Glenn McFarlane looks at the top 10 players who are simply too brave for their own good

THERE’S brave, crazy brave and then there’s Joel Selwood. Glenn McFarlane looks at the top 10 players too brave for their own good. HAVE YOUR SAY

Joel Selwood in action against Adelaide. Picture: Michael Klein

THERE’S brave. There’s crazy brave. Then, there’s Joel Selwood.

It’s hard to think of a footballer who has put his nose into as many perilous situations — sometimes even without needing to — as frequently as the Geelong captain who provided a few more examples of that against Adelaide last Friday night.

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He just can’t help himself. Even his coach Chris Scott acknowledges he “goes into contests that he shouldn’t.”

So where does Selwood sit on the list of footballers too brave for their own good?

This isn’t a list of the most courageous AFL players of all-time — Leigh Matthews and Paul Kelly would absolutely qualify for that — this list is all about those who put themselves into danger so often that it sometimes worked against them.

Joel Selwood left bloodied after charging back into a marking pack. Picture: Michael Klein

1. JOEL SELWOOD (Geelong)

His parents watch his matches with a sense of trepidation, knowing there is nothing anyone can say or do to stop him going full throttle.

His girlfriend, Brit Davis, admitted on radio last week she sometimes winces as she watches and the youngest of his three brothers, teammate Scott, cannot help but be inspired by his actions.

“It just inspires you, then you see in the last 10 seconds (of the Adelaide game), he tried to go for a ball that he shouldn’t have gone for, and you think, ‘you idiot’,” Scott said.

“It is just an unbelievable trait that he has. He doesn’t think about it, he just does it. It is just so inspirational sometimes.”

He also joked that his brother Joel doesn’t need any more scars — “he is ugly enough as it is ... he doesn’t need any more” — but knows his skipper won’t be changing any time soon.

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2. JONATHAN BROWN (Brisbane Lions)

Who could ever forget Jonathan Brown’s ridiculously brave and admirably reckless Mark of the Year against Hawthorn in 2002 He went running back with the flight of the ball without little thought of his own welfare or what was coming at him from the opposite direction.

He had his eyes fixed solely on the Sherrin. That mark defined his career.

Brown’s “to hell with the consequences” attitude was just as evident in his last few years as he suffered a series of head knocks from putting his head where others wouldn’t dare.

He suffered facial fractures in a collision with Fremantle’s Luke McPharlin in 2011, and more of the same later in the year, prompting Michael Voss to suggest: “Someone has to tell him he is not 21 any more ... He did it once too often at the wrong time and ended up being hurt.”

A third facial fracture happened the following pre-season. Then in the middle of 2014 he crashed into the knee of GWS’s Tom Bugg, causing another concussion and end of this career.

He simply had to give up the game — for his own good.

Jonathan Brown has a conversation with Rick Ladson and Jordan Lewis.

3. GLENN ARCHER (North Melbourne)

This bloke wasn’t Shinboner of the Century for no reason.

In an interview with the Herald Sun last year, Glenn Archer admitted there were times early in his career when he showed what Garry Lyon once called “dumb courage”.

“I had a lot of dumb courage when I was younger, just putting yourself in every situation and not really thinking about it. In my early years, it never crossed my mind not to go, I’d do anything, but when I got older, I was thinking ‘Hmm, maybe I won’t go there’.”

Even in an local match with Warrandyte after his AFL career was over, he dominated before being concussed late when he attacked the ball ferociously.

He attacked the ball with abandon, often to his own detriment, and in partnership with his mate, Anthony Stevens, provided a stunning example to their Kangaroos teammates.

Archer won his record six AFLPA most courageous awards, one ahead of Paul Kelly.

4. MICHAEL VOSS (Brisbane Lions)

Chris Scott never thought he would see anyone attack the ball with the zeal of his former teammate Michael Voss. Then he started coaching Joel Selwood and saw him at close quarters.

“The esteem with which I hold Michael Voss is almost unparalleled, but I think it’s reasonable to start having that conversation when it comes to Joel now,” Scott said.

Voss suffered what could have been a career-threatening broken leg in 1998 — two years after winning the Brownlow Medal as a 21-year-old.

But he returned to become one of the best leaders in the AFL.

He fought off injuries as much as he fought off opponents and was relentless in pursuit of the ball and success.

Leigh Matthews, so courageous in his own right as the man considered by many to be the player of the 20th Century, used to marvel at Voss’s recklessness.

James Hird and Michael Voss battle for the ball.

5. JAMES HIRD (Essendon)

If James Hird never played football again after suffering horrific facial injuries in an accidental injury with teammate Mark McVeigh in 2002, no one would have questioned his decision.

His attack on the ball that day characterised his courage as a player. The ball was there, and no amount of danger or friendly fire was ever going to stop him when he knew he had to go.

That attitude had been ingrained in him long before, and the facial fractures were likened more to the damage of a serious car accident rather than a football injury.

Within eight weeks, and wearing what looked like a flimsy faceguard, the Essendon star was back playing, and we shouldn’t have been surprised. He had earlier overcome a career-threatening navicular injury to lead the Bombers to the 2000 premiership, winning a Norm Smith Medal along the way.

He had immense courage on the field — sometimes too much — and just as much as a player off it in dealing with his physical challenges.

6. LENNY HAYES (St Kilda)

Some footballers start the way they finish. Lenny Hayes is the perfect example.

In his first AFL game in 1999 the young Hayes was taking the ball around the SCG boundary line when the full force of Glenn Archer crashed into him. He winced in pain for a few seconds, then forced himself back up and returned to the fray.

You wouldn’t have blamed a first-gamer for being scarred by the experience. Hayes wasn’t. If anything, the moment steeled him for what was ahead.

Hayes expended everything he had in pursuit of premiership success, which would ultimately elude him. He was a crash-or-crash-through player, who also overcame two knee reconstructions and his performance under duress at times was astounding.

His teammate Luke Ball, who also had knee issues, yet who ultimately did win a flag, was pretty much the same.

Lenny Hayes in action for St Kilda. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

7. GAVIN BROWN (Collingwood)

When assessing a skinny kid in a practice match in the mid-1980s, Collingwood coach Leigh Matthews felt as if he had seen the young Magpie flinch when going for a “hot” ball.

In the next passage, the kid went “where angels fear to tread” and Matthews came to realise it was confidence, not courage, that he lacked.

The kid’s name was Gavin Brown and he would not only become one of Collingwood’s greatest players, but the first player to win the AFL Players Association’s most courageous award.

“It taught me to never categorise young players in that sort of ‘gung-ho hardness at the ball’ area because lack of confidence often looks the same as lack of hardness,” Matthews said.

No lesser a footballer than Darren Millane labelled Brown the most courageous footballer he had seen. He was driven to the point where he put his own welfare at risk on many occasions for the sake of the team.

The 1990 Grand Final was one of many examples. He was concussed at quarter-time of the 1990 Grand Final, yet returned in the third term to kick a goal and make a big contribution.

8. GARRY WILSON (Fitzroy)

This might surprise a few people but not anyone who saw Garry Wilson put his body, and more particularly his head, on the line for the Lions during the 1970s and ‘80s.

Nicknamed ‘Flea’, Wilson was 70kg wringing wet, which may have been appropriate for a footballer recruited from Preston Swimmers.

His teammate Paul Roos called him “pound for pound” the best and most courageous player he had seen. Time and again, this diminutive rover threw himself at the ball without any fear of the consequences.

He faced many concussion instances long before people realised the implications of such injuries. But Wilson knew no other way to go about it.

Wilson said years later: “I doubt the courage of players who take their eyes off the ball rather than keep their eyes on it, like a James Hird. They pull out because they can’t stand the heat.”

Such was the toll he took, he wore a helmet for the last four years of his career.

But he gave a bit back too, one day famously crashing into the bigger, stronger, much more fearsome Richmond big man Jim Jess, who was knocked unconscious as a result.

Garry Wilson wearing his famous helmet in action for Fitzroy.

9. LUKE HODGE (Hawthorn)

It was just before the start of the 2008 Grand Final and Luke Hodge was all but taunting the Geelong players to have a crack at his injured ribs. Many wondered if he would play.

Others figured he couldn’t play to full impact. But he emerged from game with the first of his four premiership medals, as well as the first of his two Norm Smith Medals.

This was typical of Hodge’s self-sacrifice for the team.

It would seem wrong to leave Luke Hodge out of this bracket of players. He has put his body on the line more times than Champion Data could ever measure, rarely thinking about what might happen to him when he commits to the contest.

The definition of courageous in the Oxford dictionary refers to “not deterred by danger or pain, brave.”

Pretty much sums up the four-time premiership player Hawk, and three-time premiership skipper.

10. NICK RIEWOLDT (St Kilda)

Nick Riewoldt’s “Jonathan Brown moment” came in 2004.

The St Kilda forward charged recklessly after a high ball from teammate Robert Harvey. He was almost out of the picture yet emerged into the frame as he lunged headfirst into a converging pack of players to take the mark.

It was, as his former coach Grant Thomas said, typical of the “kamikaze” actions Riewoldt would become known for.

Thomas had once wondered whether Riewoldt was “too pretty” for what the Saints had in mind for him before he was drafted at pick No. 1 of the 2000 draft. He told the Australian last year: “I said to (recruiter) John Beveridge, ‘Are you sure this guy is going to be the man? He looks too pretty’.”

Beveridge was sure, and Saints fans are forever grateful they took Riewoldt.

Ever since, he has shown a willingness to put his own welfare at risk to do the right thing for the team, either on the field or dealing with a debilitating knee injury off it. The injury would have stopped lesser players, but not Riewoldt. He still wants to play on next year, too.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Ken Hunter (Carlton)

Francis Bourke (Richmond)

Kevin Murray (Fitzroy)

John Platten (Hawthorn)

Greg Williams (Geelong/Sydney/Carlton)

Anthony Stevens (North Melbourne)

Paul Kelly (Sydney)

Garry Hocking (Geelong)

Luke Ball (St Kilda/Collingwood)

Jude Bolton (Sydney)