Choosing one footballer over another can be a thankless task, even for men whose careers were often about doing just that. And harder still when they're names the calibre of those in
As two of football's most successful coaches, eight premierships between them, Ron Barassi and Tom Hafey routinely had to make big calls on this star over that come team selection and finals time.
Likewise Bob Davis, coach of Geelong's 1963 premiership side, and Carlton great Ken Hands, who took the Blues to the 1962 grand final. Not to mention veteran football scribe Ron Carter, for whom awarding votes and picking "bests" was an intrinsic part of the hundreds and hundreds of games he attended.
But all that experience didn't make things any easier when our panel of football legends had to weed its top 50 back to a final, definitive top 10.
Our greats had written about and in many cases played alongside or coached these household names. And they agonised over the call of just who were the best handful of the more than 11,000 men who have played at Australian football's elite level.
Once the 50 had been established, we asked each to compile a top 10 in order. And let the final debate, a collegiate approach, and if needed, the vote begin.
The top 10s were intriguing. A handful of players were universal selections. Some were common to most lists. And a few bobbed up out of the blue. Or blues, in the case of Carlton pair Alex Jesaulenko and Greg Williams.
They were both in Hands' top 10, an effective counter to any claims that the Carlton captain of the 1950s, who'd started playing VFL football in 1945, would be irretrievably wed to an era long gone.
The top 10 wouldn't necessarily be about playing favourites, either, "Jezza" in Hands' list, but not that of Barassi, who coached him for so long, and in games as iconic as Carlton's 1970 grand final win over Collingwood.
Barassi sprang his own surprise, though, with Barry Cable, who roved for his North Melbourne premiership teams of 1975 and '77, but played only five seasons and 115 games of VFL football. "Huge respect for his ability, and he would play where needed too," was the master coach's succinct explanation.
Barassi the player got his own nomination in his great coaching rival Hafey's top 10, Davis named Haydn Bunton and Carter St<0x2009>Kilda's only premiership captain Darrel Baldock.
Triple Brownlow medallist Dick Reynolds was nominated by both Hafey and Carter, and a modern great, Hawthorn full-forward Jason Dunstall, by Hafey and Davis. All those names were the subject of vigorous debate, but ultimately had to make way for those nominated by more of our expert panel.
Ian Stewart, Tony Lockett, Bob Skilton, John Coleman and Gary Ablett snr were picked in the top 10 by three of the five judges - Ablett, in particular, the subject of some spirited debate.
"Nearly the most talented of all of them," said Davis. That, however, didn't cut much mustard with Barassi and Hafey.
"Not an Ablett fan. Not a team player," said Barassi. And Hafey: "He would never have chased, tackled or smothered in his life. He didn't even contest a lot of times because he probably thought it wasn't that important."
For the coaching greats, even in a discussion about individual talent, the team ethic remained paramount.
Which left the five superstars everyone seemed to agree upon, John Nicholls, "Polly" Farmer, Wayne Carey, Leigh Matthews and Ted Whitten.
The ruck greats Nicholls and Farmer were virtually inseparable, Carlton's "Big Nick" just getting the nod at No.4 ahead of "Polly" thanks to a couple of hundred more games at VFL level, and two more premierships, one of which he was captain-coach.
Three to go. Carey was Hafey's No.1, Matthews was Barassi's, and Davis, Hands and Carter plumped for E.J. Whitten. A final chance to turn opinions around.
Why Matthews over Whitten, Carter asks Barassi. "Was he a better footballer?" asks Barassi, to himself as much as the other members of the panel.
"Yeah, I reckon he was. The thing Matthews has got is he played in several premierships. I know it's bad luck Ted was in the wrong spot (only playing in one), I know that, but he (Matthews) proved himself under fire more than Ted. Ted's unlucky that he didn't have more of a chance to prove how good he was."
Enough, though, to emerge ultimately as
Davis says: "Whitten could play in any position, played (at the time) a record number of games, and was just dominant. If you went to watch Footscray play, you watched Teddy Whitten. That's irrespective of whether the side was playing well or poorly. It makes no difference."
"Five best-and-fairests, 29 state games," Carter adds. "Great skills," says Hands. "He could play centre half-back, centre half-forward, probably the two toughest positions, and anywhere else as well."
Davis sums it up. "He could do anything that you wanted him to do. He was tough and strong ... and mad." The last adjective sparks a chorus of laughter, meant affectionately, and in a purely football sense, admiringly.
Teddy wins the day. But so do the other 49 players on this list. They are in a select band, named as the game's very best by a group of highly respected men who have seen more football than just about any of their contemporaries.
To have won a spot anywhere in
