Five-time Hawthorn premiership forward Dermott Brereton considers Tom Lynch of the Gold Coast Suns to be above all else as the best player in the AFL.
Brereton says that the 24-year-old would be the first player the Hawks legend would pick if he had to start a new club, taking over that mantle from Swans star Lance Franklin due to his age.
“(Lynch) is the best player in the comp,” Brereton said on SEN’s The Run Home.
“If you gave me an open chequebook and said start a club, who do you want to buy first? Tom Lynch is my number one target. Bar none…The best player at your club to build around, it is Tom Lynch.
“He is extraordinary. He took the most contested marks last year in a team which was in the bottom four and they kicked it into the forward line like puff bags, they were hopeless.
“He works the hardest out of every key forward, he has the best hands. He is a bit robotic in his kicking nature but he runs hard, works hard, he’s aggressive and just marks anything above head height in his area.”
Click here to view Tom Lynch's SEN Inside Football AFL Player Ratings.
The Fox Footy analyst also expects that Gold Coast defender Sam Day will not return this year from his horrific dislocated hip injury sustained in the club’s JLT Community Series fixture against Brisbane on Sunday.
Brereton sustained a similar hip dislocation late in 1991, which he says effectively ruined his career as he never felt the same following the injury.
However the Hawthorn legend is hopeful that advances in medical technology since his surgery will allow Day to return to his best once he recovers.
“That hip injury ruined my career…I never felt the same again,” said Brereton.
“Having said that, we’re talking 25 years ago so the technology as to how to treat this and how to repair it under surgery is through the roof. Mine was the first time they ever operated on that area for a footballer.
“I’d feel confident that he’ll come back, but being a big hip injury that I’ve got first-hand experience of, I feel for the lad. I would say there is no hope of him coming back this year.”
Click here to view Sam Day's SEN Inside Football AFL Player Ratings.