Essendon champion Tim Watson believes that Gary Ablett Jnr is the best midfielder the game has ever seen.
Despite the Little Master’s 300th game being on hold due to a calf injury, Watson emphatically said that he is the standout in the competition, which includes the likes of Chris Judd and Carlton great Greg Williams.
“I’ve said that Gary Ablett is the best midfielder that I have seen in the time that I have been watching football full stop,” he said on SEN Breakfast.
“I have watched a lot of football and I’m talking about someone who is the complete midfielder.
“I rate him higher than the unbelievable Chris Judd, and Greg “Diesel” Williams.
“Diesel was a great distributor of the ball, he was tough and inside and all that sort of stuff, but he couldn’t run like Ablett, he was a good mark for his size, but he couldn’t mark like Gary Ablett.”
Watson said if you look at every part of his game he is the complete package.
“If you look at all of Ablett’s components, and I’ve done this before, break him down into pieces, and say what he can do?” he said.
“He’s creative, he can bring other players into the game with his creativity and his vision, he can kick the ball as well as any midfielder that has ever played the game, he can win the ball inside, he can win it on the outside, he can mark (and) he can kick goals.
“There is not a thing he couldn’t do as a midfielder.”
Geelong Falcons Talent Manager Michael Turner, who watched Ablett closely in the TAC Cup system agreed with Watson and said the Gold Coast Suns superstar on baller is a better player than his father.
“Gary Jnr is the greatest player I’ve ever seen, I played against Leigh Mathews and a whole range of Modern greats,” he said.
“I just think in the whole spectrum he the greatest I’ve seen, the gloss has probably been taken off him a bit lately because of the fact he’s had a couple of bad injuries to his shoulder, but if you go back three years when he was winning the Brownlow and all the MVP awards, I don’t think there was an argument.
“His dad was an individual great, super spectacular, but Gary, he plays a bit like Greg Williams, he helps the whole team play well.
“He plays defensively, he kicks goals, he’ s a great mark for his size you would have to go a long way to find someone better than him in his all round game.”