Mark Ricciuto should be on the AFL’s most decorated players of the 21st century | Graham Cornes

There’s a glaring omission from the AFL list of most decorated players of the 21st century … surprise, it’s a South Australian, writes Graham Cornes.

Mark Ricciuto missing from AFL’s most decorated players of the 21st century. Picture: Sam Wundke

Call it an inferiority complex – which it probably is – but it is so infuriating when Victorian-based journalists completely overlook South Australian footballers when ranking talent.

Now, I realise it might be considered unprofessional to criticise colleagues from the same masthead – but Jon Ralph and Glenn McFarlane, what were you thinking?

My esteemed colleagues recently ranked the most decorated players of the 21st century. “Most decorated.” It’s an interesting honour. How is it defined?

Does a Brownlow Medal rank higher than a Norm Smith Medal? Is All-Australian selection a more prestigious honour than winning a premiership medal? Would you rather be recognised as a club champion than an All-Australian?

READ RALPH AND MCFARLANE’S FULL LIST HERE

Where does being recognised by your peers as the competition’s best captain rank? Would you swap a Brownlow Medal for a for a premiership medallion? And what about a Showdown Medal? Does that have any traction outside of Adelaide?

I’m sure all of those factors were considered by Ralph and McFarlane when compiling their ‘definitive’ list of the 21st century’s most decorated players but there is one glaring omission and, surprise, it’s a South Australian.

Either Mark Ricciuto was overlooked by my esteemed colleagues or they didn’t rank his achievements worthy.

What does a man have to do to make the Victorians sit up and take notice? Consider this: A Brownlow Medal in 2003, a premiership medal, eight times All-Australian, three times Malcolm Blight Medallist, two times AFLPA best captain (2005 and 2006, if Ralphy and Macca want to argue his best work was done last century).

Oh, and there are those four Showdown Medals but, being a South Australian honour, I guess they would be overlooked by Victorians.

Top it off with 312 games, and you could say that was “decorated”. Remember Mark Ricciuto? Hello!

Sardonic humour aside, it must have been a tough job selecting the chosen 12 and then ranking them. However, the first two pretty much select themselves.

Gary Ablett Jr No. 1 and Dustin Martin No. 2, although you can argue the order.

For me, Martin’s three Norm Smith Medals in three premiership-winning teams trumps anything or any player who has gone before.

However, rarely does he come up in the discussions of “greatest player ever”. Is it that his image is not as clean-cut as Gary Jnr’s?

After Ablett and Martin, the selection is not so clear.

Ralph and McFarlane went with Buddy Franklin at three and Chris Judd at four. They could easily be reversed without raising an eyebrow. Franklin’s two premierships, eight All-Australian selections and four Coleman Medals are impressive but only once did he win his club’s best-and-fairest award.

Judd won two Brownlow Medals and a Norm Smith Medal in a premiership winning team, six All-Australian selections and an incredible six club best-and-fairest awards. He should be at No.3.

Ricciuto is one of the most decorated players in AFL history which has Cornes asking, why was he omitted? Picture: Mark Dadswell/Getty Images

The argument for Scott Pendlebury being at three is even stronger. Two flags, a Norm Smith Medal, six All-Australian selections and five club champion awards. Amazing.

Now this is about the place, had Ralphy and Macca cast their eyes westward, Roo should have entered discussions because as storied as Luke Hodge’s footy life has been, Mark Ricciuto’s is better.

Hodge’s four premierships, with him as captain three times, is a good start. Two Norm Smith Medals are hard to beat but only twice was he his club’s best and fairest and twice an All-Australian.

Great player, great record. But Roo slips in front of him.

The remaining six are all worthy of being included in any list of ‘most decorated’ or best ever.

Who would question the records of Joel Selwood, Patrick Dangerfield, Sam Mitchell, Simon Black, Michael Voss or Adam Goodes, although Mitchell’s Brownlow Medal actually belongs to Jobe Watson … but that’s another story.

Ralphy and Macca might argue a large portion of Roo’s career was played at the end of the 20th century but it’s a moot point. He won his Brownlow in the 21st century. He was five times All-Australian in the 21st century and he was voted best captain by the AFLPA in the 21st century. To leave him out was either an oversight or a blatant bias.

It’s an age-old, interesting but foolhardy debate/argument/discussion about who is or was the “best ever”.

Cornes asks the lists creators – Jon Ralph and Glenn McFarlane – what were you thinking? Picture: Titus Ray

It always breaks down into state prejudices. The West Australians rave about Polly Farmer and how he changed the role of the ruckman and revolutionised the game with his use of penetrating handball. Billy Walker, the greatest Western Australian goalkicking rover, is always in the discussion, as is Barry Cable.

But the most interesting of the Western Australians is John Todd. He won the Sandover Medal, the WAFL’s top award, when he was only 17. Sadly, injury restricted him to just 132 games but he did have a brilliant coaching career.

Victorians are harder to rank. Leigh Matthews won eight best-and-fairest awards at Hawthorn and played in four premierships. That’s hard to beat.

Gary Ablett Snr is always in the discussion but as brilliant and as powerful as he was, his record does not compare to the other greats. Only one club best-and-fairest award and no premierships (even though he did win the Norm Smith Medal in Geelong’s losing grand final in 1989) takes him out of the discussion.

Wayne Carey is regarded by many good judges as the best of all-time. There is no Norm Smith Medal in his record but there is the fact he is a dual premiership captain and seven-time All-Australian.

The discussion here in Adelaide is not all that hard. Fifty years on we still talk with reverence about Barrie Robran and Russell Ebert. There are seven Magarey Medals, five premierships and an astonishing 13 club best-and-fairest awards between them.

And bear in mind Robran’s career was cut short after that knee injury, ironically caused by Leigh Matthews in a state game on, of all places, the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Of course Malcolm Blight can, and would, lay claim to SA’s best.

Ricciuto would hate the comparison but he is definitely in that discussion as well.

Old footballers are often asked who were the best players they played with and against. I love the nostalgia of the reminiscing.

At Glenelg it was Peter Carey who was more than a ruckman, and Peter Marker, a centreman who oozed class until a wretched injury nearly detached his ankle from his lower leg.

Kym Hodgeman was also a great player. He nearly lost his leg when infection set in after a knee operation but he went to North Melbourne and won a best and fairest there as well.

There was one other. At North Melbourne, among the Blights, the Schimmelbuschs, the Greigs and the Dempseys, there was a Western Australian called Ross Glendinning. Named after the legendary cricketer Keith Ross Miller, with whom his father served in World War II, Glendinning was, to me, the perfect footballer.

At the time I thought he was the best footballer I’d seen. The umpires thought so too, because he won the Brownlow in 1983. But his record doesn’t have him in the conversation as the best ever.

Mark Ricciuto’s does, Jon Ralph and Glenn McFarlane.