1980,
Spot on. Gees, this thread went everywhere over Xmas/New Year. Sorry I missed it. Barcelona beckoned.
Back to the topic. I'll be contentious here:
1. If Hart played today, we would be comparing Buckley, Hird, Voss and Hart and Hart would be best. He was that quick, freakish and tough. Given that he would play with today's fitness regime he would be an onballer who would kill the opposition. Note: He played from 1971 with one or both knees dud. The surgery in those days was poor compared to today so we never got to see him at what should have been his peak, fully fit, 1973'ish (age 23) onwards. And he still could dominate. By '75 at the age of 25 he was pretty much finished. He was playing his greatest football at the age of 19 to 22. That's like saying Judd is at his peak and will only get worse (or stay the same) from now on.
2. KB could and did avoid getting hit hard and for an inside player (and he was an inside player) of his size that took some doing. Considering he had two streaks of well over 100 games continuous tells you how durable he was. He was freakish 9and great) I just think (believe) hart was better.
3. Hart was tough. He was targetted early in pretty much every game. In those days we also had other game winners, but Hart was always the target. The opposition feared him. In today's age where the sort of targetting he got is policed and doesn't happen he would end up playing 250 to 300 games and dominating.
4. That's why, had he played 20 years later, he may have ended up being comparable with Ablett. Contradicts my earlier a post a little but I've thought about it some more. By the same token if Bartlett came along today he would be a star again as well. He would be Judd like.
I know I sound like an old geezer looking backward. I'm not. I actually love today's football as much if not more than the 70's and 80's (except for Ricmond's part in it), but great athletes and footballers from previous eras would been great footballers in todays era. And Hart and KB both qualify.
Sorry for the ramble but it's the New Year.