What is the greatest AFL team of the 21st century?

News.com.au

16 hours ago

It was the bone crunching hit that echoed around the MCG and footy conversations for years afterwards.
When Collingwood's Scott Burns made a beeline for Michael Voss in the 2002 Grand Final and rammed into the Lions captain, you would have forgiven Voss for lying dazed on the turf.
Instead he bounced back to his feet immediately and handpassed to Brownlow Medallist Simon Black, who kicked a goal as Brisbane won a thrilling decider against the Pies.
It was a passage of play that epitomised the combination of sheer brutality and silky smooth skill that saw Brisbane win three premierships in a row and make the 2004 Grand Final.
Nathan Buckley, Voss' direct opponent, won the North Smith Medal that day, but Voss' efforts in the dying stages of that game forced a change so voting is now completed after the final siren.
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Ask most footy fans to name the best AFL team of the 21st century and even the most rusted on Victorians tend to nominate the Brisbane Lions under Voss and Leigh Matthews.
The Lions had it all. The 'Fab Four' midfield of Voss, Black, Jason Akermanis and Nigel Lappin was as tough and talented as it gets.
How many players today could kick goals from an impossible angle on their left or right foot like 'Aker'?
Defenders Mal Michael and Justin Leppitsch were as tough as nails, and we wouldn't have wanted to get lost in a dark alley with the Scott twins, who were great players as well as masterful nigglers.
The same goes for Jonathan Brown and Alastair Lynch. It's also easy to forget current Collingwood coach Craig McRae was a role player as a small forward in all three of Brisbane's flags.
'For me, I would always go Brisbane of the early 2000s,' Hawks great and Fox Footy commentator Jordan Lewis told news.com.au.
'They were stacked across every line, and it was a game where you really relied on individual battles and individual brilliance.
'When we (Hawthorn) were able to win, it was more sort of team defence and team offence.
'That side for me would stack up in any era and any decade as being the best team that has possibly ever played the game.'
How would Hodge-Lewis-Mitchell have gone against Brisbane's Fab Four?
'It would have been a great duel,' Lewis said.
'Maybe we did play each other in the early 2000s, but we were certainly kids, and they were coming towards the end of their careers.
'I mean they're Hall of Fame quality players, and it's quite rare that you get so many in one team, which Brisbane had — All Australians, Coleman medallists, Norm Smith medallists. It was a rich era of football up in the northern state.'
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Who is the best AFL team of this century? Let's break it down.
Brisbane, Geelong, Hawthorn and Richmond are the four candidates given they each won three or more premierships in their dynasties.
But we're crossing off Richmond given the lopsided grand final wins in 2017 and 2019 against Adelaide and GWS and the reliance on Dustin Martin.
Dusty's performance in the 2020 Grand Final win over Geelong was as good as it gets — shrugging off Patrick Dangerfield in the forward pocket to snap a miraculous goal is legacy defining stuff.
Hawthorn won four premierships (2008 and the 2013-15 three-peat) with six players featuring in all of those triumphs — Sam Mitchell, Luke Hodge, Jordan Lewis, Cyril Rioli, Jarryd Roughead and Grant Birchall.
The Hawks under Hodge's captaincy are probably the toughest team this century along with the Lions.
Speaking to news.com.au, Lewis said 'competitiveness' was the defining characteristic of that successful Hawthorn team that allowed them to reset and win back-to-back flags.
'You need the game plan, you need to be fit and healthy and everything to go right, but if you're not competitive, you can't sustain that long period of success,' Lewis told news.com.au.
'Players recognise that when they've been successful for one year and find it really hard to back it up. Then you really appreciate how good those teams that were able to stay at the top of their game and win multiple premierships in a row.'
Each of those great teams had an iconic moment or two.
Voss bouncing back from the Burns bump, Matthew Scarlett's toepoke to Gary Ablett Jr in the 2009 grand final and Hodge had a couple himself — an likely goal from the boundary in 2015 and planting a kiss on Buddy Franklin in 2014.
Jarryd Roughead tackled Sydney's Dan Hannebery so hard in the 2014 Grand Final there might still be a dent in the MCG turf in the shape of Hannebery.
The Hawks got revenge for the 2012 decider and blew Sydney away in a 63-point win — the first of four consecutive grand final defeats for the Swans.
'The Roughhead tackle on Dan Hannebery where he crunched him at the stoppage was a big moment,' Hawthorn legend Jason Dunstall recalled.
'That bump on Michael Voss when, that's probably the one that stands out to me because that could sway the game either way.
'If he doesn't get up, Brisbane are in trouble. But if he gets up, all it's gonna do is inspire his teammates and that's exactly what happened. So that to me is probably the one that stands out.'
Dunstall broke down the case for Geelong from a longevity point of view given the Cats have been contenders for most of the past 20 years.
'Brisbane and Geelong have been in six grand finals, Hawthorn in five, so I put Brisbane and Geelong ahead of them,' Dunstall told news.com.au.
'Then to separate those two, you have to go with Geelong because they played in 19 final series in 25 years. It's just ridiculous.'
Geelong's team in 2007-2009 was astonishingly strong across the board, especially when Ablett was at the peak of his powers.
In 2007 the Cats had nine, yes nine players named in the All Australian team.
That outfit had dour defenders like Scarlett and matchwinners all over the park, including Ablett, Jimmy Bartel, Stevie Johnson, Corey Enright, Joel Corey and Paul Chapman.
The Cats were so good they won a premiership in 2011 after Ablett left and the Hawks did the same in 2014 after Buddy Franklin's shock departure to the Sydney Swans.
Asked to separate Geelong and Brisbane's dynasties, Dunstall chuckled: 'You're asking impossible questions now. I mean, you don't win three in a row unless you're an amazing team.
'But we've got to remember, Geelong won 07, 09, 11, and they were hot favourites in 08 as well and somehow lost to Hawthorn. So they could have won four in five years, such was their dominance.
'We're splitting hairs. They were just incredible sides.'
Just imagine, how would prime Dusty have done against Voss back in the day?
'Gee it would have been a good clash. It would have been fun to watch because you're talking about a couple of raging bulls that would have gone at each other,' Dunstall said.
'Vossy was probably a little more 'inside' than Dusty was, whereas Dusty had that outside game as well. That would've been worth the price of admission watching those two go today.'
If we're talking longevity, Collingwood is in the conversation simply by nature of their ability to also keep contending year after year.
This century the Pies have two premierships (2010, 2023) and they could well make it a third this season based on how they're travelling on top of the ladder.
Three grand final wins, along with four grand final losses (2002, 2003, 2011, 2018) would be a clear sign of a club that can stay at the top.
They've also put the 'Collywobbles' behind them under coach McRae, so they don't quite have the grand final scarring of the Swans.
Collingwood has an iconic grand final moment too — Heath Shaw's smother on Nick Riewoldt in the 2010 replay set the tone for the game — it's now being recreated by Shaw in the latest edition of Toyota's Legendary Moments series.
Asked if Collingwood could be considered one of the great teams of the 21st century if they win this year, Dunstall said: 'Not yet. That'd be their third flag, so they're still playing a little bit of catch up there. But I love Craig McRae as a coach.'
The ability to attract recruits year after year is another advantage the powerhouse Victorian clubs have.
'Those sides have a different way of thinking,' Lewis said of Geelong and Collingwood in particular.
'They've been able to attract really good talent, but where the improvements come from and where the ability to stay at the top of the ladder has come from is the recruiting staff have identified players that suit the way that they play, and they haven't given up much for them.
'So Collingwood would have been like this, Hawthorn would have been like this, Richmond to a lesser extent. They had to get Tom Lynch in, so they paid him big money.
'Geelong have really led the way in trying to build their list out through the draft and trade, and that's why they've been able to stay at the top.
'They haven't overpaid players. They've got the right players to fit the way that they want to play.
'That's the trap that other sides fall into. They think that spending big money on one player can solve their issues time after time.'
Ultimately, we're giving the nod to Brisbane Lions of the early 2000s as the best AFL team of the century.
There's also the factor that Brisbane came to the MCG and beat Victorian teams in all three grand finals in 2001, 2002 and 2003 — that's no mean feat.
In the grand finals since Brisbane's three-peat, only two interstate teams have beaten a Victorian club in a grand final at the MCG (Sydney in 2012, West Coast in 2018).
Some honourable mentions — St Kilda's 2009 team went undefeated in the first 19 games of the season before getting pipped by Geelong in the grand final.
If it wasn't for a rogue bounce of the ball past Stephen Milne, the Saints may well have won in 2010. Instead, the grand final was drawn and Collingwood won by 56 points in the replay.
West Coast and Sydney both have two premierships this century and they deserve a mention purely for the epic grand finals in 2005 and 2006, decided by a combined margin of five points.