Mark Robinson’s Top 50: Marcus Bontempelli set to join Western Bulldogs greats
Patrick Dangerfield’s glittering career has made him one of the greats o the game but, as the young guns improve and age catches up with him, has be been surpassed by the new breed in Robbo’s Top 50? HAVE YOUR SAY
Mark Robinson
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Who better to talk about Marcus Bontempelli than the club’s greatest ever wingman.
But to obtain Dough Hawkins’ mobile number we had to go through the club’s greatest-ever forward in Brad Johnson.
Who also offered a mobile of the club’s greatest-ever midfielder, Scott West.
Simple question to the three of them: What’s the probability of Bontempelli joining the all-time greats at the Western Bulldogs?
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Johnson: “Bont is a certainty to. His next contract will be huge and clubs will circle. But he’ll stay and he will be one of the all-time greats.”
There is club icon Charlie Sutton and then there is the club’s “all-time greats”: EJ Whitten, Hawkins, West, Johnson and Chris Grant.
And then there’s Bob Murphy, Rohan Smith, Tony Liberatore, Matty Boyd, Scotty Wynd, Luke Darcy and Dale Morris among others.
Bontempelli will join that last group soon enough, but will he make the next bracket?
Hawkins says: “I reckon Terry Wallace mentioned that Bont could end on par with Ted Whitten (after the 2016 Grand Final).
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“It’s a big call. But 100 per cent Bont will join the greats. He will certainly be in the top three in the club’s history if he continues with the way he’s playing.
“I remember watching him in a practice match, I was with Steve and Rod MacPherson, I said to them this young fella reminds me of John Pitura (South Melbourne, Richmond in the 1970s), he moved like Pitura, both left footers.'”
Hawkins said he would have appointed Bontempelli captain after Murphy’s retirement.
“Bontempelli was 21, he was ready to go,” Hawkins said.
“Take this the right way and there’s only one Wayne Carey, but Bont was level-headed and mature enough at 21 to be given the job.
“It would not have worried him one bit to be club captain.”
Today, Bontempelli has been named No.1 player in the Herald Sun Top 50.
“No arguments with me,” Hawkins said.
“He’s the full package.”
West agreed: “You’re very good judge but I’m biased.”
West is a seven-time best and fairest winner with the Bulldogs and reckons he’ll end up be sharing that honour with Bontempelli.
“I say to my wife Linda all the time, ‘I’ve got to enjoy the next four years because after the next four years I could be equal with Bont on seven best and fairests’,” West said.
“I’ve no doubt he will be a better player than me.
“He’s got the ability to play tall at stoppage, for his size he doesn’t fumble below his knees, and he can also play six foot seven because he can reach high for the ball at stoppages.
“He and Patrick Cripps will be generational players and let’s hope Carlton and the Bulldogs let them play against each other.”
Bontempelli earned the mantle as No.1 because, at 24, he is about to enter the best years of his football career.
That’s frightening because Bontempelli’s early years have been startling: one premiership, three best and fairests, two All-Australians and the winner of the AFLCA champion player of the year award (2019).
Dustin Martin has the mantle as the sport’s most influential player — bookmarked by two premierships, a Brownlow Medal and dual Norm Smiths — but this season Bomtempelli, by his performance, will have his hand stretched to take the mantle.
Others are in the conversation: Nathan Fyfe (No.3), Patrick Cripps (No.4) and Patrick Dangerfield (No.5).
If all of them can stay on the park, we are in for a doozy of a season of individual greatness.
Bontempelli takes over the captaincy of the Bulldogs this year which could motivate the young man even further.
That the Dogs looked primed for a serious run at the top four also adds flavour to the Bontempelli dish.
The two ruckmen — Max Gawn and Brodie Grundy — can’t really be separated and they both are inside the top 10.
Can anyone really answer with confidence about who is better between Gawn and Grundy? Let’s agree, both are tremendous players.
Giant Lachie Whitfield is arguably the best line-breaker in the competition and Lion Lachie Neale is a tough, prolific ball-winning midfielder. Both are in the Top 10.
The final position in the Top 10 goes to Richmond’s Tom Lynch.
He’s $5 for the Coleman Medal. He kicked 63 goals in 2019 after gaining fitness in the first half of the season and it’s not improbable he could kick as many as 80 goals this season.
Pre-season Top 50s are all about what we know and how we think the season will play out.
It’s why St Kilda’s Rowan Marshall (No.26) makes the list, and Melbourne’s Christian Petracca (No.49), Bulldog Aaron Naughton (No.34) and Lion Hugh McCluggage (No.44) are also tipped to become major players in their team’s performances.
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The last spot on the list went to Bulldog Josh Dunkley.
At 23, and after a searing second half of last season, Dunkley’s name is one to watch in 2020.
Always the question is who came in at No.51.
Take your pick: Jade Gresham, Brad Hill, Mark Blicavs, Bachar Houli, Jeremy Howe, Luke Parker, Phil Davis, Steele Sidebottom, Robbie Tarrant, Robbie Gray, Nick Vlastuin, Isaac Heeney, Andrew Gaff, Josh Kennedy (WC), Dylan Shiel, Zach Merrett or Brad Crouch.