Introducing The Back Pocket
The Back Pocket is an AFL podcast coming live weekly wherever you get your podcasts.
If you're as sick as we are of defenders going unheralded, love a good spoil or intercept mark, and are nuts about footy, then I have good news:
You're Home. This is your family now.
Righting Footy Wrongs
Matthew Scarlett and Steven Silvagni are widely regarded to be two of the greatest defenders - and footballers - of all time.
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You would think then, that they would have individual accolades galore. There are of course, the All Australian selections, and premierships.
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But between them there are just three Best and Fairest awards, 0 Norm Smith Medals and 0 Brownlows.
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Matthew Scarlett's career tally of wouldn't have made him a clear winner in six of the last seven Brownlow medal counts.
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Silvagni got agonisingly close to winning in 1990, his tally of 16 just two votes short of the winner, but there are no prizes for third place.
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Three years later, Gavin Wanganeen finally did defenders proud, winning it with those 18 votes that would have got Silvagni there, but to put that in perspective, in 2017 and 2021 he would have needed double the votes he did in 1993.
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And Gavin Wanganeen was a small defender. The kind umpires can pretend are midfielders in order to give them votes.
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Far too long have defenders not received the attention they deserve. The Back Pocket is here to put things right.
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