Best Player In The AFL -- BY POSITION -- Current voting: Forwards

[Ezuma]

Based off a thread I'm involved in on the AFL board at GameFAQs.

Ok, here are the rules. I will present a list of players to be voted on by the board to determine the best player in the league. I will do it by positions, then a big final with the respective winners.

In the midfield, I will do 2 posts because of the sheer majority of players. There will at least be 16 candidates in each position, one for each team, with wildcards that can also be voted for.

Let's begin!

FORWARDS
Adelaide: Brett Burton
Brisbane Lions: Jonathon Brown
Carlton: Brendan Fevola
Collingwood: Anthony Rocca
Essendon: Matthew Lloyd
Fremantle: Matthew Pavlich
Geelong: Steve Johnson
Hawthorn: Lance Franklin
Melbourne: Russell Robertson
North Melbourne: Nathan Thompson
Richmond: Matthew Richardson
Port Adelaide: Warren Tredrea
St Kilda: Nick Riewoldt
Sydney: Barry Hall
West Coast: Josh Kennedy
Western Bulldogs: Brad Johnson

Wildcards:
Daniel Bradshaw
Nathan Brown
Paul Chapman
Travis Cloke
Leon Davis
Alan Didak
Brett Ebert
Simon Goodwin
Tom Hawkins
Corey Jones
Justin Koschitzke
Scott Lucas
Quinten Lynch
Ben McKinley
Paul Medhurst
Cameron Mooney
Daniel Motlop
Robert Murphy
David Neitz
Michael O'Loughlin
Cyril Rioli
Jarrad Roughead
Kurt Tippett
Scott Welsh
Mark Williams

My vote goes to Jonathon Brown


Jonathon Brown - 3
Lance Franklin - 3
Matthew Pavlich - 1
Brendan Fevola - 1

 

[Mr. Kurns]

Jonathon Brown, part of wants to go Johnno or Welshy but Browny

 

[.::Stevo::.]

Buddy Franklin

 

[tassietiger]

Pav. The other two have sidekicks, Pav carries his team.

 

[superhussey]

Franklin

 

[punterpupnroy]

Fevola.

 

[Ezuma]

Pav. The other two have sidekicks, Pav carries his team.

True. But Roughead is usually only good for 1 or 2 goals, and Bradshaw is usually never this good. Browney's just hit some rough form, but I think that injury that he had during the week has been nagging him all year, it's only just hit it's peak.

And taking nothing away from Pav, he's a great player, but any good forward could carry Freo. And poor Pav, he's so loyal to his absolutely useless team that he'll probably never see another final, let alone win a flag.

Fev would be my second choice for best forward. And he's only gonna play better this year now that the midfielders are a year older and a more mature, and now that Judd's in the side.

 

[aussie_ben91]

Pav. The other two have sidekicks, Pav carries his team.

Franklin kicks goals when the team needs it.

EXAMPLE:

Elimination Final last year against Adelaide, 30 seconds left on the clock, wrong side for a left footer & outside 50. Franklin slots it and caps off a match winning performance with 7 goals. To add to that, 3 of his goals were from outside 50 in the last quarter of the game.

Exact same position, match is on the line against Geelong, Pavlich hits the post.

CHOKER!

To add to that, it's more to Pavlich's advantage if everyone around him is ****. Do you remember Mark Williams for Hawthorn? Leading goal-kicker in the competition before Franklin entered the scene. :cool:

Buddy Franklin!

 

[Gilly Fan]

Jonathan Brown.

 

[smssia0112]

First off Steve Johnson is better than Cameron Mooney and I'd put Travis Cloke ahead of Rocca in the past couple of years.

Best in the comp has to be Franklin though, he's the type of guy who can win a game off his own boot. Pavlich could, but as Ben said, he tends to choke when it counts.

 

[Ezuma]

First off Steve Johnson is better than Cameron Mooney and I'd put Travis Cloke ahead of Rocca in the past couple of years.

I thought about putting Cloke in front of Rocca but Collingwood struggle when Rocca isn't playing. He's nowhere near as good as he used to be, but it's just his presence on the field that makes a huge difference, a lot like Lynch and Kennedy for West Coast, who don't really score goals, but they make a difference by being on the field.

I also changed Johnno and Mooney around.

 

[smssia0112]

Yeah I must say Mooney has a similar effect. He doesn't kick 100 goals every season but he passes it off a lot. Johnson is significantly more talented however.

 

[punterpupnroy]

Best in the comp has to be Franklin though, he's the type of guy who can win a game off his own boot. Pavlich could, but as Ben said, he tends to choke when it counts.

I cant believe!:o you guys are saying he tends to choke. He only missed ONCE in a tough situation and it shaved the inside of the post. Dont bag the champ for always tending to miss crunch goals. Give me more examples

 

[tassietiger]

Franklin kicks goals when the team needs it.

EXAMPLE:

Elimination Final last year against Adelaide, 30 seconds left on the clock, wrong side for a left footer & outside 50. Franklin slots it and caps off a match winning performance with 7 goals. To add to that, 3 of his goals were from outside 50 in the last quarter of the game.

Exact same position, match is on the line against Geelong, Pavlich hits the post.

CHOKER!

To add to that, it's more to Pavlich's advantage if everyone around him is ****. Do you remember Mark Williams for Hawthorn? Leading goal-kicker in the competition before Franklin entered the scene. :cool:

Buddy Franklin!

Interesting theory. But don't you think that the fact that Roughead and Williams are both going well means that teams aren't going to quadruple-team Franklin, as one of the lesser attended players could kick a bag instead? Also, Williams was never the leading goalkicker in the competition. Leading goalkicker in Hawthorn, but with all due respect, any decent forward could've been Hawthorn's leading goalkicker at that stage.

Pavlich has a couple of players on him every week, as the other team may as well play a couple on him. He's a star, so he pushes through it and is regularly his team's best player. Sometimes his team is so average that he is forced to play out of position, and run through the midfield just so his team can get the ball. It normally works, too, he normally gets the ball. Unfortunately the problem for Pavlich is that there's not much to kick to when you're outside goalkicking range and you are your team's only good player.

Johnathan Brown, in form, is probably a more dominant player than Pavlich, so I'd say he'd be a pretty close second. I just reckon Pavlich is the best due to not only his ability to make a rubbish team into an okay team, but his ability to do it every week, and he has been doing that for several years now.

 

[Ezuma]

Johnathan Brown, in form, is probably a more dominant player than Pavlich, so I'd say he'd be a pretty close second. I just reckon Pavlich is the best due to not only his ability to make a rubbish team into an okay team, but his ability to do it every week, and he has been doing that for several years now.

I agree with that. The only reason Fremantle ever do anything is because of Pavlich. They have no other goalkickers, and all their attempts at finding a decent secondary avenue (Farmer, Medhurst, J-Long, Tarrant, even McPharlin) have paid off for maybe 4 or 5 games in a season, but then just drop off after that.

But, I think if Jonathon Brown were in a similar situation at the Lions, he'd be able to do the same. He is deceptively quick for a big bloke, not as quick as Pav though, but he can shake off any defender, whether they're a lumbering backman, or someone like Rutten or Scarlett who can keep up with the best of them. His strength is his biggest weapon though, he outmuscles pretty much anyone in the game today, and consistently beats Darren Glass (probably the best one-on-one fullback in the game) in those battles of strength.

That leaves opposition teams with a huge dilemma: speed or strength? Because if they pick a stronger defender (Bock or Glass), then they probably won't be able to keep up with Browney's mobility, but if they choose a smaller, faster defender (Scarlett), Browney can easily outmuscle them if need be.

Browney usually hangs halfway between the square the fifty, but I often see him leading up the centre of the ground, and sometimes to the wings if the Lions are struggling to get it up his way, a la Matthew Pavlich.

So yeah, I think if Browney were in the same situation as Pav, surrounded by a bunch of schmucks (besides Palmer), he'd be able to carry his team just as well. I mean, two/three years ago he had 15 Brownlow votes by round 6, and was I think 8 votes in front of the next guy. But he unfortunately got that injury in I think it was round 7 and missed the rest of the year.