SEN Breakfast’s Garry Lyon and Tim Watson have named their toughest players of the 1980s and 1990s.
Inspired by a suggestion that the 80s was the toughest era of footy, the former Melbourne and Essendon captains selected the toughest players from the decades they were most prominent in.
Lyon, who played 226 games between 1986 to 1999, described his criteria for toughness: “Mine’s not about punching blokes in the head or knocking them out.
“Eyes on the footy, not flinching when you know you are in imminent danger, that’s my definition.”
Watson, who notched 307 games between 1977 and 1994, added: “Never showing any fear on the footy field is toughness, and harnessing the fear.”
Lyon’s 6 toughest of the 90s
Gavin Brown (Collingwood)
Glenn Archer (North Melbourne)
Paul Kelly (Sydney)
Duncan Kellaway (Richmond)
Michael Voss (Brisbane)
Stephen Silvagni (Carlton)
Watson’s 6 toughest of the 80s
Bernard Toohey (Geelong/Sydney/Footscray)
John Worsfold (West Coast)
Gary Ayres (Hawthorn)
Gary Ablett Snr (Hawthorn/Geelong)
Mark Harvey (Essendon)
Ken Hunter (Carlton)
