Carlton Supporters Club

And went to the Cats on very reasonable coin, given his status in the game.

Interesting the coaches gave Cripps maximum 10 votes for BoG as part of the AFLCA voting.

It sort of tells you what the coaches value! Most of the media had Dusty the clear BoG, many of us here thought it was a line ball!

Dusty was given 7, Simmo got 6.

PDF of votes is HERE

I had Marchbank as a standout and he doesn't get a mention here.

Either I saw a different game, or he wasn't as good as the aforementioned.

Judd described Dusty as a Zen Master, he mentioned that some on the inside of football rate him even higher than the very best of Ablett Jnr.

Jeepers !!!  ........some people have short memories.  If Martin can pay another 8 or 9 seasons at this level, he MIGHT be able to be considered in the same breath as Ablett jnr......whatever you think of him & his later career choices.

I suppose there is an undercurrent that suggests a lot of Ablett Jnr's possessions are worthless give and gets where he accumulates two or three touches in the space of a few meters, often at the expense of some poor crushed team-mate. I know I always rated Ablett Jnr less than Judd for this very reason.

Judd would win a hard ball at the coal face, draw in opponents, take the heat and release team-mates moving the ball 40m with minimal disposals.

I'd say Martin is closer to Judd in this regard, I don't think Dusty needs any player to sacrificially take the heat for him, neither needed to put some other poor plebe in the hot seat to escape the traffic.

I must admit after he left Geelong, Ablett Jnr became far more Judd like, which I admire. However, he does whinge a lot about the attention he gets, I've never seen Judd or Dusty complain.

Am I being unfair?

Nah, I get that....but for just sheer class in terms of his disposal, he outstrips Judd & Martin by a considerable amount.  I used to bemoan Juddys huge efforts to win the ball, but by foot, he did let himself down comparably.  It's all very small degrees though.

Dusty couldn't complain the way he throat chops people trying to tackle him.

The umpires would start penalising him very quickly if he ever turned on them.