Across 325 games, 16 seasons, four Grand Finals and nine preliminary finals, it is safe to say I played in some very good teams. Across those teams I also played with some extremely good players. Many teammates in those teams are in the AFL Hall of Fame.
So naming the best 10 players I've played with across those years, at the Brisbane Lions and Western Bulldogs, is damn tough.
The last spot, in my mind, was down to a choice of Scotty West, Brad Johnson, Barry Hall, Darryl White, Gilbert McAdam, Craig McRae, Jonathan Brown and Dale Morris.
Yes, the squeeze for spots was a lot harder than I initially thought.
For the record, my closest friends when I played the Bears/Lions was Craig "Fly" McRae and at the Bulldogs it was Dale Morris and Mitch Hahn.
These days I see Mitch most weeks, with either helping at the Lions L3 Development program he runs or at our daughters' football training and games.
My teammates I see now the most outside of Mitch, is Simon Black and Clark "Mr September" or "Crackers" Keating. It's mostly Clark actually.
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He and I played in the Queensland under 12s team in Darwin back in 1988. We have been mates ever since. We both have three daughters and are always entwined with football work and other business. Football is an interesting place to play and be even after all these years.
So who is in my top 10, in order from 10 to 1, starting with that very tight final spot? Here we go!
3Alastair Lynch (Brisbane Lions)
You never know how much you can be better until this man came back to full health. Lynchy's speed and athleticism for his size were hard to appreciate unless you had to tackle him at training.
I had the honour many times when Lynchy was allowed to do full training. I will never forget the feeling of the speed power and pain from having to try and stop him front on.
When he came back from his battle of chronic fatigue, he played much closer to goal that ever before. He would sometimes be down back, sometimes up at centre half-forward. The only time we saw him elsewhere was when we would play against a team with Tony Lockett in it. Lynchy was the only guy who could match Tony's size, strength, and speed. "Plugger" never had much trouble one on one with anyone ... except when Lynchy was on him.
Eventually with his energy levels and age he would sit 15 metres out from goals and give us a target all day. Often with at least one player playing in front or just off him to provide defensive support. That is how much trouble he gave oppositions.
While frustrating at times with his shots on goals, he made up for it in contest and support. When I had a heavy tagger, I would always run my opponent past him and every time he would use his massive power to take that little bit of energy and space from the tagger.
Playing to 36 as he did back then wasn't done much at all. I am glad he was able to play that few years longer. I still see Lynchy a lot as we cross paths with footy and life and he is always entertaining even though he thinks he has memory issues. He doesn't! But it makes everyone laugh stirring him up!!
