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Opinion Gary Ablett Senior
- Thread starter Big_Tazz
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- Aug 2, 2012
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I didn't say your opinion is wrong about who's the best, only that it does not seem to be the usual consensus here, I don't think an apology is necessary.
jim boy
Umpires Association Head
- Admin
- #103
Judging what qualifies as the best is a bit subjective, do you measure just the peaks? Do you mark the best down when they have a bad game? When it comes to the length and quality of the highlight reel, GAS comes out easily on top, if you took an average score from every match ever played for us, I suspect GAJ may end up higher than GAS, but still lower than Polly.
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Rhubarb Stoneham was the best CHF in the league pre leg mattress.
Shell
Premium Platinum
You know what depresses me the most?
Is we will never see another player like Gary Snr in our lifetime.
Unless they clone him..
Is we will never see another player like Gary Snr in our lifetime.
Unless they clone him..
I thought we may have got some better highlights, more footage of his 89 season but I guess the old bootleg video was a quick easy fix.
Beggars can't be choosers though
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Couchy and Stoneham, felt sorry for Bazza, he was such a warrior and really wished he had a premiership after so many years of putting his body on the line but it just was never meant to be.
We came up against champion sides on all four occasions, teams which had ridiculous depth across every line.
It wasn't too bad. Hated the footage of other clubs though. It was called a special on Gary Ablett senior; not a highlights special of late 1980s footy.
- Feb 7, 2011
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Loves the footage of him at Hawthorn.
- Banned
- #110
did you see Ted Whitten play?
Always thought it is pretty easy to define senior.
Most individually talented football player of all time. Had every attribute of the game and simply is unsurpassed as a physical talent of the game.
But, you wouldn't pick him first in your team....that honour would be Whitten, Matthews, Carey or dare I say now Jnr.
That's the best way I've come across that defines the enigma that is/was Gary Senior.
Most individually talented football player of all time. Had every attribute of the game and simply is unsurpassed as a physical talent of the game.
But, you wouldn't pick him first in your team....that honour would be Whitten, Matthews, Carey or dare I say now Jnr.
That's the best way I've come across that defines the enigma that is/was Gary Senior.
Fred , Ill add one to the list , the little known Serdat Sir ( Bulldogs)
Lined up on Ablett at the Southern end of Whitten Oval much to the consternation of the Doggies faithful in standing room
1st contest Ablett splits him in half with a seemingly innocuous hip and shoulder...... he goes down like a ton of bricks , gets up , staggers around , falls again , gets up.........trainers walk him off the ground with his eyes going round and round in circles.
Deathly silence until some wag yells out.....NEXT !!
Knew a Physio from the Club who reckoned massaging the great man was like massaging a brick no matter where you touched.
One of his party tricks was to lie flat on his back on the table , have this guy ( 85kgs) put all his weight through his hands on either leg and Ablett would lift him off the ground for 4-5 straight leg raises .
No wonder he won around 75% of his 1:1 contests
Sedat Sir. First Muslim player to play seniors in the AFL, and he was almost killed by a born-again Christian. Gaz kicked 9 that day at the Western Oval if I remember rightly.
- Apr 6, 2010
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May not be first picked but he is the first one you would line up and pay money to watch, he is why I love the game and why I love the club and I bet there are THOUSANDS of people like me!
Saw him at the airport a few years ago and still regret to this day not going up to say thank you.
- Aug 2, 2012
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Yes.
He was the greatest of them all.
If you're talking about self-promoters, that is.
He was very good, but he wasn't as good as the later legend, and he wasn't head and shoulders above others of his era in the same way as the others mentioned here - which, I think, is the best criterion for deciding greatness over different eras.
Totally agree. The greatest influence on my enjoyment of the game and witnessing his career was pure joy.
Will never see a player his equal.
Vdubs
Hall of Famer
Maybe you wouldn't. Plenty of opposition supporters back then said any time we had Ablett in the team, we were a greater chance to win (GF's that is), EASILY the first picked in a Geelong GOAT team. As far as any other team, AA/Legends, whatever, I'd still have Ablett #1. And #2.
- Aug 2, 2012
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Yeah, first picked, slot the others in around him, he won more games than any of them, and the consistent specatacularity of his play can blind you to the fact that he simply played more great games than any of the others.
Take the best 20 individual games by the 5 of them, and at least 10 of them would be his.
Don't know why you'd pick those guys ahead of Ablett. They didn't do anything he didn't do, and were just as unaccountable defensively also. Of course the fact that in those days all great players from all clubs were that way rarely gets mentioned.
I saw quite a bit of Matthews and everything of Carey. Great players but Ablett was better again. His consistency was every bit as good as his talent was better.
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- Aug 2, 2012
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It's amazing how many morons think Ablett was only consistent after Blight arrived. 82 goals in 1985, 65 from 15 in 1986 (and we were shit), 82 in 1988 as well.....just a superstar from his first game. Made Judd and Selwood's early years look pedestrian.
Maybe they're younger folk who hardly or NEVER saw the Great Man play, Partridge. I never personally saw Farmer, Wooller, Flanagan, Davis, the Lord twins or any of our other champs take the field from days of yore, so all I can rely on is the word from others. Their recollections are good enough for me.
So it is with Gazza and the younger crowd.
Vdubs
Hall of Famer
I was around to see all of Polly's Cat games, Goggin, Lords, Marshall, Walker, Newman, Turner... down to GAJ
IMHO, Ablett snr = #1. GAJ = #2. Farmer = #3. They are all amazing, and I'd bet strongly as a non betting man, that we would easily have the BEST TOP 3, by a mile.
- Banned
- #124
just on that, I have two paper articles from an old footy record, one from 92 and another from 95, the 95 record says he has 7 All-Australians next to his name but on the Wikipedia link, it says he has 4.
I am unsure how they did those teams of the year back in the 80's (was too young to remember) but I did come across a video just recently which has a young Ablett from season 84 or 85 accepting a medal from Sandy Roberts and then being placed on the half forward flank for the best team of the year.
I was under the belief that the All-Australian did not come into fruition until season 1991?
- Aug 2, 2012
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I don't think he made any of the old, genuine, pre-1991 All-Australian Teams.
Here's how it worked (ps, check how many times Polly made the team, and check the 1958 Centenary Skipper)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-Australian_team