Temporarily Hopeful Demon

Bazball is the biggest myth in sport. I think Travball has more credibility and nobody uses that term in a serious context lol.

I totally understand the loss of Brayshaw on a cultural level but I still don't really see how his injury was the main reason why we didn't beat Collingwood. We lost that game largely on the back of poor entries inside 50 and inaccurate kicking. That doesn’t have much to do with Brayshaw. And it's also worth remembering that Collingwood were missing Nick Daicos that night. It's not as if they were without their setbacks as well.

Yeah honestly if he and Brayshaw were still in the side it would basically be a coin flip between the two

Wrong sport, but the Aussie cricket team fell into that trap with Steve Smith back in the day (though he's doing a decent job this summer).

Starc has been bloody phenomenonal this series. Carrying the bowling line up on his back in the absence of Cummins and Hazlewood. I think people don't fully appreciate how good this guy's been over his career. Will be badly missed when he retires.

Nope. Bont is 30 years old and is still among the best players in the game, while Oliver hasn't been anywhere near the top since 2022. He also has 7 AA selections while Oliver has 3. Danger is 35 years old and is still playing high quality football. His preliminary final against Hawthorn was out of this world. We haven't seen Oliver produce a game like that since god knows when. And as @dazzledavey36 said, those two players, along with Dusty, have the ability to go forward and kick multiple goals. Midfielders who can impact forward of centre are worth their weight in gold in the modern game. As good as Oliver was in his prime, he's always lacked that trait. Longetivity plays a big part in how I view players. It's why I believe Gawn will go down as far better MFC player than Oliver.

Pure insanity. He's not even in the same league as numerous contemporary players like Bont, Danger, Dusty, Franklin, Ablett Jnr and Gawn let alone Ablett Snr and Carey.

There were plenty of other players who helped us win the flag mate. It was a team effort. And I disagree he's our best player in a lifetime but that's for another day.

Utter stupidity of the highest order

I get that we all have our own opinions but for me we've reached the stage where it's extremely difficult to see how Oliver will go down as a better MFC player than Gawn. Gawn has the equal record number of AAs and is still among the best players in the game at the age of 34, while Oliver hasn't been a top player since he was 25. He also puts Oliver to shame in terms of off field professionalism.

Definitely our best small forward since Jeff Farmer (who was an absolute freak). I reckon he's a good chance of surpassing him by the end of the year, especially if he sticks with us till the end.

Couldn't have said it any better. The amount of babysitting the club did for Oliver was next level. Gawn took him in his home while his wife was preganant and the club let him skip the 2024 pre-season as well as a game this year so that he can look after his mental health. Yet apparently he's the victim of this barbaric club while Trac is the villain. Makes no sense.

Fair enough

Hate to rain on Oliver's parade, but I am genuinely amazed that people keep saying that he's our best player since Flower when we literally have Max Gawn.

I'm a huge Oliver critic now and I am one of the few people on here who prefers Trac over him, but you're just re-writing history. The year after '21 he was the AFLCA winner and the best and fairest.