All-Australian Team 2004

[JohnF]

Ricciuto leads new-look All-Australian
10:00:01 PM Tue 7 September, 2004
Paul Gough
Sportal

The 2004 All-Australian side represents a changing of the guard in the AFL with several regulars of recent years missing out to make way for a staggering 12 first-timers in the competition's team of the year.

Announced on Tuesday night, it's certainly a new-look All-Australian team with household names such as Brisbane skipper Michael Voss, Collingwood's Nathan Buckley, St Kilda's Robert Harvey and Essendon's champion pair James Hird and Matthew Lloyd all missing out.

In their place come a group of newcomers just starting to make their name in the AFL, including West Coast wonderkid Chris Judd and his underrated teammate Chad Fletcher, St Kilda's rising superstar Nick Riewoldt, Essendon's much-improved defender Adam McPhee, Port's key defender Chad Cornes, Sydney pair Brett Kirk and Leo Barry and Collingwood's "Mr Reliable" James Clement.

 
 
And Sydney forward Barry Hall, Brisbane's Luke Power, Melbourne ruckman Jeff White and Carlton's Matthew Lappin have finally been rewarded for their fine careers, all winning their first All-Australian selection in 2004 after stellar seasons.

Another highlight was the fact that for the first time the captain and vice-captain of the side both play for South Australian clubs with Adelaide's Mark Ricciuto named captain and Port powerhouse Warren Tredrea given the vice-captaincy.

Tredrea also won the race to fill the team's most hotly-contested and glamorous position - centre-half-forward - ahead of Riewoldt and Brisbane's Jonathan Brown.

But yet again Brisbane has the most representatives with five despite the absence of Voss, who missed out for the first time since 1998 when he suffered a broken leg and who was captain of the All-Australian team in the past two years.

Besides first-timer Power, the other Lions included were Chris Johnson - who was named for the second time after appearing in the 2002 team - and champion midfielders Nigel Lappin, Jason Akermanis and Simon Black.

Lappin and Akermanis were both named for the fourth time and Black for the third with Lappin now having the honour of having been named in the past four All-Australian sides.

And St Kilda was also rewarded for its much-improved season with three representatives with Aussie Jones and Fraser Gehrig both making the All-Australian team for the first time since 1997 when Gehrig was with West Coast.

Gehrig won the coveted full-forward spot from Lloyd, who had been named at full-forward in five of the past six All-Australian teams, after beating the Essendon champion by one goal in the race for the Coleman Medal this season.

And Essendon's other big gun in skipper Hird, a five time All-Australian also missed out, despite several memorable performances during 2004.

And not only was there no place for All-Australian regulars Buckley, Hawthorn skipper Shane Crawford, Adelaide's Andrew McLeod and West Coast's Ben Cousins, who all endured injury-plagued seasons, but also St Kilda veteran Robert Harvey.

Harvey missed out on what would have been a record-equalling ninth All-Australian jumper despite playing a pivotal role in the Saints' rise up the ladder.

Only four clubs failed to have a representative in the 2004 All-Australian team with Fremantle, which had three representatives last year, heading that list to emphasise just how disappointing the Dockers were this season.

The others were the Kangaroos, Hawthorn and Richmond although Kangaroos' skipper Adam Simpson was one of a number of midfielders unlucky to miss out while Hawthorn ruckman Peter Everitt was also unlucky not to get a place on the interchange bench after missing out on the number one ruck spot to Melbourne's Jeff White.

THE 2004 ALL-AUSTRALIAN TEAM:

Backs C Johnson (Brisbane Lions) M Scarlett (Geelong) L Barry (Sydney)
Half Backs A Jones (St Kilda) C Cornes (Port Adelaide) A McPhee (Essendon)
Centres N Lappin (Brisbane Lions) S Black (Brisbane Lions) C Judd (West Coast Eagles)
Half Forwards J Akermanis (Brisbane Lions) W Tredrea (vice-captain - Port Adelaide) N Riewoldt (St Kilda)
Forwards B Hall (Sydney) F Gehrig (St Kilda) L Power (Brisbane Lions)
Ruck J White (Melbourne), M Ricciuto (captain - Adelaide) S West (Western Bulldogs)
I/change J Clement (Collingwood) C Fletcher (West Coast Eagles) B Kirk (Sydney) M Lappin (Carlton

[bg25]

Regardless of the fact that he was dropped for a game, I think that Bowden had a better year off the half back than Clement. Joel only had a tidy 194 more possesions more than James from one less game and played on a wider variety of players. In fact James only beat Joel in one stat...free kicks against.

[JohnF]

I'm not surprised that Bowden and Brown missed out, even though they would have both probably made the team if Richmond happened to be in the 8, but how the f**k did Leo Barry make the team? You could definitely make a case for Bowden over Barry and Clement. The selection panel probably stil have reverberations of Malthouses' woody over how brave a player Clement is. And they probably wanted to 'Australianise' the team by including 3 swans. 

I also think Simon Black got in on reputation. He has been good this year, but not great.

I think Peter Everitt has been better than Jeff White, though both should have been in the team.

Players like Philip Matera, Cameron Ling and Paul Haselby were unlucky to miss.

LMFAOOOOO@Lloyd kicking 90 odd goals and missing out. Bummers must have loved that!

[mightytiges]

Joel would've missed out since he played CHB for most of the second half of the year. So no way he would be ahead of Cornes. Brown was fantastic earlier in the year but his later half was nothing to write home about.

How Hall got in ahead of Lloyd god only knows  ???. Lloyd missed out on AA by 1 goal lol.

Agree with John with having Everitt ahead of White. They definitely favoured not surprisingly the top sides. I would've had Everitt as first ruck and White on the bench. If you were picking a real side you would pick 2 ruckman.
 
Lappin deserved a starting 18 spot ahead of Barry in a back pocket.