Face facts, Ablett just too good

Gold Coast captain Gary Ablett reclaims top billing from Hawthorn superstar Lance Franklin, who has dropped to fourth spot in Mike's Top 50. Picture: Adam Head Source: The Courier-Mail

IS THE worth of a great player diminished in a team sport simply because he plays for a lowly team, as some would have you believe of Gary Ablett?

The cynics argue the Gold Coast champion is pretty much allowed to do as he pleases by the better teams because those teams know they are vastly superior overall.

They say it doesn't matter as much if he has 40-plus possessions, the result in most cases is a foregone conclusion.

I say that's nonsense.

It seems to me every team that has a player good enough to run with Ablett assigns that player to the little bloke; he simply burns them off as the game unfolds.

Consider the following stats from 2012 and then find a fault in the Ablett package.

He finished sixth in the Brownlow in a team that won three games, he led his club in the following categories: long kicks, short kicks, handballs given, handballs received, tackles, inside-50s, rebounds from defensive 50, hardball gets and looseball gets.

He was equal-third for contested marks, too.

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If there was a category for ground covered in a game, I suspect he would have won that one, too.

Even his famous father would have to nod in appreciation of such a comprehensive list.

Gary Ablett Jr is the most complete player in the game.

It was the view of a massive percentage of the player group of 2012, it is the assessment of so many neutral supporters and me in my annual task picking the top 50 players in the AFL in order.

The argument that he should be downgraded because his team is down the bottom is simplistic, fatuous, disrespectful.

Is Bobby Skilton's exalted status in the game diminished by the fact he won more Brownlows (three) than he played finals (one)?

The same question can be asked of Kevin Murray, who played finals in just two of his 18 seasons with Fitzroy, yet won nine club best and fairest awards and represented Victoria 24 times. Another all-time great.

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Ablett Jr plays a different game to his father, yet both will be remembered as legends of the game.

The younger Ablett has been voted by his peers the most valuable player in the game four times - at two clubs.

His father, widely regarded as the most talented player ever, won the award once. Wayne Carey, the best player I have seen, won the MVP twice.

Enough. Surely the debate is won.

Picture: George Salpigtidis Source: Herald Sun

Collingwood's Scott Pendlebury comes in second.

He is a superb player, deceptively tall at 191cm, not a speedster yet rarely run down, possessed of huge endurance and resilience, and he has an outstanding work ethic - he led Collingwood for tackles last year despite missing four games.

He has finished top three in Collingwood's best-and-fairest in five of the past six years.

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I have elevated Patrick Dangerfield to third spot.

While it's death by a thousand cuts with Ablett and Pendlebury, Dangerfield can turn a game in five minutes.

They say his teammates call him "Raging Bull''; what the rest of us know is he was born to wear Mark Ricciuto's No.32 guernsey.

He is about to turn 23, he has played 89 games and kicked 94 goals, he is the most dynamic midfielder in the game, a reminder of the young Chris Judd at West Coast.

Picture: Klein Michael Source: Herald Sun

I have pushed Buddy Franklin down from No 1 12 months ago to No 4.

He remains the most exciting player in the game, yet the flaws remain.

He isn't strong overhead and no one with any level of interest in football needs to be told about his kicking for goal.

He booted 69.64 from 19 games last year, including 3.4 in the Grand Final. Remove the 13 he kicked in the picnic against North Melbourne in Launceston in Round 10 - OK, give him five, his next best return last year - and it's an average of just better than three a game.

What was encouraging was a one-grab pack mark against the Western Bulldogs in the recent NAB Cup game and a significant reduction in the bend in his run-up when kicking for goal.

Franklin is followed by four high-quality midfielders - Josh Kennedy, Joel Selwood, Trent Cotchin and Jobe Watson - who could have come in any order.

Cotchin might end up being the best of them because of his dash, but, for the moment, Selwood's record is amazing, while Kennedy and Watson are blue-collar men with energy, strength, nous and impact.

Scott Barbour/Getty Images) Source: Getty Images

The second punt in my top 10 - Dangerfield might be seen as a gamble at No 3 - is his Adelaide teammate, Taylor Walker.

He is a natural key forward who reminds me a little of the young Tony Lockett.

He is a superb athlete for a man of such imposing dimensions - 192cm, 100kg - has nice hands and is a thumping kick. Accurate, too (63.35 last year).

He kicked four or more goals in 11 of his 19 games. He thrived under Brenton Sanderson, although a couple of lapses of discipline cost him five games to suspension.

At 22 (23 late in April), the sky is the limit for him.

There's a school of thought he will suffer from the departure of Kurt Tippett, with more opposition pressure coming his way.

His ability to cover ground and score from up to 60m will solve that potential problem.

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Dayne Beams rounds off the top 10. His development - on and off the field - in the past couple of years is extraordinary.

Best-and-fairest in 2012, a member of the leadership group in 2013. Wow. That's what a wild young man can do when he realises he has both rare talent and a rare opportunity

As always, lots of good players miss a berth in the 50.

Jordan Lewis is desperately unlucky, but how many midfielders can you have before the list becomes unbalanced? I have 30.

Picture: George Salpigtidis Source: Herald Sun

Lewis Jetta also was in until the final scan. He is a gamebreaker who was the leading goalkicker for the premiership team last year. Spots in the 50 don't come easy; he needs to back up again this year.

Then there's Matthew Boyd and James Kelly and Eddie Betts and Michael Hurley ...

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