AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY TEAM OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Half Forward Line

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Right Half Forward Flank - Michael Werner (Manuka-Weston, West Torrens, Essendon, Sydney)

After playing his junior football with Eastlake, Michael Werner began his senior career at Manuka Weston where, playing mainly as a half forward or in the centre, he was soon attracting rave reviews.  After winning the ACTAFL's best first year player award in 1987, he was persuaded to move to Adelaide and join West Torrens the following year.  Having acclimatised himself to his new surroundings by representing the ACT at the 1988 bicentennial carnival, which was held in Adelaide, Werner made a creditable SANFL debut with Torrens in round 3 when he booted 4 goals in a thrilling 2 point win over Woodville.  Despite missing several games through injury, Werner, who played for much of the time in the relatively unaccustomed position of full forward, ended the 1988 season as the Eagles' top goal kicker, with 38 goals. 

The 1989 season saw Werner on the move again, this time to Essendon where, after an auspicious start, his career seemed to stall.  After 4 seasons with the Bombers, during which he played 40 games and booted 58 goals - the overwhelming majority of them in his first couple of seasons - Werner was drafted by Sydney where, after a solid first up season, a mixture of injuries and poor form precipitated the end of his AFL career.  However, he continued to perform with distinction in country football.

If ultimately it would be hard to argue with suggestions that he under-achieved, at his peak between 1987 and 1990 Michael Werner was as exciting and prodigious a young football talent as almost any in the country at the time.

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Centre Half Forward - Phil Harper (Mayne & Woodville)

After playing his junior football with Eastlake, Phil Harper moved north to Queensland where he joined Mayne.  After a successful stint with the Tigers, which included regular interstate representation, he was recruited by Woodville in 1988, the same year which saw him chosen to represent the ACT at the bicentennial Adelaide carnival.

After breaking into the Woodville senior line up midway through the 1988 season, Harper was quick to establish himself, booting 5 goals in his game, and going on to spend 3 successful years at the club, playing a total of 48 games and kicking 97 goals, besides working as the club's technical and development officer.  However, when the Warriors joined forces with West Torrens at the end of the 1990 season to form the Woodville-West Torrens Eagles, his SANFL career came to an end.  Strong overhead, and dangerous near goal, he formed useful liaisons with first, Stephen Nichols, and later Allen Jakovich on the Woodville forward line.

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Left Half Forward Flank - Shaun Smith (Ainslie, North Melbourne, Werribee, Melbourne)

Captain of the ACT's 1986 Teal Cup team, Shaun Smith achieved All Australian selection, and later in the year, having made his senior league debut for Ainslie, he also represented the ACT at senior level.  In 1988 he was a member of the ACT's state of origin team at the bicentennial interstate championship series in Adelaide, and, after spending most of the season at home with Ainslie, topped the ACTAFL's goal kicking list with 71 goals.

A year earlier, Smith had ostensibly joined North Melbourne, but his senior career with the club did not begin in earnest until 1989.  Ultimately, he went on to play a total of 47 games and kick 38 goals in an injury impeded 6 season stint.  Delisted by the 'Roos at the end of the 1992 season, he spent the next couple of years at Werribee before returning to the AFL with Melbourne in 1995, a season that would go down as far and away the most memorable of his career.  In the final home and away match of the year, the Demons were playing Brisbane at the Gabba, with the winners assured of participation in that season's finals.  Although Melbourne ultimately lost the match, the most talked about event afterwards was a spectacular, skyscraping mark taken in the Dees' goal square by none other than Shaun Smith.  Some even went so far as to dub it 'the mark of the century'.

Shaun Smith had always been a superb aerialist, which perhaps in part explains his susceptibility to injury, so the mark ought not really to have taken anyone by surprise.  However, he was much more than just a high flier.  Always the epitome of courage and desperation, he showed late in his AFL career that, had circumstances been different, he could have become one of the game's all time great full backs.  In one particular match against Geelong at Kardinia Park, he kept the redoubtable Gary Ablett, then at the peak of his prowess as a sharp shooter, goal less.  Time was fast catching up with Smith, however, and in 1998 Melbourne delisted him.  Nevertheless, he continued to perform with great energy and effectiveness at Werribee where he remained a listed player until 2004.

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