Opinion
The nine upstarts who have muscled into the mid-year All-Australian side
Jake Niall
Chief football writer, The AgeMelbourne’s decision to trade Jesse Hogan in 2018, then a 23-year-old key forward, was both audacious and justified.
Hogan had enormous talent, but his combination of injury and personal issues – and his wish to return to Perth – was sufficient for the Demons to take the high draft pick on offer and deploy the pick to land Steven May, a key defender of similar ability to Hogan.
From left: Marcus Bontempelli, Jesse Hogan and Nick Daicos.Credit: Artwork: Stephen Kiprillis. Images: Getty
Hogan failed at Fremantle for a range of reasons and was given away to the Giants, for virtually zilch, at the end of 2020 by the Dockers, who were not exactly replete with key forwards, either.
He isn’t the first big forward to find sanctuary in Sydney, where only tourists from the southern states could spot him in a line-up or recognise him in a shopping centre. As with Tony Lockett, Barry Hall and Lance Franklin, he has relished the anonymity of football in Sydney, where Giants players are even less recognised than the Swans.
In the first dozen games of 2024, Hogan has earned a position at full-forward in the mid-year All-Australian side, just ahead of Carlton’s Harry McKay.
Why Hogan over McKay? It is a close call, but Hogan’s deft touch and exceptional footy smarts were sufficient for him to earn a spot, aged 29, in the team of the half-year.
Max Gawn has had a magnificent season for Melbourne.Credit: AFL Photos
My All-Australian team to round 12 contains eight players who could be designated as “automatics” or undisputables. The easiest selections of those eight are the following division of Melbourne skipper Max Gawn, his Bulldog counterpart Marcus Bontempelli and Collingwood’s Nick Daicos, and Sydney pair Isaac Heeney and Errol Gulden across the centre line.
Finally a permanent midfield force, Heeney had been the best-performed player of 2024 until a few weeks ago; now Daicos is reeling him in – the son of Peter the Great having thoroughly dispelled the notion that he didn’t win enough contested balls (he leads the league in that category now) – while Gawn, too, has been a colossus in the ruck and, unless injured, will have a seventh All-Australian jumper this September.
Bontempelli remains on the podium for the unofficial title of the game’s best player, which really should be like the golf rankings, which are done over two or three years, rather than one.
The remaining automatics in the 23 are Carlton’s Charlie Curnow, the competition’s premier key forward again thus far this year (the equal leader in the Coleman Medal to round 12), while Adelaide’s lightning-quick match winner Izak Rankine is selected alongside centre half-forward Curnow on a forward flank. Swan Nick Blakey, a potent running defender and weapon in the AFL’s best team, is another whose selection should be uncontroversial.
Of the remaining 15 picked in my team, six could be considered usual suspects or A-plus performers who are recognised guns: Defenders Tom Stewart and Harris Andrews, midfielder and sometimes forward Christian Petracca, Blues skipper Patrick Cripps, Port’s dynamo Zak Butters and Essendon’s architect and ultra-professional Zach Merrett. The latter has been named as sub in this team, on the basis that he’s the next midfielder.
Stewart has been tagged this year and curbed to some extent, but remains better than his counterparts at rival clubs in that role of interception machine and set-up defender. Andrews has been excellent in an up-and-down Lions outfit and has the edge – to this stage – over his usual competitors, Darcy Moore, Jeremy McGovern, Jacob Weitering and May.
Petracca is picked at high half-forward, Butters is a midfielder on the bench and Cripps was selected, in one of the close calls, over Gold Coast bull Matt Rowell, the Carlton captain having taken on the younger inside mid and prevailed head-to-head; further, Cripps has exerted dominance in the key moments for the Blues.
Eight undisputed, six that are familiar figures and proven A-plus players, which leaves another nine upstarts or less-familiar footballers, who have elevated their performances. A few of them will raise eyebrows and I do not expect all nine to be in the All-Australian team at season’s end.
The upstarts are: Freo defenders Jordan Clark (back pocket) and Luke Ryan (half-back flank), Gold Coast key back Sam Collins (centre half-back), Hawthorn’s sharp small forward Dylan Moore (forward pocket), Geelong’s wing/half-back/midfielder Max Holmes (wing), Sydney’s ballistic mid Chad Warner (interchange), the remarkably improved West Coast forward Jake Waterman (forward pocket), Essendon’s undersold version of Waterman in Kyle Langford (interchange) and then the prodigal son of key forwards, Hogan.
Of that group, only Ryan has made All-Australian before, in 2020. Warner’s selection is hardly contentious, given his impact in Sydney’s victories lately.
Waterman was viewed as slightly ahead of Langford. Both are capable of playing as a peripheral tall or medium forward, rather than as a pack-crashing key forward; the former’s ascension, aged 26, has been astounding.
Fans will find fault, doubtless, and have their favourites whose form arguably warranted a place in the 23.
McKay, Rowell and Fremantle’s Caleb Serong were unfortunate to miss this hypothetical team, as were key backs Alex Pearce (Fremantle), McGovern and to a lesser extent Moore. Carlton’s Sam Walsh was injured for the early rounds and is gaining ground.
It is a team divided between perennial performers at the elite level, and those who’ve discovered the best version of themselves, headed by Hogan and Waterman, whose seasons bring to mind the homily attributed to the novelist George Eliot: “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.”
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