Past Champions who don't get mentioned enough in the media

[HairyO]

True, and being a Fitzroy player doesn't help his profile all these years down the track either.

The really top shelf quick endurance rovers of that time (Wilson, Bartlett, Cable) could blow up Matthews in the midfield, due to the fact that lethal relied a lot more on his tank like frame.

Why are you assuming Matthews played their speed game?

May as well claim Sam Mitchell as no good because he was too slow.

Neither needed speed, yet were always right in every contest.

And both had incredible endurance. Thats why Matthews was able to 40 and 11.

 

[Sttew]

Capper

Saw him at the Rising Sun on the weekend scoffing down beers

 

[Sttew]

Lost all credibility when he sold out and changed his name. Your name is sacrosanct.

Just checking whether my sarcasm meter is working

 

[andrew coombs]

Kudos.

Wilson was a BETTER pure rover than Leigh Matthews. So were a couple of others.

The great trait that separates Matthews was his ability to go forward and basically become an elite quasi full forward.

Depends on your definition of “pure rover”. At his prime Matthews was the most influential and damaging onballer in the competition. Kicked the majority of his 915 goals while spending about 80%. of his game time as rover. In the latter part of his career when Hawthorn didn’t have a nominal spearhead he spent most of his time as a forward but throughout the Seventies he was Victoria’s first rover ahead of blokes like Wilson and Bartlett who were his main rivals for that position.

 

[SHAKESPEARE]

Peter Dean.

Absolute rock of a CHB. Beast that everybody forgets

 

[Snake_Baker]

Kicked the majority of his 915 goals while spending about 80%. of his game time as rover.

That's simply not correct mate.

Rovers generally always rested in the forward pocket during the first half(ish) period of Matthews career up until the endurance rovers appeared on the scene. Matthews then spent a considerable more time forward as he just couldn't go with them.

You only have to look at Michael Tuck, who was an absolute endurance beast for that period, by way of comparison. He held his own in the midfield for 400 games.

 

[Blackhawk42]

Shane Crawford doesn't get mentioned enough for what he actually did in his football career. He is just 'Silly Shane' to most people now.

Chris Grant should probably be remembered more too. Absolute star. If he played for a bigger club maybe he would have.

 

[Snake_Baker]

Why are you assuming Matthews played their speed game?

May as well claim Sam Mitchell as no good because he was too slow.

Neither needed speed, yet were always right in every contest.

And both had incredible endurance. Thats why Matthews was able to 40 and 11.

1) It's seriously absurd that you could make a correlation that suggests that I think Matthews was no good.
2) Matthews did not have "incredible endurance". Period!

A common theme I find amongst Hawthorn supporters is that they blow wind so far up their players back sides, that any reasonable and proper analysis is seen as a complete dismissal and disregard for the player in question.

Leigh Matthews sits comfortably in the best two players I have ever seen. Better than Gary Ablett senior. Not as talented but much more effective. BUT, he did have a flaw relative to the elite practitioners of one particular trait, endurance.

 

[HairyO]

1) It's seriously absurd that you could make a correlation that suggests that I think Matthews was no good.
2) Matthews did not have "incredible endurance". Period!

A common theme I find amongst Hawthorn supporters is that they blow wind so far up their players back sides, that any reasonable and proper analysis is seen as a complete dismissal and disregard for the player in question.

Leigh Matthews sits comfortably in the best two players I have ever seen. Better than Gary Ablett senior. Not as talented but much more effective. BUT, he did have a flaw relative to the elite practitioners of one particular trait, endurance.

How can you claim someone has no endurance when they played out entire games and managed to get 40 possessions and kick 11 goals? And over their entire career managed to rack up huge amounts of possessions and kick a huge number of goals. His best year he was close to 30 and 4 as his average.

Not too sure how you get results like that by standing around in the goal square, or sticking to the centre square, or in modern terms, hang around the half back flank picking up cheap back-and-forth stats.

Your problem is you have to snipe any player who didnt play for North Melbourne. But I do like the "But..." at the end.

 

[Snake_Baker]

How can you claim someone has no endurance when they played out entire games and managed to get 40 possessions and kick 11 goals? And over their entire career managed to rack up huge amounts of possessions and kick a huge number of goals. His best year he was close to 30 and 4 as his average.

Not too sure how you get results like that by standing around in the goal square, or sticking to the centre square, or in modern terms, hang around the half back flank picking up cheap back-and-forth stats.

Your problem is you have to snipe any player who didnt play for North Melbourne. But I do like the "But..." at the end.

I simply can't engage in this absurd discussion based upon cherry picking outlier results. You're overly invested in upholding a superman profile and therefore incapable of rational analysis.

I saw him play for most of his career. I can only assume you didn't.

 

[Listclogger]

Craig Bolton and Ryan O’Keefe get glossed over and don’t get anywhere near the plaudits of Goodes, Hall, O’Loughlin and Jude Bolton despite being just as important over a very long period of time.

That’s because the weren’t champions.

 

[ExTasDeeMan]

Paul Kelly - watch that bloke run head first into a pack and emerge with the footy.

 

[And_ROOS]

I feel like Buddha Hocking barely gets mentioned for a 4x All Australian, club record 4x BnF, consistent Brownlow placer, AFL HoF, Club Captain and Geelong Team of the Century.

Probably like most Cats of the 80s-90s; over shadowed by Ablett and a missing a flag to elivate them all that next step in the eyes of the general football fan.

Thats the kicker for me. Tons of Geelong players would be looked at differently if they had won in 92, 94 or 95, and even moreso if they had gone back to back 94/95 or won what everyone says is the greatest GF ever in 89.

 

[gavaniacono]

Im a Greg Williams fan. Might have been the best player id seen up till that time.

Paul Kelly was a beauty.

As was Gavin Brown.

Too many midfielders?

Gagf.

 

[HairyO]

I simply can't engage in this absurd discussion based upon cherry picking outlier results. You're overly invested in upholding a superman profile and therefore incapable of rational analysis.

I saw him play for most of his career. I can only assume you didn't.

I started watching in 1978. And how the hell is an entire year a "cherry picked outlier".

 

[mick500]

Lockett.

 

[Snake_Baker]

I started watching in 1978. And how the hell is an entire year a "cherry picked outlier".

You picked 1 year out of 17, and 1 match out of 332, by way of a rebuttal to a point I made in regards to a mere handful of opposition rovers.

I simply can't take this seriously, nor should any other rational person.

Congratulations for your ongoing contribution to the dumbing down of bigfooty.com.

 

[Tulip]

Turn it up - I thought this was about past champions not past good-average footballers.

Loewe and Burke played 320 games, and they're "good-average". You're kidding yourself.

 

[bunderson]

how about Tony Modra, he wasn't too bad

Daniel Kerr
Peter Bell did a lot for Freo but he seems to have been forgotten about pretty quickly

 

[Snake_Baker]

how about Tony Modra, he wasn't too bad

Freak, and against some bloody good full backs! 13 on Silvagni! 10 in Mick Martyn!

Daniel Kerr

As good as Cousins or Judd at their peak.

Peter Bell did a lot for Freo but he seems to have been forgotten about pretty quickly

Could have easily won the 1999 Norm Smith Medal.

 

[iluvparis]

Geoff Southby

 

[Sprout]

Scott West deserves more love than he gets.

 

[Sttew]

Peter Dean.

Absolute rock of a CHB. Beast that everybody forgets

All clubs have champions who disappeared from the limelight after retiring, players who never enjoyed the limelight and adulation, and were happy to become anonymous after football. When you are out of sight you become out of mind. The media is such a fickle beast. You only have to look how quickly the media forgot about Nat Fyffe in 2016 and 2017. He was No.1 in 2015, but because of injury the media found new darlings in 2016 and 2017

 

[Brad Goodman]

Loewe and Burke played 320 games, and they're "good-average". You're kidding yourself.

Rohan Smith played 300. Marcus Ashcroft 318. Good players but no superstars.

 

[Sttew]

Shane Crawford doesn't get mentioned enough for what he actually did in his football career. He is just 'Silly Shane' to most people now.

.

Only person to blame is the buffoon himself. It baffles me that Crawf allowed Ch 9 to turn him into a village idiot