Before Gary Ablett senior and junior dominated AFL fields, Leigh Matthews carved out an undisputable reputation

THE main problem with debating whether Gary Ablett is the code’s finest practitioner is identification, that being which Ablett you’re speaking of.

Footballer Leigh Matthews playing for Hawthorn.

THE main problem when debating whether Gary Ablett is the finest practitioner of his code is one of identification: which Gary Ablett do you mean?

The older one, who regularly produced feats beyond the norm?

Sadly, I didn’t see Bob Pratt, Ron Todd or John Coleman but it’s hard to imagine they could have surpassed “Gazza” for sheer viewing pleasure.

Or the younger one for his extreme sportsmanship, his ability to keep his feet, avoid tackles and for eight years of being the best midfielder in the game?

There have been challengers to Gary Jr for his title, but since 2007 none of Chris Judd, Dane Swan, Jobe Watson, Scott Pendlebury, Joel Selwood or Patrick Dangerfield has been able to dethrone the “Little Master”.

I also love the fact both displayed humility at all times, irrespective of how they may privately have viewed their standing in the game. Get Gary Sr in a lighter moment and he will joke about where he sits, but watch him jump a mile if you ask him for a quote.

Gary Ablett senior dazzled many fans.

He is the same when assessing his eldest son and, while he has suggested to some that young Gary is now the best player he has seen, you are unlikely to hear him utter those words out of deference to his other children, Natasha, Nathan and Alisha.

You may think it would be natural enough for the father to anoint his son with the unofficial title of GOAT (Greatest of all Time) but until recently he has always believed that tag belonged to another player.

One he played alongside in five games at Hawthorn in 1982. A man named Leigh Matthews.

In 1977 Matthews had a season it’s hard to imagine in today’s world, where Coleman medals are won with 60-odd goals by 195cm key forwards.

And it’s that ’77 season that convinces me no player can be rated superior to Matthews in the past 50 years.

Gary Sr was more brilliant and far more watchable, Gary Jr maybe on his way to becoming Matthews’ equal, but nobody is better than “Lethal Leigh”.

His coach in ’77 was David Parkin, who says Matthews affected the result of more games than any other player he has seen in 65 years of watching football. The full forward, Peter Hudson, who kicked 110 goals that year, says he honestly can’t remember Matthews playing a bad game.

Gary Ablett junior is well on his way to a third Brownlow medal.

In that season, which he regards as his best, Matthews had 658 disposals (514 kicks, 144 handballs) and kicked 91 goals when playing as a rover (60 per cent) changing in the forward pocket.

That’s right, 91 goals.

There were games in which he produced 41 possessions and kicked 3.1; 38 possessions and 7.5; 37 and 7.2; 37 and 5.0; 33 and 7.4; 32 and 6.3; and 30 and 6.3.

You would think that may have guaranteed seven three-vote results in the Brownlow, but he polled the equivalent of only 17 votes (he got 34 because two umpires voted in each game) to finish 25 behind runaway winner Graham Teasdale.

There is a view he did not stand out because he lacked the show-stoppers that Gary Sr made his own, but that argument is defeated when you consider Ablett polled only 13 votes in 1993 despite kicking 124 goals in 17 games at an average of 7.29.

Matthews did poll 202 career Brownlow votes, the most of any non-winner, but he knew if he couldn’t win in 1977, it wasn’t going to happen.

Originally published as Before Gary Ablett senior and junior dominated AFL fields, Leigh Matthews carved out an undisputable reputation