Mick Malthouse: My favourite reliable, humble and dedicated AFL players
There are players in the AFL that are just joys to watch for a number of reasons. Mick Malthouse names his favourites, the ones he’d love to coach.
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Warning: I’m about to play favourites.
That is, the players in today’s game who I would love to coach. My favourite players to watch and learn from because they are so talented at their craft, so hard working, and so humble.
SAM WALSH
Pre-season we were asked by the Herald Sun to predict the 2022 Brownlow medallist. I named Sam Walsh, regardless of the fact he’d just sustained a syndesmosis injury that could have kept him out for months.
Having learnt of his incredible professionalism and desire to play football, I knew he wouldn’t be out for any longer than necessary. He defied the medicos to return in round 2. That’s tough.
Walsh is a model of consistency, averaging 33 disposals per game this year. He’s just on average as a clearance player with 3.5 a game, but he is an amazing link man between the forward and back lines and so dependable for Carlton’s backs.
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He can kick goals, has unbelievable endurance, good speed and great courage.
Walsh is a showcase for anyone who wants to play through the midfield.
At the Blues I could also name Patrick Cripps and Sam Docherty, make no mistake, but for such a young man at 22 (it’s his birthday on Sunday), Walsh will be the backbone of any midfield for the next decade.
I have liked this next player from the word go.
ROWAN MARSHALL
The 26-year-old, 201cm St Kilda ruckman is super aggressive, can kick goals, forms a formidable combination with Paddy Ryder, and has an enforcer-type presence about him without being over the top.
Marshall just gets on with business and his teammates benefit greatly from his no-fuss, workmanlike attitude.
MAX GAWN
Another ruckman who I’ve mentioned favourably many times is Max Gawn.
The “no Gawn, no Melbourne,” slogan was shut down last week when the Demons thrashed the Brisbane Lions without him, but the reality is he has been the backbone of Melbourne for several years. For the Demons to win back-to-back premierships they need Gawn to be leading from the front.
For a player to achieve so much personally and then to win a premiership, there could be a natural falloff in performance. Not with Gawn, who has done things the hard way to overcome a knee reconstruction and a PCL injury and continues to improve.
He was once somewhat unreliable when kicking for goal but is now Mr Reliable. He makes the players around him better, like young Luke Jackson. You can always tell a player who’s loved by the way his teammates rally around him.
Gawn wears his heart on his sleeve, even as the club spokesman, and I love it.
BRAYDEN MAYNARD
Talking about a player who wears his heart on his sleeve, I am inspired by the way Brayden Maynard plays the game. He and Taylor Adams, the 28-year-old Pies vice-captain, fit the Collingwood mould beautifully.
They are aggressive and hard and unrelenting, they play for their teammates, and they are so necessary for the Magpies to succeed.
Maynard constantly gets the big jobs against the best medium-sized forwards, and rarely if ever gets beaten. Some will say he coughs up the ball on occasion and doesn’t have the cleanest use of the footy, but he is one of the greatest to have a go.
That endeavour is so admirable.
Adams may not be the highest possession-getting player, but if there’s a tough action to take or a tough ball to be got, he’s on it. He has a propensity to play close to the line for an indiscriminate fifty or a free kick, but you can’t help but love his attack on the ball and his want for victory. He probably isn’t in the top 10 midfielders of the comp, but I would pick him every week based on his efforts and willingness for his teammates.
You wouldn’t mind being in the trenches with either of these boys
TOUK MILLER
A club that’s rarely in the limelight has one player who stands out. Gold Coast’s Touk Miller.
The footy world went mad over Matt Rowell when he made his debut in 2020, deservedly so. He hasn’t hit the same heights since, but he is one of the reasons the Suns are on the rise, along with captain Jarrod Witts. But it’s Miller who seems to be the heart and soul of this new, confident and hungry Gold Coast machine.
Miller gets the occasional heavy tag and sometimes the run-with player, but it doesn’t diminish from his great efforts to impose himself on the game. His metres gained on average is more than 500 per match, his clearance rate is 7.5, and he averages 15 contested balls. His good and bad games are separated by just millimetres which gives him a consistency that Stuart Dew can rely on.
He must have extraordinary stamina because there is hardly a contest around the ground that he’s not involved in. Calm emotionally, Miller blends into the game without fanfare but is an ever-present threat to the opposition.
LIAM BAKER
A quiet achiever at Richmond is 24-year-old handyman, Liam Baker.
He just seems to be able to play his role in any position Damien Hardwick gives him.
Better known as a half-back in the Tigers’ 2019 and ’20 premiership teams, he has also played half-forward and midfield with aplomb.
Baker is not a massive accumulator of the ball, but he runs straight and hard, and he is rarely beaten one-on-one.
One who doesn’t raise the eyebrows like some of his more flamboyant teammates, Baker just plays his role beautifully, week in and week out. He’s another Mr Reliable.
TOBY GREENE
Greater Western Sydney has two Green/es and they both make my favourites’ list.
I’m very much a fan of Tom Green, grandson of former Tiger Michael Green, and the no-fuss, no-bother way he goes about his job as a clearance player.
Toby Greene, 28, cops an enormous amount of outside flack, but there would not be a team in the competition that would not have him sitting fair and square in their top 18.
Pound for pound Greene is one of the hardest footballers to play on.
Yes, he’s had his negative moments and I don’t condone them, but he has rebounded from those lapses to help lead his team brilliantly this season. As much as the Giants won’t make the final eight this year, Greene and Green will have a profound effect on the club’s finals assault in 2023.
Greene takes on an enormous amount of pressure from the opposition and is not always awarded with free kicks, but I rarely see him complain. He is more than capable of taking the big mark, kicking the magnificent goal, and running all day. We know he’s tough. And now we know that he is a great leader by the way his teammates respond to him.
ANDREW BRAYSHAW
One final player who can tend to sneak under everyone’s guard, is Fremantle’s Andrew Brayshaw.
Lightly built, big hearted, beautifully balanced, he is a no-fuss player in a demanding situation in a two-team town in Perth. And he is one of the main reasons the Dockers are in the race for a top-four finish this year.
Again, another one without fanfare or over the top celebrations, humble Brayshaw is massively effective with how well he uses the ball. He, like Walsh, is a prototype of today’s midfielder. Always on the move, he has a great work ethic at both ends of the ground, making him a player the club can always rely on.
And that is perhaps the key word in describing my favourite players. Reliable. Two more: humble and dedicated. These are a few of my favourite things.
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