Chief football writer Mark Robinson reveals his top 50 for the 2019 AFL season
Fremantle star Nat Fyfe was ranked No.1 in MARK ROBINSON’S top 50 players but readers vehemently disagree. Find out who the people have picked on top and cast your vote.
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The sign of the devil is 6-6-6 — so says the Bible.
But Chris Judd says 6-6-6 will signal greatness this season.
Of all the changes for this year, resetting the ground after every goal — which will implement space and creativity, however briefly, before players swarm to the ball — will aid the best players in the competition.
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Midfielders get space and forwards get to compete without the plus one.
“There’s space,” Judd said. “Good players love space and one-on-one contests and that’s what really drifted out of our game since the mid-2000s. Early doors … the premium on ruckmen looks like it’s gone through the roof.”
The centre-square freedom will see better use of ruck work.
YOU CAN STILL SHAPE THE PEOPLE’S TOP 50. SCROLL DOWN TO SEE ROBBO LIST AND VOTE NOW
At centre bounces in JLT games, forwards didn’t charge in from the line of the 50m arc and the wingmen largely kept to their positions.
It meant midfielders could sweep the ball from the centre and did not have to counter players coming off the line.
That opened up highways for offensive breakaways and reduced U-turns and defensive handballs to back flankers.
The good ruckmen, such as Max Gawn and Brodie Grundy, will further flourish and the good midfielders will have more space to create and explode. It’s why midfielders take up seven spots, and ruckmen two, in the top 10.
Nat Fyfe is No.1. When healthy, he is a beast. Simple as that. His kicking is highlighted, sometimes too often over what he actually does.
Arguably, he gets unders because the Dockers have been poor in the past three years and in one of those years, 2016, Fyfe played only five games.
The good players in winning teams get more recognition than great players in losing teams.
Last year, Fyfe played 15 games because of injury and suspension and at one time was equal favourite for the Brownlow Medal with eventual winner, Hawthorn’s Tom Mitchell.
He tops Dustin Martin, Patrick Dangerfield and Patrick Cripps — in that order.
Cripps is the bolter among that group and you don’t have to be a genius to list him so high. He’s the same as Fyfe, except slower. Both are brave, continuous in the hunt for the ball and find it in traffic. With less traffic at the centre-square bounce, their clearance numbers should improve.
We can’t leave Dangerfield out of that equation either.
Nor Dusty. While the others scrap with ferocity, Martin scraps with a combination of power and purity.
Gawn and Grundy make the top 10, Lance Franklin and Josh Kennedy represent the two best key forwards, and emerging midfielders Josh Kelly and Clayton Oliver round out the top 10.
Franklin is 32 and at some stage his football will begin to decline. But you suspect it won’t be this year.
Oliver, 21, is the real bolter. By the end of the season he could be pushing top three.
The Demons have five players on the list, including their starting midfield of Gawn (No. 6), Oliver (10), Jack Viney (40) and Angus Brayshaw (43). Forward Tom McDonald (46) is the other.
CHECK OUT ROBBO’S TOP 50 LIST BELOW AND VOTE NOW
I wrestled with Toby Greene and Jordan De Goey. They are No. 22 and No. 23 with Greene ahead.
De Goey was special last year and Greene has been special for several years, although the broken toe in New York ailed him for far too long.
I’m curious to see how Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley uses De Goey. From the square? High half-forward like Greene? With Jamie Elliott, Jaidyn Stephenson and Mason Cox capable of playing the deepest forward, De Goey could have more midfield time.
The defenders are Jeremy McGovern (11), Lachie Whitfield (15), Alex Rance (19), Phil Davis (24), Rory Laird (25) and James Sicily (27).
Whitfield might play more wing this year and is a star.
The newbies are Davis and Sicily. Davis has been underrated for years, while Sicily, although used as a forward in the pre-season, is one of the two pillars in the Hawks’ defence along with new skipper Ben Stratton.
Sicily, Cripps, Oliver, Kelly, Marcus Bontempelli, Stephen Coniglio, De Goey, Harris Andrews, Jack Macrae, Brayshaw and Charlie Curnow represent the young stars who surely will improve their standing by the end of the year.
Some are already there; others, namely Andrews, are tapping their potential.
Brayshaw finished third in last year’s Brownlow and will never be underappreciated again, while Curnow is the hype and hope for Carlton, or was before the No. 1 draft pick arrived. Let’s hope this is Charlie’s breakout season.
This is a predictive list.
Is Curnow a better performer than, say, Eddie Betts, or Lachie Neale, or Luke Breust? No, but he could be by the end of the season.
Those who had to be left out include Tim Kelly, Isaac Heeney, Ben Cunnington, Tom Stewart, Stratton, Breust, Neville Jetta, Isaac Smith, Tom Lynch, Zach Merrett, Neale, Betts and Taylor Walker.
Plus, Taylor Adams, Luke Shuey, Adam Treloar, Mark Blicavs, Justin Westhoff, Shane Edwards, Jack Steven, Jeremy Howe and Seb Ross.
Others could be headed for career seasons or breakthrough seasons.
One player always makes the guts swirl and this time it’s Sydney’s Josh Kennedy.
One of the most admired players in the game, he lowered his standards last year. Only from great to good.
He didn’t make the list and suspect that may be a mistake.
Reading on our app? Robbo’s Top 50 interactive
Originally published as Chief football writer Mark Robinson reveals his top 50 for the 2019 AFL season
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