Howdy again. Its time for my 2nd Annual AFL Most Valuable Property blog. An idea I have stolen from a funny writer in the US and adapted to a much more important sport.
This year, because so many players deserved it, I have also included the AFL’s least most valuable players, but they come later.
Firstly, a quick recap of the rules. Each player is ranked on how valuable they are in a heads up trade. The #1 guy would not get swapped for any single player on the list. Number 16 would probably get swapped for everyone in between 1-15.
Obviously Freo would never trade Pav straight up for another player, but if he rates 5 on this list, then I believe the top 4 guys would at least get Harvey saying “Player 1 is available? Jeez, Pav is a big price but…”
This is NOT a version of the Sheehan AFL Top 50. He ranks the players in terms of who he thinks is currently the best player. This is different in that it’s who I believe has the most worth. Therefore age matters, the size of the contract (obviously estimated), years left in the game, off field stuff, and some other vague notions that add to a guys worth which I am happy to call my own inherent biases.
Last year looked like this.
This year looks like;
1. Buddy Franklin. A young, dominant, team oriented but game breaking key forward. He still has potential and likely improvement in many aspects of his games and he probably isn’t yet as strong as he soon will be. Wow.
2. Gary Ablett Jnr. Poncy? Yes. Infuriating? Yes. Freaky good? Unfortunately yes. He’s a world class floozy but he is also top notch at this game, and he’s still a lot younger (24) than his grotesque head and pattern baldness would have you think.
3. Matthew Pavlich. Not quite as young as the top 2, but more flexible and a demonstrated leader to boot. Only the above 2 guys get Harvey seriously thinking about trading Pav heads-up, even then he wouldn’t be criticised for turning it down.
4. Jon Brown. Dropped 1 spot from last year and only because Pav and Giblett snuck past him. At 27 he’s younger than many think but he has suffered more than those above him due to his style of play. He’s an old 27 in terms of the wear and tear he’s suffered but he’s also still a top 3 big man in the game.
5. Chris Judd. The decline has begun, or perhaps he rebounds this year and shoots straight back up the ladder again. Questions must be asked about his leadership as it seems wherever he goes discipline is a concern. At his best he’s still the best in the game.
6. Dean Cox. Testament to his class is that, even after a season badly affected by his foot injury, he still makes AA (and deserved it, be honest) and he retains his status as the best ruckman in the game.
7. James Bartell. One of the first names mentioned when talking about top flight midfielders. He’s also one of the few that can get his own pill AND be just as dangerous on the break as well.
8. Luke Hodge. Undeniably tough with tremendous leadership and silky skills. He has closed the gap on the Judd v Hodge debate to the point where it’s almost OK to think they made the right pick now.
9. Matthew Scarlett. His GF performance on Franklin was testament to how good this guy is. Although it wasn’t good enough to get them over the line, he still stifled the most dangerous big man in the league without Geelong double teaming him all game. That is a huge asset for any coach to have.
10. Joel Selwood. An impressive career continues to build and build. Clearly the best of the Selwood breed.
11. Simon Black. Should have won a second Brownlow last year. Age is the ONLY thing that stops this guy from being in the top 5. At 29, how much more does he have?
13. Sam Mitchell. Totally irrelevant to this list but in my opinion, outside Giblett & Scarlett he’s probably the guy on this list who would have the biggest impact if he found his way to Freo.
13. Daniel Kerr. Last year I wrote “I've thought for a while now he was almost equal to Judd and better than Cousins. This year will provide key insight as to whether that is true.” It wasn’t. He still sits in the upper echelons but this season could see him drop right out of sight.
14. Adam Cooney. Brownlow’s pad value unless you are Shane Woewodin who was so obviously a fraud. He may be a little erratic and inconsistent still, but he’s a fantastic player. Cooney is the 2nd best Full Ranga to play the game in the last few years, although he’s still WAY behind Voss on a short list of worthy candidates.
15. Chad Cornes. I’ll acknowledge his value and effectiveness but I’m dammed if I’ll explain it out loud again. **** you Chad you **** ***** piece of ****** ****.
16. Aaron Sandilands. Jumped in to the AFL elite last year and now only has to continue his development to completely dominate the AFL, stop the floods, put out the fires reverse the global financial crisis and become the most dominant force on Earth.
17. Kane Cornes. See 15. **** you too you ****** little ******.
18. Brad Johnson. Am I the only person alive who finds this guy incomprehensively annoying to watch? Is it really only me? Can play though, all credit to him for that.
19. Nick Riewoldt. Vitey continues his freefall in to albino oblivion. He still has high value because of his skills and remaining potential, but he’s fast running out of time to prove either are of any value at all.
20. Ryan Griffen. I may rate this guy higher than many or I may not, I don’t read enough media to know for sure. To me he is a good sized, consistent, hard working and very fast midfielder who can kill you defensively or with the ball in his hands.
Almost making my list were Harvey & Richo who were too old to have any real trade value left plus, Jarrod McVeigh, Matthew Boyd, Scott Thompson, Brendon Fevola, Joel Corey, Brett Deledio, and Lenny Hayes. Rhys Palmer was also very close.
Those who dropped off last year’s list include Barry Hall, Darren Glass and Hamish McIntosh who all had injury or spazz-out related drops in effectiveness.
Now, to punish you for reading this far and just for my own enjoyment, I thought I’d whack up the LEAST valuable top 10. To qualify you have to have played 25 games and been at your current club for 2 seasons, sop no rookies or new draftees. You also have to have played the majority of the games last year and be expected to do the same this year.
I barred Melbourne from participating out of respect for the recent death of this once proud club.
They’re not dead? Really? Oh well, they’d have too many on the list so they’re still barred.
The last qualifier is that teams would laugh at you if you offered these guys as the only compensation in a trade for anyone else who could actually play.
Obviously no Freo players make the list.
1. Quentin Lynch. My thoughts on Qlog & his Mr Hat are very clear. He makes everything more difficult and is the only guy in the game who is dumber than the contents of his kit bag.
2. Joel Bowden. Isn’t it fitting that the main thing people will remember about Joeline is the rule that may be created after watching him running backwards and scoring for the opposition. The pass he gave to Murph in the NAB is the play that should be etched on his career’s video tombstone when he finally hangs up the skirt.
3. Chad Fletcher. Freddie Flatliner is perhaps the only player in the AFL to be worse now than the year before he was drafted with no REAL progress in between.
4. Lewis Roberts Thompson. OK. He’s tall and runs without causing himself a concussion, but surely you need to be able to do more than that to crack regular AFL games don’t you? Obviously not.
5. Mark Blake. He quickly went from “Poor” Mark Blake after being left out of the winning GF team to “Oh! Now I get it!!” Mark Blake once we all had a closer look to the empty plate he brings to the table.
6. Andrew Welsh. Here we have a completely ineffective, totally irrelevant little tool who runs around pretending he has the physical attributes of Jon Brown. He’d struggle to intimidate Adam Selwood’s youngest girlfriend yet every week he’s puffing out his 69cm chest and throwing the most comical of “hardman” stares at players. When he broke his paw Essendon got 7% better.
7. Jason Laycock. Ask an Essendon supporter what they think of this bloke and watch them either hang their head and squirm or explode in a hateful tirade against him. Fun times.
8. Cam Cloke. Had Cloke not had his arse kicked every time he’s played then I'm sure what Sultana O'Helpme did would have caught us even more by surprise.
9. Jordan MacMahon. I couldn’t believe it when I read he has now played 136 games including 22 last year. He makes Julian Clarey look like (**obscure reference alert**) Kimbo Slice .
10. Tyson Stenglein. If there was a stat for “standing on the mark after your guy has beaten you to the ball and made you look stupid” Tysey would lead the league. He is a rare thing in today’s game. A tagger who doesn’t get his own ball and doesn’t stop the opposition player from getting it either.