Eight-year low as Adelaide and Port Adelaide fail to have one player named in All-Australian team
Travis Boak and Daniel Talia miss out as Adelaide and Port Adelaide fail to have a player named in the AFL’s All-Australian 22 for the first time in eight years.
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For the first time in eight years, South Australia’s two AFL clubs do not have an All-Australian between them.
Port Adelaide’s Travis Boak and Adelaide’s Daniel Talia — the only two SA-based players short-listed in this year’s 40-man squad — missed out on the final 22 when the elite team was named in Melbourne on Wednesday night.
It is the first time since 2011 that both sides had failed to have a player in the star-studded side, highlighting their tough seasons in which they both missed the finals for the second consecutive year.
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Dual All-Australian Boak, who made the team in 2013-14, missed out despite enjoying, statistically, a career-best season at age 31.
After relinquishing the captaincy at the end of last year, he averaged 30.3 disposals, including 15 contested, in 21 games.
Talia, who also is a dual All-Australian, having made the side in 2014 and 2016, was again rock solid in the Crows’ back half, being the third-ranked player in the competition for total spoils, while averaging eight marks.
The last time Adelaide did not have an All-Australian was in 2011.
Port’s last miss was in 2016.
Last year, they had one representative each — Robbie Gray (Power) and Rory Laird (Crows).
They had five between them in 2017 — Gray and Paddy Ryder (Port) and Laird, Eddie Betts and Matt Crouch (Adelaide).
But the disappointing seasons of both clubs clearly hurt their best players this year.
Ten clubs had All-Australians this season, with reigning premier West Coast and this year’s minor premier Geelong supplying the most, with four.
Seven members of the 2018 team retained their spots — Eagles Shannon Hurn and Jeremy
McGovern, Cats Patrick Dangerfield and Tom Stewart, Collingwood’s Brodie Grundy, Carlton’s Patrick Cripps and Melbourne’s Max Gawn
Fremantle midfielder Nathan Fyfe was named captain, with Hurn his deputy.
Former Crow Dangerfield was named in the team for the fifth consecutive year and seventh overall.
Three of those times were as an Adelaide player.
Three South Australians made the side — defender Hurn, ruckman Grundy and Brisbane midfield ace Lachie Neale — along with former Crow Charlie Cameron, who has blossomed since moving to Brisbane at the end of 2017.
THE 2019 ALL-AUSTRALIAN TEAM
B: Tom Stewart (Geelong), Harris Andrews (Brisbane), Dylan Grimes (Richmond).
HB: Bachar Houli (Richmond), Jeremy McGovern (West Coast), Shannon Hurn (West Coast).
C: Marcus Bontempelli (Western Bulldogs), Patrick Cripps (Carlton), Tim Kelly (Geelong).
HF: Patrick Dangerfield (Geelong), Jeremy Cameron (GWS), Michael Walters (Fremantle).
F: Jack Darling (West Coast), Tom Hawkins (Geelong), Charlie Cameron (Brisbane).
1R: Brodie Grundy (Collingwood), Nathan Fyfe (Fremantle), Lachie Neale (Brisbane).
INT: Scott Pendlebury (Collingwood), Max Gawn (Melbourne), Elliot Yeo (West Coast), Jack Macrae (Western Bulldogs).