Your Top 5 best Bulldog players ever (in order)

[jeemak]

Re: Your Top 5 best Bulldog players ever (in order)

1. Chris Grant - very classy and graceful, not sure anyone has replicated his style at his size.

2. Brad Johnson - match winning abilities puts him above West, just. Those years as a FF were remarkable, he torched plenty of quality defenders.

3. Scott West - consistency was second to none, but his hands were unbelievable. He would have loved playing in our 2016 side.

4. Nathan Brown - shame how he left and then how his career ended. His attitude was hard to like at times and I personally found him rude when I was a young kid which kinda sticks in the memory bank, BUT boy could he play. Good on the wing and even inside, better off half back and even better up forward. He could do it all.

5. Dale Morris - pound for pound his competitive streak is unmatched and he's the best defender I've ever seen. Great duels with Riewoldt while being able to smother the likes of Betts and McLeod says it all. Premiership hero too.

Special mentions to Luke Darcy and Bob.

Great call on Brown, left him out due to not being a one club player. Absolute freak of a player, and probably a better bloke by the looks of things than his image as a player suggests.

Darcy's an interesting one, reckon he lived in his head for a lot of his career (not to say up himself, more so just in his head instead of in the moment) and that meant he didn't blossom to the extent or as early as he could have. A great example of a big dude taking a while to get it together.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Re: Your Top 5 best Bulldog players ever (in order)

Great call on Brown, left him out due to not being a one club player. Absolute freak of a player, and probably a better bloke by the looks of things than his image as a player suggests.

Darcy's an interesting one, reckon he lived in his head for a lot of his career (not to say up himself, more so just in his head instead of in the moment) and that meant he didn't blossom to the extent or as early as he could have. A great example of a big dude taking a while to get it together.

On Brown, if he stayed and remained injury free there's every chance he could have overtaken West and Johnno. Big call, but he really was THAT good. Left foot, right foot, inside, outside, back/middle/forward - was genuinely a superstar. Heard it took him quite a while to recover mentally from how it all ended.

Darcy reminded me of an uncoordinated giraffe in the early years, but when it clicked he became so dominant as a ruck. Sadly we only caught a glimpse of his ability as a key forward but I suspect he would have dominated that too. The slow start and then the injuries robbed him of being a much bigger name in the game.

[jeemak]

Re: Your Top 5 best Bulldog players ever (in order)

On Brown, if he stayed and remained injury free there's every chance he could have overtaken West and Johnno. Big call, but he really was THAT good. Left foot, right foot, inside, outside, back/middle/forward - was genuinely a superstar. Heard it took him quite a while to recover mentally from how it all ended.

Darcy reminded me of an uncoordinated giraffe in the early years, but when it clicked he became so dominant as a ruck. Sadly we only caught a glimpse of his ability as a key forward but I suspect he would have dominated that too. The slow start and then the injuries robbed him of being a much bigger name in the game.

Possibly. The Friday night he broke his leg almost led me to calling my coach and telling him I wasn't playing the next day. At that stage of the season he was flying, best player in the competition.

[westbulldog]

Re: Your Top 5 best Bulldog players ever (in order)

1. Ted Whitten
2. Chris Grant
3. Brad Johnson
4. John Schultz
5. Dale Morris

[comrade]

Re: Your Top 5 best Bulldog players ever (in order)

1. Grant - my all time favourite player.
2. Johnno - such a quality player over a long long time
3. West - one of the most underrated ever
4. Bont - can do things no one else can
5. Lake - at his best, he was a monster and made it look easy in defence

[mjp]

Re: Your Top 5 best Bulldog players ever (in order)

1. Grant - my all time favourite player.
2. Johnno - such a quality player over a long long time
3. West - one of the most underrated ever
4. Bont - can do things no one else can
5. Lake - at his best, he was a monster and made it look easy in defence

Ummm. He is still playing isn't he! So Lake goes to 4 and number 5 is....

[comrade]

Re: Your Top 5 best Bulldog players ever (in order)

Ummm. He is still playing isn't he! So Lake goes to 4 and number 5 is....

Oh, I missed that. I wondered why Bont was on the nose in this thread!

Has to be Dale Morris.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Re: Your Top 5 best Bulldog players ever (in order)

So I'm really from 1980 on

1. Chris Grant
2. Brad Johnson
3. Doug Hawkins
4. Dale Morris
5. Scott West

Apologies to KT who was my first football idol. But I only really saw 1 awesome season from him, before his injury and subsequent trade.

[Bulldog4life]

Re: Your Top 5 best Bulldog players ever (in order)

Had to miss such a lot of players out as I have seen the cream of the crop from the 1960's onwards.

1. Ted Whitten...what can I say what hasn't been said. The only Mr. Football in the history of the game. Sums Ted up.

2. Simon Beasley. Champion full forward. His goal average of 3.7 per game over his eight years puts him in the top 20 averages of all time in VFL/AFL football.

3. Brad Johnson. A true champion for the club. His full forward role was outstanding for his height.. Saw his first game and last game.

4. John Schultz played ruck in a very very tough era. He won the Brownlow Medal in 1960 only 21 years old. He was Footscray's best and fairest player five times (1960, 1962, 1964–66) and played for Victoria 21 times. Played as a amateur all his career.

5. Chris Grant. A magnificent player for us forward and back. Saw his first practice game for us at Skinner reserve. He was terrific in that game.

Apologies to Bissett, Templeton and Quinlan who went to other clubs as well as the Hawk, Westy and Libba who were 6, 7 & 8.

[Bornadog]

Re: Your Top 5 best Bulldog players ever (in order)

So I'm really from 1980 on

1. Chris Grant
2. Brad Johnson
3. Doug Hawkins
4. Dale Morris
5. Scott West

Apologies to KT who was my first football idol. But I only really saw 1 awesome season from him, before his injury and subsequent trade.

I didn't include Brad Johnson because I missed seeing the bulk of his career and only really saw him playing in the forward pocket.

I chose Simon Beasley instead because he was a great FF, and infact kicked more goals in the 1980s than any other player.

I haven't seen a FF in the RWB, since him, kick so many bags of 9, 10, 11 goals plus

[Grantysghost]

Re: Your Top 5 best Bulldog players ever (in order)

My first memories are either 80 or 81.

Since then my top 5 would be:

1. Doug Hawkins
2. Chris Grant
3. Scott West
4. Dale Morris
5. Ryan Griffen.

1 and 2 I could barely split. Is it too early to have McNeil at 6?

[Bulldog4life]

Re: Your Top 5 best Bulldog players ever (in order)

I didn't include Brad Johnson because I missed seeing the bulk of his career and only really saw him playing in the forward pocket.

I chose Simon Beasley instead because he was a great FF, and infact kicked more goals in the 1980s than any other player.

I haven't seen a FF in the RWB, since him, kick so many bags of 9, 10, 11 goals

Don't forget the 12's too BAD.

[Bornadog]

Re: Your Top 5 best Bulldog players ever (in order)

Don't forget the 12's too BAD.

Yes I should have added a plus after the 11

[Bulldog4life]

Re: Your Top 5 best Bulldog players ever (in order)

Yes I should have added a plus after the 11

Yep. Kicked 12 goals in 3 games. His career only ended because of a back injury too.

[Twodogs]

Re: Your Top 5 best Bulldog players ever (in order)

1. Kelvin Templeton
clear daylight

2. Doug Hawkins
3. Chris Grant
4. Brad Johnson
5. Tony Liberatore

Tomorrow it still would have been KT at one but Quinlan, West, Dempsey and Beasley could have been next. The day after that it could be Darcy, Wynd, Griffin and Morris or Murphy, Foster, Brown and Cameron. It's always Templeton at #1 though, that's undisputable.