Right Half Forward Flank - Peter Daicos (Collingwood)

A highly skilled footballer, Daicos, who was known as 'The Macedonian Marvel' because of his parents' country of birth, was much more than just a goalsneak.  He played much of his career on the ball or in the centre where his anticipation, balance and superlative ball handling ability made him a real force.  Former Essendon rover John Birt paid Daicos a rare compliment by comparing his ball handling skill to that of Darrel Baldock and Alex Jesaulenko and it is doubtful if the sport has seen more than half a dozen or so comparably skilled individuals in its entire history.  Peter Daicos' bracketing with such illustrious names is entirely warranted, however.

Recruited from Preston RSL, Daicos made his VFL debut as a centreman in round 4 1979 against St Kilda, racking up 28 possessions as the Magpies surged to a record 31.21 (207) to 3.11 (29) victory.  Thereafter, apart from injury setbacks, which included a full knee reconstruction on one occasion, he never looked back.  When he retired in 1993 he had played a total of precisely 250 league games and kicked 549 goals, besides winning Copeland Trophies in 1982 and 1988, and topping his club's goal kicking list on four occasions.  He was also a regular Victorian state of origin representative.  The highlight of Daicos' career came in 1990 when he was a member of Collingwood's first premiership team for thirty-two years.  He was included in a forward pocket in the Magpies' official 'Team of the Twentieth Century'.

Centre Half Forward - Laurie Nash (City-South, South Melbourne, Camberwell)

Many of Nash's opponents would be inclined to agree with this assessment.  Despite being a mere 175 centimetres in height there have been few better high marking centre half forwards in the history of the game.  Added to his aerial prowess were pace, excellent ball control, and the ability to kick long and accurately with either foot.  Champion Collingwood goalsneak Gordon Coventry opined that Nash would have been the most prolific full forward of all time had he been stationed permanently at the goalfront.  The 18 goals which he managed against South Australia on one occasion appeared to endorse this opinion.  (However, the widely propounded myth that Nash achieved this feat in less than 3 quarters of football is precisely that - a myth.  Contemporary reports, such as that published in 'the Melbourne Herald' on the evening of the match, confirm that Nash booted 2 of the VFL's 9 opening quarter goals plus 2 more in the 2nd term ]see footnote 1].)

Prior to his VFL stint, Nash achieved considerable notoriety with NTFA club City, playing a total of 45 senior games between 1930 and 1932, including the winning local and state grand finals of both 1930 and 1932.  He won the Tasman Shield Trophy as the competition's best and fairest player in 1931 and 1932, and was a regular representative player, appearing 10 times for Northern Tasmanian combinations, as well as in all 5 of Tasmania's matches at the 1930 Adelaide carnival (see footnote 2).

Arguably Nash's best years as a footballer were spent with Camberwell where he kicked over 400 goals in just four seasons.

In 2004, Laurie Nash's immense contribution to Tasmanian football was recognised with his selection at centre half back in the official 'Team of the Century' for that state.  A year earlier he had been placed at centre half forward in both South Melbourne's and Camberwell's equivalent teams. In the City/City-South 'Team of the Century', named in 2002, he was chosen at centre half back, the position he filled during most of his Tasmanian sojourn.  More recently, in 2006, he was named as a legend in Tasmanian Football's official Hall of Fame.

Left Half Forward Flank - Gary Ablett (Hawthorn & Geelong)

Geelong managed to lure Ablett back to the big time in 1984 and this time he knuckled down to eventually become arguably football's biggest superstar of the late '80s and early '90s.  Ablett's spectacularly eye-catching style of play made the 'superstar' tag sit comfortably.  Few players in the game's history have combined such extravagant high marking skills, explosive pace, and prodigious two-sided kicking ability, much of it attributed to his inordinately high concentration of 'fast twitch' muscles.

A notoriously poor trainer, this did not prevent him from producing football of unparalleled genius on match days.  Early in his career in particular, it was sometimes said that he was susceptible under pressure, but this was belied by a sequence of consistently brilliant performances for the Big V, and most notably of all by his stunning best afield performance in a losing team in the 1989 VFL grand final against Hawthorn.  Ablett did virtually everything short of winning the match off his own boot that day, marking almost everything that came his way, and booting a grand final record 9 goals as the Cats got to within 6 points of achieving a major upset.

Towards the end of his career, when it appeared that he was beginning to slow down slightly, he began to play almost exclusively at the goalfront, and with tallies of 124 goals in 1993, 129 in 1994 and 122 in 1995 secured the Coleman Medal on three successive occasions. He was Geelong's leading goal kicker nine times, and achieved AFL All Australian selection in 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995.  

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Ablett only won Geelong's top accolade once, in his debut season of 1984.  However, some players arguably transcend objective forms of commendation like best and fairest awards, and Gary Ablett was most emphatically one of those. 

When he retired at the end of the 1996 season he had added 242 senior league games for Geelong to the half a dozen he had played with the Hawks.  All but 9 of his career tally of 1,030 goals were booted for the Cats.  Ablett's interstate career comprised 11 state of origin games for Victoria.  In 2001 he was named on a half forward flank in Geelong's official 'Team of the Century'.

Three times a Coleman Medallist late in his career, Ablett surprisingly only won Geelong's top accolade once, in his debut season of 1984.  However, some players arguably transcend objective forms of recognition like best and fairest awards, and Gary Ablett was most emphatically one of those.