Herald Sun | THE great debate is on: who are the ultimate coodabeen country footy champions?
Local footy aficionados are putting their favourites forward after the Herald Sun set about naming the best country footballers of the last 25 years.
Even Western Bulldogs skipper Bob Murphy has chimed in with a vote for Gippsland’s Ben Soumilas.
But Soumilas, the All-Australian captain’s brother-in-law, said his younger brother Andy or former teammate Lincoln Withers would be more deserving of legend status.
Sydney premiership player Luke Ablett also said Andy Soumilas deserved to be on the list.
The nuggety left-footer won four league best and fairests playing with Garfield and Drouin.
Brisbane premiership player Tim Notting put forward Jason Mifsud’s name.
Mifsud, a premiership coach at Koroit, is now the AFL’s head of diversity.
Herald Sun reader Andrew nominated Trevor Ryan, remembering when the “absolute gun” racked up nearly 50 touches in an interleague match representing the former Mid-Murray League.
He said Benalla star Robert Johnson was also worthy of a nod, describing him as “a footballing machine” even with knee injuries.
Brent said Sunraysia League gun Gary Robinson was unlucky to miss out after winning eight best-and-fairests and a league medal.
Phil talked up Northern United’s Gerard Geary who he said kicked four goals in his only reserve game for Carlton.
“Hated the big smoke and came home,” Phil said.
Russell said former Geelong Football League player Mal Eddy was the “best local player” he’d seen.
“Tough hard quick, played in the 80s when football was a man’s game,” Russell said.
To mark the 25th anniversary of the Herald Sun, we went in search of the best Victorian country footballers of the past 25 years.
We asked each of AFL Victoria’s country regions to submit the names of three players. Some came back to us within hours. Others formed committees and subcommittees and spent weeks whittling down their lists, then still sent us four names.
The selection criteria was simple: A few games in the AFL was OK, but the players had to be best known for their feats in the country.
It was never going to be an exact science and we expect to be inundated with correspondence about the players we left out. But we ended up with a list not just of great players, but stories that highlight everything that is special about country footy. We found tales of bravery, bad luck, triumph and tragedy.
Stories such as Ryan O’Sullivan, the ruckman from Tooleybuc-Manangatang who was diagnosed with bowel cancer a month before his wife was due to give birth to the couple’s second child.
O’Sullivan not only beat the disease, he returned to the field where he won last year’s Jack Betts Medal as the best player in the Central Murray Football League.
There are stories of broken dreams, such as Adrian Burgiel who was on the cusp of selection at Richmond, only to break his collarbone in a car crash the week before the season’s first game.
He returned home to Maffra where he and brother Hayden became two of Gippsland football’s biggest stars.
Photographer Colleen Petch spent months on the road.
Then there’s Dan Jordan, surely the only footballer to ever kick two goals with a broken back, and Ben Goodall, whose Leo Barry-style mark in the Hampden Football League grand final is still being talked about 12 years after it won Koroit the 2003 flag.
So who’s the best? We will leave that up to you to decide. We just hope you enjoy reading their stories as much as we enjoyed bringing them to you.
By Samantha Landy, Chad Van Estrop, Matt Cunningham, Tom Minear
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