Welcome back to the trade value column for the second part. You can find the first part and an explanation to the method of my madness here.
Now, back to the list.
“He’s worth more to us than he is to you”
9. Charlie Cameron (29. 2 years left, money unclear)
No one lights up the Gabba like Charlie Cameron. pic.twitter.com/KrmySKOlA5
— Brisbane Lions (@brisbanelions) September 9, 2023
8. Toby Greene (30. 2 years left, $1.6 million left)
Toby Greene has capped off a sensational season with a second Kevin Sheedy Medal 🏅
Details: https://t.co/FJs4znzK6y pic.twitter.com/NJqx3A47yJ
— AFL (@AFL) October 5, 2023
7. Darcy Moore (27. 4 years left, $4 million)
🚨 ROBBO'S TOP 50 FOR 2023 🚨
27. Darcy Moore
FULL LIST 👉 https://t.co/OESD9NSlYp pic.twitter.com/e8a43HVVHH
— CODE AFL (@codeaflau) October 10, 2023
By the rules that I have set for this game, these guys shouldn’t be on the list.
I am aware of that.
But these guys are like Christoph Waltz to Tarantino.
They are worth more to, and are better at, their clubs than they would be anywhere else.
Waltz is tremendous in Inglorious Basterds and less so in Django: Unchained, but he’s still better in those two movies than he has been in anything else by a mile.
Waltz became an icon because of what Tarantino wrote for him and these three are a bit the same.
Yes, they’re a bit older, Moore and Green miss more games than you’d like, but they are three emblems of their clubs.
Moore is the face of Collingwood’s move to being likeable and is the latest in the lineage of swashbuckling, charismatic key defenders that make footy worth watching.
Toby Greene has gone from being one of footy’s most disliked people to one of footy’s most admired. He defined the GWS run to the preliminary final and is the face of the GWS perception shift from the AFL’s pet club to everybody’s second team.
Charlie Cameron is one of the best pressure forwards and goal-kicking small forwards in the AFL, but that’s not why he’s this high.
Cameron, to me, is an emblem of the Brisbane resurgence under Fagan.
He gets the biggest pop with the song, he has the famous celebration, he has been there from the start and is still there now.
These guys, on merit, maybe shouldn’t be this high. But they are worth so much to their clubs they could almost be 1, 2 and 3 on this list.
The key forward mafia
6. Max King (23. 3 years left, $2 million left)
A dominant performance with our season up for grabs 👑
Max King is your @CMCMarketsAusNZ Sainter of the Round! pic.twitter.com/1xUHfyehzf
— St Kilda FC (@stkildafc) August 14, 2023
5. Charlie Curnow (25. 5 years left, money unclear)
No.1 pre-season. No.8 post-season.
Has Robbo marked Charlie Curnow too hard?
See the full Top 50 and vote on every player 👉https://t.co/XZpmgSBez6 pic.twitter.com/9OpthugOhd
— SuperFooty (AFL) (@superfooty) October 8, 2023
Like the real mafia, the key forward mafia has taken some blows in recent years.
There are a number of factors that led to a relatively down year for the key forward mafia overall.
Defensive systems have continued to evolve, clubs with the gun key forwards played game styles that didn’t necessarily help with key forward production, and maybe there are also fewer true stars than there have been in the past.
But, like the recent phone scams that the 5 families have been relatively recently linked to, there are still some men standing.
Curnow and King are the two most valuable assets from a key forward standpoint in the league and, by extension, are two of the most valuable assets in the league.
I never thought that Curnow would get here given his history of knee injuries but that’s two years in a row playing over 20 games and two years in a row with Coleman medals.
This year, granted, he did basically all of his damage against non-top 8 sides with 25 in three games against North Melbourne and West Coast.
He did also kick six against Collingwood in a big win for the Blues.
But Carlton has a touch of the Mourihno to them where they will try and turn a game against good opposition into an arm wrestle, effectively scrumming the ball forward and making sure that it’s a hard day for a key forward.
Double reigning Coleman medallist who seems to have put his health issues behind him with a contract signed before the new CBA and locked up for years, we have no choice.
King is a different conversation.
He only played 11 games this year because of shoulder issues and only kicked 28 goals but watching him in full flight is prodigious.
His age, his favourable contract situation, his production when fit this season and his inescapable talent make him a must this high on the list despite a down year.
Elliott Ness (the Untouchables)
4. Jordan De Goey (27. 4 years left, $3 million left)
“I’m the one with the medal around my neck.”
Jordan De Goey was pretty blunt in his response to Steven May's comments at Melbourne's best and fairest.https://t.co/MbLDROIgJt pic.twitter.com/DVX0lUzsNe
— Real Footy (AFL) (@agerealfooty) October 10, 2023
3. Christian Petracca (27. 5 years left, $4.5 million left)
"He'd definitely have clubs that would come knocking if he was available and open to a trade"
Norm Smith medalist Christian Petracca is on a long-term deal at the Dees 🏆
But the @traderadio team think plenty of other clubs would be interested in him "if he was available" 👀 pic.twitter.com/4oFIv7Grae
— Fake Footy (@FAKE_FOOTY) September 27, 2021
2. Marcus Bontempelli (27. 2 years left, money unclear)
Marcus Bontempelli is closing in on the Western Bulldogs’ best and fairest record.
That's five B&Fs in 10 years! 🤯
See the top 10 | https://t.co/iyQo6jbOqC | #AFL pic.twitter.com/sLv1KRNFMz
— SEN 1116 (@1116sen) October 4, 2023
Let’s start with a quote from the great Dr Dre: “now let me welcome everybody to the wild wild west, a state that’s untouchable like Elliott Ness”.
That’s what these three are: truly and honestly, untouchable.
They are the kind of sledgehammer and scalpel players that have made footy so enjoyable over the last few seasons.
They’re each bullocking players who attack contests, tackle ferociously, and bust through tackles but are also surgical with the ball in hand. This is especially true of Bontempelli.
Petracca is more butcher than surgeon but is still one of the most effective goal-assist (7th) and score-involvement (1st) players in the league.
These are the three platonic ideals of the big-bodied, goal-kicking mid.
Petracca and Bontempelli are easy and have been fixtures of this list. Both are upstanding members of society and superstars to boot, each with basically a goal and an assist per game and each ranking in the top 6 for score involvements in the AFL, top 5 for inside 50s, top 7 in total clearances, and top 3 in contested ball.
De Goey is a bit different. If the other two are Daniel Cormier-type cleanskins with unquestioned ability,
Jordan De Goey is Jon Jones the troubled prodigy.
The differences between De Goey and Jones are myriad, thank goodness for Australia’s pregnant pedestrian population, but also include the fact that Jones was good immediately.
It took a while for De Goey’s game to match up to his outsized reputation but it has now.
He defined the finals series off his own boot after a season that was clearly his best ever, punctuated by a dominant preliminary final performance and a Grand Final performance where he was quiet but rose to the moment time and again.
I don’t love it, but De Goey has to be this high on the list.
Nick Daicos
1. Nick Daicos (20. 5 years left, $5 million)
Nick Daicos pic.twitter.com/JhS6W5IaDN
— JAKE FLAGPIES23 🏆🖤🤍 (@IncrediblyBozza) October 6, 2023
He is in a tier all his own.
Nick Daicos was second in the AFL in disposals per game, and first in effective disposals per game. He was in the top 25 for score involvements per game, despite playing largely as a utility often utilised across halfback.
Daicos is the nearest thing that the AFL has to either Pat Mahomes or Ghandi.
He, like Mahomes, is not content with just getting the ball to where he wants it to go.
He’s inventing new ways of getting it there. If the drop punt isn’t on, he’ll find a way to squirrel another type of kick to find his man in stride.
He had two moments in the fourth quarter Grand Final that underscored his genius. First was that outrageous, mid-air handball to De Goey for the goal that put the Pies back in front with 5 minutes left.
Second was his composure in the back 50, surrounded by Lions, and yet he shimmied and punched a kick to Will Hoskin-Elliott and released the pressure momentarily.
Nick Daicos being only 20, locked up for 5 years on a reasonable deal, is footy’s version of having a young Taylor Swift locked up just as “Love Story” came out. Hope it goes better for the Pies than it did for Scooter Braun.