What Collingwood, Melbourne, Hawthorn and Brisbane line-ups would look like if AFL stars could join their favourite team
Tom Lynch chooses Collingwood, Buddy is a Demon and a Giants star is playing for Hawthorn. Here’s a glimpse at what AFL teams would look like if stars could play for the club they grew up supporting.
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Playing in the AFL for the team you love is every footy fan’s dream.
Sadly, in the cut-throat AFL industry it rarely happens. But that doesn’t mean we can’t imagine what the competition would look like if recruiting had an element of romance.
Young Richmond tragic Nat Fyfe would be running out for the Tigers, and he could face off against childhood Saints supporter Dustin Martin, while Tom Lynch — who was part of “Buckley’s Brigade” as a kid — would be lining up at full-forward for Collingwood. And that’s just the start. Who would be playing for your side — and which of your favourites would be playing in opposition colours?
Scroll down to see the teams we’ve picked made up of players who barracked for Collingwood, Melbourne, Hawthorn and Brisbane as kids. And check back all week as we reveal what more teams would look like if AFL (and AFLW) stars could pay for the team they grew up barracking for.
COLLINGWOOD
If recruiting rules allowed it, not all the Collingwood supporting players would get a game. We’ve done our best to pick a team of them in position, an exercise we’ll continue with other clubs on this page over the next few weeks.
Childhood Magpie tragics like Jeremy Howe, Will Hoskin-Elliott, new draftee Trent Bianco and AFLW star Chloe Molloy are living the dream real life and walk into this side as well, while others like Heath Shaw and Paul Seedsman did it too before leaving for various reasons.
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They are joined in a Pies fans best 22 by stars from across the league including Jeremy Cameron, Jack Ziebell and Christian Petracca, who all bled black and white as kids, plus Tiger Tom Lynch, who proved childhood loyalties don’t mean as much in trade negotiations as some might hope.
“I was a typical kid. Buckley’s jumper on my back, loved him, part of the Buckley Brigade as a kid growing up and went up to the family days at Victoria Park,” he said last year.
Former stars who grew up as Collingwood supporters include Leigh Montagna, Steve Johnson, Paul Chapman and Glenn Archer.
MAGPIE FANS BEST 22
A team of players who grew up barracking for Collingwood
B: Heath Shaw, Lachie Henderson, Nick Vlastuin
HB: Jeremy Howe, Darcy Moore, Paul Seedsman
C: Darcy Parish, Jack Ziebell, Adam Tomlinson
HF: Chloe Molloy, Jeremy Cameron, Christian Petracca
F: Aaron Naughton, Tom Lynch, Will Hoskin-Elliott
Ruck: Matthew Kreuzer, Jack Steele, Liam Shiels
Inter: Christian Salem, Isaac Quaynor, Bayley Fritsch, Sharni Layton
Emerg: Ben Crocker, Bailey Dale, Trent Bianco
Coach: Mick Malthouse
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MELBOURNE
Are premierships won by a team’s bottom six players, or its top six?
If it’s the latter, this team of childhood Melbourne fans would be a very strong chance of snapping the Dees’ flag drought.
A young Lance Franklin ran around Dowerin, 160km north of Perth, aiming for goalposts his dad painted on the shearing shed dreaming of playing for the Demons.
Andrew Gaff, meanwhile, was at the 2000 Grand Final as an eight-year-old.
“We had probably the worst seats in the house. We couldn’t see a thing and it was probably good we couldn’t see a thing,” he said in 2015.
Teammate Luke Shuey is nother former Dees fan along with Dion Prestia, who grew up in a family of diehard Demons. His Dad Osvaldo is still one-eyed.
“He’ll come to the games (to watch me), but he still goes for Melbourne,” Prestia said.
James Harmes’ family was luckier: “I’ve grown up barracking for the Demons so it’s a dream come true,” he said after being drafted in 2013. “My two pops went for Melbourne and my mum and dad also.”
Scott Pendlebury was also a Melbourne fan, but his opinion of one of his heroes changed after a footy clinic in Sale in the 1990s.
“They did a clinic in Sale and they had a poster of Brad Green and they did all their signings and stuff and they left to the car park,” he said on his Jock and Journo Podcast in 2017.
“I chased them down and he was putting his bag into the back of the boot and I had one poster and I said, ‘Excuse me Brad, could you sign my poster for me, I’m a big fan’ and he goes, ‘Sorry mate, the clinic’s finished’.”
The pair crossed paths again in Pendlebury’s second AFL game.
“I never mentioned it to him,” the Collingwood captain said.
“I always think, you didn’t sign my poster, you a---hole.
“I didn’t want him to get a touch that day, but he still got a few.”
Green responded on Twitter and told Pendlebury he had heard the podcast, and decided to make it up to him, attaching a photo of a signed footy card.
Hi @SP_10, my deepest apologies in not signing a poster for you 🙈. Love the show #jockandjourno . #BetterLateThanNever #zerorecollection pic.twitter.com/QxkGruayx4
— Brad Green (@bradgreen18) May 25, 2017
DEMON FANS BEST 22
A team of players who grew up barracking for Melbourne
B: Jack Grimes, Dylan Grimes, Brent Moloney
HB: James Harmes, David Astbury, Kelvin Moore
C: Andrew Gaff, Scott Pendlebury, Dion Prestia
HF: Luke Shuey, Alex Johnson, Billy Stretch
F: Phoebe McWilliams, Lance Franklin, Richard Douglas
Foll: Jacob Weitering, Chris Judd, Jack Viney
Coach: Nathan Buckley
HAWTHORN
When Stuart Dew turned the 2008 Grand Final on its head, Hawthorn fans were dancing in the MCG aisles.
One of them was a 14-year-old Hawks nut named Lachie Whitfield.
“My dad and I were there at the 2008 Grand Final sitting in the top row and we were jumping on the seats having a great time,” the Giants gun said later.
“My all-time favourite was Shane Crawford. Luke Hodge and Sam Mitchell are up there as well, these blokes have got three premiership medallions and are absolute legends of the game. It’s pretty crazy when you come up against them sometimes.”
If teams were made up of players who grew up barracking for that side, Whitfield would be bouncing down the MCG wing in a brown and gold jumper and looking for forwards including Robbie Gray (a big Jason Dunstall fan as a kid), “Flyin” Liam Ryan and legendary Saints partnership Nick Riewoldt and Stephen Milne.
If they can’t kick a winning score, ruckman Jack Fitzpatrick might have to reproduce his crazy matchwinning goal from the centre square against Collingwood in 2016.
“I enjoyed every minute at the Dees but to be able to have a win in your first game for the club you grew up barracking for, it really is a dream come true,” he said after that game.
Josh Gibson, whose household was divided between the Hawks and Bombers, and Jack Scrimshaw, who was in the stands at the 2013 Grand Final, also got to live the childhood dream after being traded to the team they grew up supporting.
“Jack has barracked for the Hawks all his life, idolised Crawf and Willo in the 2000s and then later Buddy, Roughie, Cyril and Birch,” Scrimshaw’s father Jack wrote on social media after his son left the Suns.
Another player who moved to his favourite team in the trade period is Dew, who can now take the job of coach of this fantasy side.
HAWK FANS BEST 22
Team of players who grew up barracking for Hawthorn
B: Noah Answerth, Josh Gibson, David Wirrpanda
HB: Jack Scrimshaw, Andy Otten, Nick Maxwell
C: Lachie Whitfield, Jack Macrae, Bailey Smith
HF: Robbie Gray, Nick Riewoldt, Liam Henry
F: Ollie Florent, Liam Ryan, Stephen Milne
Foll: Jack Fitzpatrick, Josh P Kennedy, Luke Ball
Inter: Finn Maginness, Brodie Kemp, Nat Exon, Daniel Giansiracusa
Coach: Stuart Dew
BRISBANE LIONS
Jonathan Brown is the poster boy for the dream of getting to play for the AFL team you grew up supporting.
“I went to a few Fitzroy games, and I never saw them win,’’ Brown said after playing in the first of his three flags with the Lions. “I’d always wear the Fitzroy jumper to school if I saw them win on TV.’’
Brown went on to played 256 games for the Lions, was captain for seven years and won three best-and-fairests.
But dreams don’t always work out the way you expect.
Ben Keays was over the moon when he was selected by Brisbane in the 2015 draft. Keays’ late great-grandfather Fred played for Fitzroy from 1919-21, as a four-year-old Ben witnessed the Lions claim a breakthrough premiership against Essendon and he cried all the way home after the 2004 decider.
“I’ve supported the club for as long as I can remember,” Keays said.
But after four seasons and 30 games at the Gabba he was told his time was up.
“It’s sometimes hard to put into words,” he told the Adelaide website after being given an AFL lifeline by the Crows in the rookie draft.
“In that situation, you have a feeling that it’s going to be the end. It’s not that much of a shock. But having it happen is another thing and having to deal with that.”
LIONS FANS BEST 22
A team of players who grew up barracking for Brisbane (or Fitzroy)
B: Jez McLennan, Mal Michael, Leigh Adams
HB: Xavier Duursma, Daniel Merrett, Tom Bell
C: Sam Walsh, Ben Keays, Tom Cutler
HF: Jaidyn Stephenson, Jonathan Brown, Jake King
F: Gryan Miers, Katie Brennan, Kurt Tippett
Foll: Scott Lycett, Clayton Oliver, Luke Power
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Originally published as What Collingwood, Melbourne, Hawthorn and Brisbane line-ups would look like if AFL stars could join their favourite team
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