Throughout the final years of the 1990s, AFL clubs across the land looked backward rather than forward, with selectors, historians and superstars converging to name their Teams of the 20th Century.
So, as we near the quarter-time mark of the 21st century, what better time to run the rule on which players are likely to feature when the selectors of tomorrow get together in several decades' time?
While every club has an array of deadset legends that can be called on, we here at Zero Hanger have employed the following rules of selection:
- Only statistics recorded and achievements accrued since the start of the 2000 AFL season will be acknowledged.
- All statistics and awards must have been accrued while playing for the club in question.
- Any player selected must have played at least 100 senior games for their respective club since the start of the 2000 AFL season.
Next up, we run the rule over Melbourne, to see which Demons proved deadliest.
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10. Jeff White (2000-2008)
1 x best and fairest (2004)
1 x All-Australian (2004)
192 games, 20.8 hitouts per game
Taken by the Dockers with the opening pick of the 1994 AFL Draft, White lasted just three seasons in the West before returning home and joining the Redlegs ahead of the 1998 season.
Tall, athletic and precise, White began to peak as a ruckman at the turn of the century, acting as a key member of Melbourne's rise to a grand final berth in 2000.
Had it not been for a bearded successor of his, the Frankston native could very well have laid claim to being the Demons' best big man of the century.