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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5. Nathan Jones (2006-2021)
3 x best and fairest (2012, 2013 and 2014)
302 games, 22.4 disposals per game, 81 Brownlow votes, 0.3 votes per game
Hard as nails and as committed as they come, Nathan Jones may have started his career with hair and no tattoos and ended it with none and plenty, but his greatest achievement came in morphing himself from a young draftee into a key pillar so quickly.
While desperately unlucky to have missed Melbourne's drought-breaking grand final win after walking through all of the mire, Jones' legacy was cemented long before September of 2021, however.
