VAFA special: The 25 best University Blues’ players since 2000

Handy running the biggest show in town from the other side of the fence, how did Gillon McLachlan fare during his playing days at University Blues? Best 25 best players since 2000 ranked.

Former Western Bulldogs big man Ayce Cordy credits VAFA club University Blues for “reigniting” his love for football.

It is not hard to see why he’s enjoyed his time in the Victorian amateurs, which followed seven years in the AFL system and 27 games with the Western Bulldogs.

In 2018 he played a big hand in helping the club narrowly avoid being relegated to B grade, winning the Woodrow Medal as the best player in the competition.

A year later he had almost the perfect year, with a second club best and fairest, a second Woodrow medal before captaining the side to the A grade premiership.

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VAFA SPECIAL: SKOB’S BEST SINCE 2000

It is enough to have him as our No.1 in the top 25 Uni Blues players since 2000.

“Ross Young is probably the best player I’ve played with at the club, but I would hope I’d be in the top couple I guess,” Cordy chuckled.

“I’ve loved my time there and that’s what made my time at Uni Blues successful, because I’ve really enjoyed training and playing and doing all the things you need to do to continue to do at a successful level.

“It’s really reignited my love for the game, and not that I lost it but it certainly fanned the flames.”

University Blues player Ayce Cordy. Supplied.

Unsurprisingly, skippering the 2019 premiership side stands out for Cordy and the memories of a dominant second half in that grand final against St Kevin’s Old Boys.

“We went into halftime and it was really tight, and I remember talking to the boys as we were going into the rooms and I said to them: ‘they’ve just thrown everything they’ve got at us, they’ve got nothing left to go and this is going to be a whitewash in the second half.’

“And it was, and that was the kind of team we had.

“2019 was very exciting and very enjoyable, very successful and everything seemed to fall into place.

“It was a cracker of a year, and unfortunately we missed a lot of footy (due to Covid) and this is our first full year back, which is disappointing but the positive is thank God we won it in 2019 because otherwise we might have had a star-stacked team and no premierships to show for it.”

***With apologies to the likes of Luke Russell, Dirk Heinz, Ed Clarke, Liam Ryan, Mark James and George de Crespigny, here is our top 25 since 2000.