Ben Graham honoured at Geelong yesterday

Did he have chewy on his boot?

 

:rofl: I can't wait to hear about his reaction when one of you guys yells that to him at training camp.
I'd be very surprised if you don't get a big :up: from him.

 

Nice to see his daughter (I presume) wearing her dad's jersey.

Question to the Aussies: who would you equate Graham in the Aussie Football league to in the NFL. That is, was he good enough in Aussie to be considered a Ladanian Tomlinson, Peyton Manning, Steve Smith caliber player, or was he a step below the elite in Aussie Football?

 

When I was there I was told that he could kick goals from 20m outside the 50m line. On the AFL pitch there is a crease that resembles a 3 pt line but its 50m from the goal, and if you catch your teammates kick inside that line you are allowed to mark it and have an unimpeded kick at the goals. Well, Ben apparently didn;t even need to get inside that line, and when he caught a pass outside the 50, he'd kick it through the posts instead of trying to pass it closer to one of his teammates. When I was in Australia I might have seen 1 or 2 goals kicked from outside the 50 and I was told by people that Graham did it alot.....

 

For some reason, they look like really good and genuine people.

 

Mickey, i don't have the knowledge on NFL players to answer that but I did answer a question on his standing in Aussie rules just the other day.

There is a thread in the BS section called Ben Graham- honoured by the Cats.
Here is what I wrote if you can't find it. it was generally agreed by the Aussies as pretty spot on.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ThunderbirdJet
That's pretty cool. Let me ask you Aussies, in the history of the game, where does Graham stand? Is he in the top 100 of all time? Higher, lower? I've seen some detractors here, regarding his AFL standing.... just how good was he?


Ok, this is just my opinion (un-biased), but I believe it would be generally agreed by the bulk the AFL community. The Geelong suporters here may not agree.

Character/Leadership, A +

Anyone who plays over 200 games and 10+ seasons of AFL can obviously play. I would say that Grahams major strength would be his leadership on and off the field. Of course I have no first hand experience but it is obvious the guy had/has a lot of respect around the club. Anyone who is made Captain of his club is a great leader, motivator and well respected. I dont think anyone would argue this.

Ability, B-

Friends who are Geelong fans would wonder which Ben Graham would turn up to play. There was the guy who could dominate his position and his opponent.
Great hands and a huge leg. It is not necessarily an important attribute to have a huge leg in AFL. Accuracy is far more inportant and Graham was fine in this way. The only position on the field that a big leg really helps is at Full Back, where Graham played adequately. It is the key defensive position where the Full Back plays one on one against the Full forward, who is often the glamour player on the team trying to score as many goals as possible.
But it is fair to say he was not a consistant performer IMO.
Sometimes he just plain stunk. All in all his inconsistency cost him from becoming a real superstar.

In his 12 or so years he averaged around 9th in his teams best and fairest award. Allowing for years interupted by injury his real position would be around 6th i recon. He won it one year and came second once. There are around 30 players who might play each year with a core group of 20 if uninjured would play every game.

He did not make Geelongs 'team of the century'. This is the best 20 Geelong players from 1900 to 2000.
Considering there are 16 teams, 12 of which have long histories (70+ years)
you can see he would not be classed anywhere historys top 100.

I would say that he would have been in the top 50-100 rated players in any given year (approx 500 playing in the league). This would be an average. In his best years he might have been rated in the best 20 players that year.

As you know TBJ he is only using his leg (and hands a bit as the holder) in the NFL. These are his best features and he is applying them very well. It's just that AFL requires a lot more than this BUT,

This next bit is all that really matters to the Jets.

As a kicker of the football (distance+hangtime+accuracy) Graham is as good as anyone will get out of Australia.
__________________

 

Yeah, hard to fathom isn't it?:smile:

 

They are, knew Ben when he was a younger bloke. Have met his mum a couple of times.

Comes from Leopold, just outside Geelong, population about 5000 (Geelong is about 200,000)

basically a country boy without too much (obvious) ego, just loves footy

 

Graham was a good big man in the AFL.....there are precious few of them around. I think last year if Geelong had of had Graham with them they would have won the Premiership. The Cats desperately wanted Graham to stay....they know his type of player don't grow on trees. Teams like West Coast would be transformed by having a marking forward of Graham's type in their ranks. The value of a big player in the AFL is not really what they contribute individually; but what they contribute to the team. Having a target to fire at in the forward line means the opposition team generally has to 'double up' on the big player, leaving other players free to create scoring opportunities. Further, Graham could play down back as well; filling in the 'hole' that leading opposition players need to get too to get the ball.

I have no doubt that at the time Graham left Australia he would have walked into any other AFL club: Graham is the type player who makes players around him 'play better', even if he wasn't racking up stats like others. He really should have an AFL Premiership medallion around his neck....but the Jets got him first.

 

DONT EVER BAG GRAHAM AGAIN OR ILL RIP YOUR BALLS OFF SO YOU CANNOT CONTAMINATE THE REST OF THE WORLD. im serious