How good is your best player?

The Footy Bogan ponders one of life's persistent questions.


At the end of 2010, after being comprehensively thrashed in the greatest game of all time (PF 2010), Geelong lost Gary Ablett, generally regarded as the best player in the AFL. The following year they won the grand final. It's almost certainly true that they received considerable help from Collingwood who spent much of the year taking pot shots at their own feet, arranging to inflict noticeable damage in the last couple of months of the season. But even had Geelong "only" been runners-up, the result would seem to run contrary to conventional wisdom: they did better without the champion than with.

In 2012, Sydney beat Hawthorn by 10 points to take their fifth premiership. The following year, they lost to Fremantle in the preliminary final. At the end of 2013, barely had the glow of winning a premiership subsided than Hawthorn lost Lance Franklin, arguably their most valuable player - to their nemesis of 2012. So, in the 2014 grand final, the Hawks were facing a double whammy:

- Lance Franklin to Hawthorn
+ Lance Franklin to Sydney

Despite winning the Coleman medal, Franklin was unable to prevent Sydney from suffering a major defeat.

I got to thinking these morbid thoughts when I heard that Collingwood could not contemplate a potential trade for Travis Varcoe because they could not fit him into their salary cap. I'm sure the reigning premiers don't have that problem. Nor do Geelong. Salary-cap problems accrue to successful clubs, not those who can't even make the eight. What on earth is going on at Magpie Land (perhaps better called Cuckoo Land)?