Nathan Buckley, James Hird, Warren Tredrea, Brad Johnson, Toby Greene, Adam Goodes, Travis Boak, Nick Maxwell, Tom Harley, Nathan Fyfe, Gary Ablett Jnr, Sam Mitchell, David Neitz.

Give me your top 10, and periodically I'll provide an updated cumulative view of the best captains since the turn of the century according to the BigFooty brainstrust!

Cumulative votes as a 6pm on 7th February:
View attachment 2220783

Is that group the best captains or just the best players/most premierships?

Being a great player has very little correlation to being a great captain, and a great captain can't just magically make their team win premierships.

 

[Fadge]

I dunno, I reckon you sound like you got it pretty sussed

I think he's just bitter because there's no place for Dustin Martin in the discussion...

 

[name change]

I think he's just bitter because there's no place for Dustin Martin in the discussion...

Yeah if they had of given dusty the reigns for at least one game it would be discussed.

Bob Murphy is a good shout tho, definitely deserves a mention.

 

[name change]

What about most lovable captains?

Who's needs 2-10 when you've got this one:

 

[Noidnadroj]

Sadly, he's currently in 5th place based on top 10 rankings provided in this thread, behind the obvious two - Voss and Hodge, but also Selwood and Pendlebury.

I'm sure there's some sort of conspiracy against Richmond to explain it.

I blame Stephen Hocking, the stand rule, and the ARC.

When Pendles was captain Pies were 4 seasons in finals, 5 seasons out. When not captain it was 9-1. He was made captain of a team who’d made finals the prior 8-years, and they missed finals his first 4 seasons in charge. He never captained a flag.

With Cotchin was captain it was 7 seasons in finals, 2 out. When not captain it was 1-7. He was made captain of a team who’d hadn’t made finals for 12-years. He captained 3 x flags including a dynasty.

So if the poll has Pendlebury ahead as a skipper that’s great, but it’s probably not a poll to be taken overly seriously.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[Noidnadroj]

Hero status is forged on the biggest stage. Cotch and Voss - 3x premiership captains. I'm not sure a poll of BigFooty's finest will be the deciding factor

Pendles played great H&A footy and trained hard and spoke well = great skipper. His team achieved nothing, he played very poorly in many close finals losses including the GF of 2018 and PF of 2019, and the team performed better when he wasn’t captain - winning flags 4-years before made captain and 1-year after relinquishing it… but hey… why should actual performance of the team be factored in?

But he presents well, trained hard and was a model citizen = great captain ‍[emoji574]️.



Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[Osho]

a great captain can't just magically make their team win premierships.

Oh, yes they bloody can!

 

[Osho]

(like Voss (trying to account for my own bias))

Excellent bracketing.

 

[Osho]

BigFooty's finest

Awww ... shucks!

 

[sleep]

Who are the worst captains?

Sam Mitchell. Ousted in a bloody coup d'état.

 

[name change]

Interesting you mention Bob Murphy there MR.

I was at a pub a few years back, immediately after Bob retired, and there were a bunch of about 20 Bulldogs players next to us in the beer garden. It was late December, so definitely off-season, and they were all getting stuck into the shots and pots and starting to get rowdy.

My mate that I was with was very good friends with a senior member of the Bulldogs coaching panel - not Bevo, but not far off - and gave him a call to poke some banter that his players were out and about and getting pretty loose.

"Which of them are there?" was his response.

Between me and my mate we were to reel off quite a few of them that were recognisable - "Well there's Bont, Mitch Wallis, Lachie Hunter, Jack Macrae, Josh Dunkley, Easton Wood ..."

None of these names caused any sort of stir.

... Luke Dahlhaus, Libba ..."

"Libba!" the Doggies bloke said, for the first time a bit worried "What's Libba doing? Who he with?"

My mate said - "He's chatting to Bob Murphy at the moment"

Dogs bloke - "Oh Bob's there. Oh no worries, not a problem in the world." And his entire demeanor on the phone went relaxed again.

Btw, they were a really good bunch of fellas. Behaved themselves very well.

I worked in a cafe and used to serve some of the Wallis family. Really nice decent people.
I remember Mitch came in on one occasion, he had a carmel milkshake. Hr totally smashed it

Sam Mitchell. Ousted in a bloody coup d'état.

Not the genius!

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Sam Mitchell. Ousted in a bloody coup d'état.

2008 broke your brain.

 

[Kappa]

Oh, yes they bloody can!

What if the best captain plays for a team like north or st kilda?

 

[Mr Meow]

2008 broke your brain.

To be clear, if you spoke to 100 Geelong supporters, only 1 would have that opinion.

A similar proportion of Hawks would doubt Selwood's credentials.

 

[sleep]

2008 broke your brain.

Legend has it, he's still pulling the knives out of his back....

 

[Glorfindel]

Who are the worst captains?

Jack Trengove
Jack Grimes
Tom Rockliff
Lance Whitnall
Luke McDonald
Luke Shuey (stiff but barely got on the park while captain)
Ryan Griffen, Tom Lynch and Steven May
Probs not worst but can’t imagine GAJ being great at the off field captaincy stuff.

 

[Captain_Bender]

Jack Trengove
Jack Grimes
Tom Rockliff
Lance Whitnall
Luke McDonald
Luke Shuey (stiff but barely got on the park while captain)
Ryan Griffen, Tom Lynch and Steven May
Probs not worst but can’t imagine GAJ being great at the off field captaincy stuff.

Jobe Watson

 

[G String]

What if the best captain plays for a team like north or st kilda?

... or Richmond circa 2016

 

[Glorfindel]

Jobe Watson

Depends which angle you take.
Bad cos he was captain when the saga went down, or good cos he was captain during the saga and the wheels did fall off for a few years.
Answer is somewhere in the middle, and I definitely hold him higher than the 3 who left their clubs while they were captains.