TIGANI’S TOP 20: Those who were close

27 Jul TIGANI’S TOP 20: Those who were close

Tomorrow morning my top GDFL players ranked from 1. to 20. will be released in the Geelong Advertiser’s “Addy Footy Fix” lift out.

What was initially a list of 72 players was strategically trimmed to a final 20,  forming a dream team of current players varying in age, height, on field positions and leadership roles.

There were three difficulties in the process.

The first was to have a spread of club representatives after last year’s league team of the year (selected by my fellow broadcasters) did not feature any players from seven teams situated below the top five.

Since then the competition has slowly opened up with no undefeated or winless teams remaining in season 2017.

In the end, only seven clubs were represented in my final list; such is the superiority of this season’s premiership contenders.

The second challenge was to exclude those injury prone.

This weekend Inverleigh welcomes back Nathan Mayes (ankle) and Casey Meehan (foot) while key forwards Bobby Griffths (East Geelong) and Jackson Macleod (Thomson) have both been named for their sides.

While they are great players they, along with the likes of reigning Bannockburn best and fairest Matt Tyquin, have not played enough football in season 2017.

The ultimate challenge was selecting the final three spots for the list.

When you see the calibre of local football talent who missed out on tomorrow’s list (recorded below) you’ll understand just how difficult it was to make my final selection.

Injury interrupted (alphabetically ordered): Bobby Griffiths (East Geelong), Alexander Gubbins (Winchelsea), David Holzfeind (Bell Post Hill), Jordan Kavanagh (Anakie), Michael Leamer (Belmont), Jackson Macleod (Thomson), Nathan Mayes (Inverleigh), Casey Meehan (Inverleigh), Aaron O’Callaghan (Geelong West), Jeremy Sluggett (Anakie), Brent Taylor (Thomson) and Matt Tyquin (Bannockburn).

Honourable mentions (alphabetically ordered): Jake Barlow (Bell Post Hill), Ben Bouwman (Inverleigh), Brad Carlton (Werribee), Joshua Carracher (Winchelsea), Justin DiBlasio (Inverleigh), Paddy Dwyer (Geelong West), Jack Fiolet (Inverleigh), Derek Fitzsimmons (North Geelong), Dylan Fisher (North Geelong), Jamie Grace (Anakie), Daniel & Michael Grozdanovski (Inverleigh), John Hambrook (Winchelsea), James Huybens (Inverleigh), Connor Jervies (Bannockburn), Phillip Jones (Werribee), Nathan Kelly (Bannockburn), Dion Lawson (Werribee), Rob Logue (Inverleigh), Jared Matheson (Thomson), Luke Parker (North Geelong), Jake Peters (Bannockburn), Lincoln Peters (Bannockburn), Jamie Phillis (Anakie), Jamie Pitman (North Geelong), Ryan Robertson (Corio), Dylan Shelley (Corio), Jackson Smith (Winchelsea), Justin Tarr (Bell Post Hill), Will Urquhart (Bell Post Hill), Ruben Vesikuru (East Geelong), Nick Walsh (Inverleigh), Brad Watts (Bannockburn) and Curtis Young (Inverleigh).

By Alex Tigani

GDFL Media (27/7/2017)