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2010 All-Australian presentation
2010 AFL All Australian team. Left to Right: Gary Ablett, Paul Chapman, Barry Hall, Luke Hodge, Brian Lake, Joel Selwood, Harry Taylor, Leigh Montagna, James Frawley, Brendon Goddard, Mark Jamar, Dane Swan, Lance Franklin, Scott Pendlebury, Jack Riewoldt, Mark LeCras, Steve Johnson, Harry O'Brien, Chris Judd, Alan Didak and Corey Enright. Photo: Sebastian Costanzo
2010 ALL-AUSTRALIAN TEAM
B: James Frawley (Demons), Brian Lake (Bulldogs), Corey Enright (Cats)
HB: Brendon Goddard (Saints), Harry Taylor (Cats), Harry O'Brien (Magpies)
C: Leigh Montagna (Saints), Luke Hodge (captain, Hawks), Joel Selwood (Cats)
HF: Alan Didak (Magpies), Lance Franklin (Hawks), Paul Chapman (Cats)
F: Barry Hall (Bulldogs), Jack Riewoldt (Tigers), Mark LeCras (Eagles)
R: Aaron Sandilands (Dockers), Dane Swan (Magpies), Gary Ablett (Cats)
IC: Mark Jamar (Demons), Steve Johnson (Cats), Chris Judd (Blues), Scott Pendlebury (Magpies)
THERE is no bad All-Australian team, just degrees of excellent. This team would have been more excellent with Lenny Hayes among its number.
Hayes is a pulse of the Saints, single-handedly carrying them to wins they had little right to expect this year, and should have been an All-Australian.
Teams such as last night's are by definition subjective for there is no empirical truth demanding one player's name ahead of another. Unless that name is Gary Ablett, Luke Hodge or Dane Swan.
Selection of any of these names this year would have required little scientific analysis. Swan's game is one of accumulation but also appreciation. It is as self-evident watching a game as reading a stats sheet that a player who so often has the ball is in the game's elite.
Ablett, like Hodge, is a presence on the field that draws the eye and plays the game to his own rhythm so that he is appropriately an annual feature. Like Chris Judd. Some have reckoned Judd's season to be diminished this year from previous. Some people also reckon Bruce Springsteen has put out a dud album. Idiots.
The issue of these teams distils to an argument for the worthy over the virtuous in meetings that would read like a fantasy football conversation: ''I will see your Joel Selwood and raise you Lenny Hayes.''
In the event, they chose Selwood. They also chose Leigh Montagna. Both of these players are worthy, but Hayes is more deserving than either. In my opinion. The majority of a panel of eight (I know, how do you ensure a majority in a panel of eight?) decided otherwise.
Hawthorn attracted controversy this year when former club great Dermott Brereton fed the idea that Hodge was the team's true leader and thus should be captain.
Last night Hodge was named All-Australian captain despite not being the Hawks' skipper. But the rationale was less contentious than it appeared, for the captain must be drawn from the first picked 18 not including the interchange bench and there were no club captains among the 18.
The names that are there this year are unsurprising in the context of this season but surprising in the context of their careers. Three of them were off the rookie list.
Twelve months ago there might have been three people - Mark Jamar and his parents - who reckoned one day the Demons ruck would be All-Australian. His is a cautionary tale to critics, recruiters and list managers, for he deserved his honour.
It was convenient to the panel's argument to include three tall forwards when no side plays three. But it was an argument for excellence understandably won.
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