Healy: The eight All-Australian locks right now

How many players, at Round 8, have locked themselves in right now if an All-Australian side was to be picked?

There’s a lot of guys having good seasons, but I’m talking seasons where there’s no debate.

You’re straight in, you walk in, you put their magnets up, no one even looks at them.

Nick Blakey, ‘The Lizard’, is one of those.

He’d be just about the first magnet stuck up on the whiteboard.

Then I can see five, six or maybe seven others but gee it’s tough to go beyond that.

I reckon Kozzy Pickett is a certainty, Marcus Bontempelli is a certainty, Isaac Heeney is a certainty, there’s no debate about Nick Daicos, Christian Petracca is straight up - he’s probably got 12 Brownlow votes, could win it. Zak Butters is nearly there, maybe he is there.

Then you’ve got the backs. You’ve got Harris Andrews who is flying, Aliir Aliir is flying, Cal Wilkie is flying, Tom Barrass is flying, Alex Pearce is flying, Tom McCartin is having his best season ever. So how you pick an absolute certainty out of that lot is going to be tough going.

It’s the same as the rucks. Some really good players are going to be missing, let alone small defenders and wingmen who are really tough to pick at the best of times.

And the job doesn’t get any easier. When you’re looking for small forwards, you’ve got the best celebrator in the business Tom Papley having a good year, Izak Rankine is struggling so he’s no certainty, Jack Higgins is going well, Shai Bolton is on the march and could well be a certainty. But he plays more midfield than he does forward.

Kade Chandler having a career-best year, Charlie Cameron is on fire, and ‘The Wizard’ Nick Watson is straight up on the board. Then of course, here comes Malcolm Rosas.

That makes about eight certainties that I’ve got. Good luck trying to pick more than that.

In the middle you’ve got about six choices, but that’s it. If Kozzy, Bont, Heeney, Daicos, Petracca and Butters are already in then guess what? There’s no room for anyone else.