Where does Travis Boak rank among the all-time Port Adelaide greats ahead of game 350?
That was the question put to AFL legend Malcolm Blight by SEN SA co-host David Wildy.
Looking specifically at Port Adelaide’s AFL era from 1997 to the present, Blight ranks Boak inside the top five of any player to pull on the Power guernsey.
The only players Blight thinks are definitely ahead of the veteran are 2004 premiership skipper Warren Tredrea and Brownlow Medallist Gavin Wanganeen.
Wildy: “He’s a great man, ‘Boaky’, no one says a bad word about him.”
Blight: “I go back to the draft year 2006 he was drafted, and he went pick number five.
“Right now, he's in the top five players of Port Adelaide AFL’s history.”
Wildy: “He's definitely in the top five. Where does Malcolm put him from number one to five?”
Blight: “I still think Warren Tredrea was the best player that I'd seen (play for the Power) and Wanganeen number two.
“He may be three, four or five.”
Wildy: “I think he’s three. Look at the longevity, All-Australians, best and fairests, number of games.”
Blight: “I think you're right.
“And you know what? I think if you’re in the top handful of anything, it’s better than handy.
“If you are in the top five of anything, you get a mention everywhere.”
Port Adelaide assistant coach Tyson Goldsack thinks the thing that makes Boak so great is his elite preparation.
Goldsack says that the Power use Boak as an example-setter for the club’s younger players and he compared the veteran’s off-field work to his former Collingwood teammate and fellow AFL great Scott Pendlebury.
“I played against him a lot but thankfully not as a matchup because he runs a lot,” Goldsack said on Sportsday SA.
“But his professionalism, his drive and his want to continue to compete at his age with the number of miles he's got in his legs, it's pretty remarkable.
“It's no coincidence that he can continue to do it. What he does at home away from the club is elite and then what he does at the club is equally as elite.
“He's a guy that we've used in recent years to educate the young players coming in to say, ‘If you do a fraction of what he is doing, then you're probably going to be in a pretty good spot as an AFL footballer’.
“Scott Pendlebury from my point of view when I played with him, he was as good as I'd seen, and Travis Boak is right there if not better.”
Boak was Port Adelaide’s captain from 2013 to 2018. He’s a three-time All-Australian and two-time best and fairest winner.
Game 350 for Boak comes against Richmond at the MCG on Sunday afternoon.
