Queensland Australian rules football’s best 40 players in 40 years: The 2000s
Who were Queensland’s best 40 Australian football players in the last 40 years? Today we present the 2000s. Vote on your favourite
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Who were Queensland’s best 40 Australian rules players in the last 40 years?
We asked experts from the AFLQ (previously the Queensland Australian Football League) and NEAFL, Shane Johnson, Marty King, John Blair, Mark Perkins and Jason Cotter, to come up with local club’s footy’s best 40 players over the last 40 years.
They used the criteria that nominated players must have played at least three seasons for Queensland clubs and also used the AFLQ Hall of Fame inductees as a starting point.
The squad is so rich with that talent that you could pick a dream team from those that missed out.
THE 2000s
MATT PAYNE
When Aspley’s champion Matt Payne claimed his second NEAFL Most Valuable Player Award in 2016, he grabbed a glass of champagne and toasted the room which had acclaimed him. Payne had already won the 2014 award after excelling in the NEAFL competition and claiming a second player of the year award highlighted his standing in not only within the Hornets’ community, but to the wider Australian football community. In a hotly contested field, Payne was always going to be recognised in this list of the best 40 Players in the last 40 years.
DAVID LILLICO
The Morningside QAFL Hall of Fame inductee was, and remains, a Panthers legend who twice won the club’s best and fairest award. His 218 matches for Morningside included eight journeys to grand finals, where he finished with four flags. Words can barely describe the impact the former Morningside captain had on the club in a career spanning from 1996 to 2011 An absolute gun.
JACOB GOUGH
The 200 game-plus champion started with the Panthers as a lean ruckman but ended as a pillar in the middle for Morningside, standing like a lighthouse on a headland. As a kid who grew up admiring the champion Panthers’ teams of the 1990s and dreamt of one day playing alongside some of that troop. He did that, and much more, helping Morningside to three premierships. He was also a Queensland player of note and had a Grogan Medal win thrown in for good measure.
KOREY FULTON
Fulton was a goalkicking freak whose senior career saw him kick, remarkably, more than 1000 goals. A Broadbeach veteran, Fulton also had stints with Labrador, Palm Beach Currumbin and Surfers before a finale at Robina that saw the amazing full forward enjoy yet another 100 goal winter senior football.
DANNY WISE
The Southport legend was a born leader and multiple premiership player who did it all in footy after breaking into the QAFL as a 19-year-old. Wise played in premierships in 2006 and 2008 and in 2010 he was also named the QAFL’s Grogan Medal winner - the same year he took out the Sharks’ best and fairest award. Wise was as Gold Coast as the sun and surf, playing his final season with Burleigh in the AFLSQ.
GAVIN GROSE
Grose’s deserved entry into the top 40 in 40 years list breaks the Southport-Morningside run of inclusions. A Mt Gravatt Vultures’ star, the 192cm tall key defender was a Queensland junior shining light who progressed through to the AFLQ to be rookie listed by Port Adelaide. He returned to Queensland where his booming left foot kick proved a headache for rivals, seasons in, seasons out. An absolutely outstanding player.
DAVID JAMES
The brilliant wingman and Southport life member was a dashing figure down the flank for the Sharks. A class player and multiple premiership winner, he twice won Guildford Trophies for best player in the competition. James is one of the Sharks’ finest and an appropriate inclusion in the Best 40 Players in 40 Years list.
DAYNE ZORKO
Zorko would have been hard to leave out of the code’s top 40 in 40 years for his desire and persistence alone. The Gold Coast product believed in his dreams and never gave up. For years the star junior player hammered away with Broadbeach in the QAFL, striving for an opportunity in the AFL. He had one false start with Gold Coast, and then another before the Coast picked him up and then on-traded him to the Brisbane Lions where he finally made his AFL debut.
KENT ABEY
Abey may have missed his calling to be a triathlete, such was the endurance he displayed during a stellar career at Morningside. The tall forward was a goalkicking machine who broke into the rare 300 AFLQ (QAFL) club where he now sits third on the all-time list of matches. Through eight grand final appearances he ploughed onward and upward and four premierships were an appropriate reward for his efforts. Impossible to leave out of the code’s best list from the last four decades.
KURT NIKLAUS
Niklaus was the Alex Rance (Richmond great) of his time, a mighty defender for Southport who, late in his career at Labrador, also he patrolled the backline like a guardsman standing atop a lookout. For six seasons he plied his skills with Southport before a swan song effort with Labrador. Fantastic player. Maybe the last player named in the best 40 players from the last 40 years, but that was not by design.