All-Australian team 2023: Biggest snubs, major talking points and reaction
The All-Australian selectors are never going to please everyone — but, leaving Tom Liberatore out of this year’s team has enraged thousands of supporters.
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There are always snubs and shocks on All-Australian night but perhaps 2023 was the most subdued as the selectors straightened up and picked players generally on position rather than name.
Here are some of the talking points out of the room on Wednesday night.
MONSTER MIDS
The argument will pop up again come the Brownlow Medal – why don’t defenders or forwards ever get votes?
Dubbed the ‘midfielders medal’ in recent years, the Brownlow doesn’t stand alone in any way.
Take the players point – Toby Greene was the only player in the top five vote getters for the Leigh Matthews Trophy who isn’t a midfielder.
Even winner Marcus Bontempelli acknowledged he votes for on-ballers, telling the Herald Sun his votes went to Nick Daicos, Zak Butters and Jordan Dawson.
As consistent as anyone over a four-year stretch – and there's still plenty to come.
— Carlton FC (@CarltonFC) August 30, 2023
A bit of love for a man we couldn't be prouder to have representing the Navy Blue 👠pic.twitter.com/jvKJiAtckK
Brayden Maynard is a half-back flanker and Liam Baker a utility, but the top three in the most courageous voting were midfielders.
Ditto four of the five best first year players.
Jye Amiss booted 41 goals in a brilliant second season for Fremantle but was left off the podium in the rising star award.
In the coaches association award top ten, only Greene and Jack Sinclair – who splits his time between midfield and defence – were not pure on-ballers.
Those who complain that all votes for awards get sucked into those in the engine room and claim others across the field should be recognised have their points blunted when both the players and the coaches show such a clear preference for midfielders.
LIBBA, DUSTY OR WEITERS?
Carlton fans were quick to their screens when Jacob Weitering missed out in the backline, nominating St Kilda’s Callum Wilkie as the man who supposedly took his blazer.
That is not quite right, Wilkie deserved the nod and Weitering may have even been behind another unlucky tall back in Brisbane Harris Andrews when it came down to the crunch.
Dustin Martin received a big push late in the year to win his fifth selection after moving to become a forward this season.
Martin may have been the second-best rated general forward this year according to Champion Data behind All-Aus skipper Greene but it was really Connor Rozee who stole his spot, with the Power youngster moving from the bench last year to the half-forward flank in 2023.
Rozee was perhaps the only player in the starting 18 not picked for position – Christian Petracca sat on the other flank but he played plenty of time as a pure forward late in the year.
‘Dusty’ may have been stiff, but Rozee had a better year overall.
Most nominations in #AllAustralian squad without ever getting named in the final team
— Swamp (@sirswampthing) August 30, 2023
4 - JACOB WEITERING
4 - Hugh McCluggage
3 - Andrew Swallow
3 - Sam Jacobs
3 - Callan Ward
3 - Adam Treloar
3 - Ben Brown
3 - Tom Jonas
@AFLhttps://t.co/2S6TJGqSJJ
And the sentimental favourite among footy fans was Tom Liberatore but the heart-and-soul Bulldog was frozen out.
When the All-Australian selectors named potentially seven to eight midfielders on the field and three on the bench, with no backup defender or ruck, it’s probably an indication Liberatore was quite a way down their list this year.
CAPTAIN’S PICK
Was this year a reversal from the ‘legacy captain’ that had become the norm in recent years?
In past seasons Tom Hawkins (2022), Patrick Dangerfield (2020), Lance Franklin (2018) and Alex Rance (2017) were named skipper despite not being actual captains of their club.
This year there was no real legacy pick in the team, aside from Taylor Walker and he was likely ruled out of captaincy for past off-field issues, so the leadership job fell to an actual captain.
Greene was a well-received choice in the room and well deserved.
But just how short would the leadership meeting be between him and vice-captain Marcus Bontempelli after their frosty relationship over the years?
To be a fly on the wall for that chat…
ON THE TOOLS
Perhaps the biggest laugh in the room came when Charlie Curnow revealed he had spent his Wednesday on the tools building a fence at his home with some mates to keep his mind off footy.
He would have liked to have his mind off Carlton’s history when the production team loudly played a Fox Footy montage of the Blues’ failures over the past decade that was supposed to air on TV only, not beamed into the room populated by Blues.
Nick Daicos made the most revealing slip of the night when he dropped his façade for a moment and said he would be stuck watching the qualifying final, despite his pleas earlier to cameras that he hadn’t given up hope of getting past his knee injury in time to play.
And then Walker had the sound operators scrambling for the dump button during speeches when he began talking about Daicos and led with “he is a ffffreak”, holding the ‘F’ for a moment too long.
Many opponents have used ‘F’ words to describe how well Daicos is travelling in his first two years in the game.
BUCKS’ SURPRISE
There was no shock when Harry Sheezel won the rising star, with the young Roo getting a near perfect 54 votes out of 55.
Naturally it was expected a vote-giver opted to reward Will Ashcroft with the maximum five vote but it was actually panel member Nathan Buckley who gave top reward to Mitch Owens.
Saints fan Gillon McLachlan and Kane Cornes were the only panel members to give young Saint Owens four votes, as others such as Cameron Ling and Matthew Pavlich handed four to Jye Amiss.
There have been great rising star races before but it’s hard to think of a stronger top four than this year.
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