Toast Welcome to the Temple of Bontempelli, please take off your shoes and pay your respects

bobs head soup

Peanuts Peanuts
Sep 14, 2015
5,014
14,522
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Grant was definitely a top 3 player from 1996-99 I would say.

Hawkins and Dempsey would also have been close at their peaks
One who often gets overlooked is Luke Darcy but the year before he did his knee he was the only Bulldog ever (since the award commenced in the 80s) to be voted by the AFL players as the best player in the comp. No doubt he was comfortably a top 5 player in the comp at that point.
 

Scary_Foot_9

Norm Smith Medallist
Jul 16, 2013
5,021
7,173
Canberra
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Tottenham, Cubs, Leafs, Ravens
One who often gets overlooked is Luke Darcy but the year before he did his knee he was the only Bulldog ever (since the award commenced in the 80s) to be voted by the AFL players as the best player in the comp. No doubt he was comfortably a top 5 player in the comp at that point.

Hmm I don’t know if deep down if he was ever in the echelon of Voss, Buckley, Lloyd, Cousins, Brown, Black and others. Clearly the best ruckman and an outstanding player for a couple of years but in terms of guys who on their best day could match it with anyone he probably wasn’t that dominant.

Whereas Bont’s best day can match it with anyone.
 
Jan 1, 2015
1,532
3,951
Hoppers Crossing
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
We live in a different era of over commentating but I feel like Bont gets talked about by every commentary team every week on game day as something special. Dempsey was one of several great ruckmen of his era. Hawkins too was an equal in the golden era of wingmen. Grant did things that Carey did or Jakovich did and the commentators would say so and Johnno would be spoken of as great player but Bont does things that only Bont does, not just in our eyes but the media’s as well. If he can rediscover goalkicking, he will be no. 1. At worst, he will be part of the new trinity like Voss, Hird and Buckley with Cripps and insert 3rd player ( the 3rd is undecided)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

bobs head soup

Peanuts Peanuts
Sep 14, 2015
5,014
14,522
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Hmm I don’t know if deep down if he was ever in the echelon of Voss, Buckley, Lloyd, Cousins, Brown, Black and others. Clearly the best ruckman and an outstanding player for a couple of years but in terms of guys who on their best day could match it with anyone he probably wasn’t that dominant.

Whereas Bont’s best day can match it with anyone.
Tthe AFLPA award is voted on by every AFL player of that year. If they collectively vote for someone as the most outstanding player over a season, that seems a pretty valid credential, but maybe they all just got it wrong that year.
 

Scary_Foot_9

Norm Smith Medallist
Jul 16, 2013
5,021
7,173
Canberra
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Tottenham, Cubs, Leafs, Ravens
Tthe AFLPA award is voted on by every AFL player of that year. If they collectively vote for someone as the most outstanding player over a season, that seems a pretty valid credential, but maybe they all just got it wrong that year.

Aside from the point that some players wouldn’t even watch 1 game over a weekend, I think you’ve misunderstood my point.

Darcy was an outstanding consistent performer throughout the early 00’s but he didn’t have the same match winning ability or value to his side as some others. Just as a player like Andrew Gaff or Adam Treloar is ultra consistent and outstanding today - you just straight up couldn’t argue they are as valuable as Fyfe or Eliot Yeo
 

hoianbulldog

Norm Smith Medallist
Mar 2, 2006
5,550
6,289
Hoi An, Vietnam. I am off the grid.
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Stupidly read the comments on FB from the article about him leading the coaches award. Lots of people saying he is overrated. I seriously wonder how many of those people have seen him play a full game.
Aflca award is the award with the most credibility in my opinion.
 
Stupidly read the comments on FB from the article about him leading the coaches award. Lots of people saying he is overrated. I seriously wonder how many of those people have seen him play a full game.
I've read similar stuff here about Danger, Ablett, Dusty or whoever is leading the various player awards in any given year. It's just fans being their usual parochial selves, as they are entitled to be.

Anyway, the vocal minority are 50% idiots. In fact probably more than 50% if we're talking about FB.

Besides, Bonti has an awful lot of genuine admirers out there (non Doggies).

Ignore them all and trust your own judgement.
 

FoochPackage

All Australian
Sep 3, 2015
967
1,745
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
This guy is seriously the best player in the comp and no one will change my mind on that. An absolute pleasure to watch him in our colours.
 
Sixth best - pffffttt!!!
I think that's a rolling average calculation taken over about two years (weighted toward recent games). Someone here is likely to know the details.

I reckon if it was a rolling average just over 2019 he'd be close to the top. It does skew toward midfielders though, just like most other awards, because they're always in the action wherever the ball happens to be.
 

bobs head soup

Peanuts Peanuts
Sep 14, 2015
5,014
14,522
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
At the start of the year I remember the AFL website had 10 or 12 of their 'experts' list their top 10 players in the comp. Of them, only Tim Watson included Bont in his top 10, from memory he had him 7th or 8th. Reckon a few of those lists would look pretty silly about now.
 
At the start of the year I remember the AFL website had 10 or 12 of their 'experts' list their top 10 players in the comp. Of them, only Tim Watson included Bont in his top 10, from memory he had him 7th or 8th. Reckon a few of those lists would look pretty silly about now.
To be fair he had a bit of a dip in form last season. Still excellent for a mere mortal but not quite up to his own high standards.

So it was no surprise to see him drop out of most experts' top 10s. Their expertise is always after the fact.
 

In Repair

Team Captain
Aug 15, 2009
396
765
Hoppers Crossing
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
At the start of the year I remember the AFL website had 10 or 12 of their 'experts' list their top 10 players in the comp. Of them, only Tim Watson included Bont in his top 10, from memory he had him 7th or 8th. Reckon a few of those lists would look pretty silly about now.

Watson said he is the number 1 player in the game a few weeks ago
 

AjsGuns

Club Legend
Nov 16, 2008
2,485
1,522
Melbourne
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Chelsea.
AFLCA leaderboard will be interesting this week..
Looks like Tim Kelly won't get any votes, Bont might get 1 or 2. Fyfe is on absolute fire at the moment and is looking like getting 8-10, which would put him about 6 behind Bont (assuming Bont doesn't get votes). Cripps still to play. Any of the 4 can win IMO. Hopefully Bont goes BOOM, BOOM over the next 2 weeks.
 

Scary_Foot_9

Norm Smith Medallist
Jul 16, 2013
5,021
7,173
Canberra
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Tottenham, Cubs, Leafs, Ravens
AFLCA leaderboard will be interesting this week..
Looks like Tim Kelly won't get any votes, Bont might get 1 or 2. Fyfe is on absolute fire at the moment and is looking like getting 8-10, which would put him about 6 behind Bont (assuming Bont doesn't get votes). Cripps still to play. Any of the 4 can win IMO. Hopefully Bont goes BOOM, BOOM over the next 2 weeks.

Bont will still get 3 or 4 imo

I see him going big the next couple of weeks (usually plays well against both Adelaide and GWS) and wrapping it up.
 
Back