'We play a team game': Wayne Carey stuns AFL fans with Gary Ablett Sr ranking on top 20 list
AFL legend Wayne Carey has explained how Gary Ablett Sr's inability to make his teammates around him better is why he doesn't rank higher on his top 20 players list.
Carey stunned AFL fans when he his list of the top 20 players since 1987 saw the Geelong icon rank ninth, behind the likes of Jason Dunstall, Chris Judd and Michael Voss.
The Kangaroos great didn't list himself as one of the best 20 players since 1987, naming Dunstall as the greatest, ahead of Voss, James Hird, Tony Lockett and Judd in the top five.
"For me, yes Gary Ablett Sr was in many people's eyes the greatest player ever, but unfortunately we play a team game," Carey told The Age's Real Footy Podcast.
248 games and 1031 goals only got Gary Ablett Sr to ninth all-time on Wayne Carey's list Getty
"He's an unbelievably great individual, but I don't necessarily think he made the teammates around him better. So that's why I had Gary Ablett Sr at No.9 and not higher."
While he didn't rank Ablett as high as many would, given that he is widely considered one of the best players to ever set foot on an AFL field, Carey admitted that the Geelong great was "the most spectacular" player of all time.
"He's the most spectacular player we've ever seen play the game," he said.
"If you wanted to watch the Gaz show, you'd put up some highlights of him and sit back and have a couple of hours of just pure joy. He was a sensational player."
Ablett's son, Gary Jr, ranked just 19th on Carey's list behind players with less accolades such as Glen Jakovich, Andrew McLeod and Matthew Richardson.
Anthony Koutoufides and Ange Christou celebrate Carlton's 1995 premiership win Getty
Carey also left out Carlton legend Anthony Koutoufides, saying that the 1995 premiership winner didn't sustain his best football for long enough.
"I think Kouta's best was as good as anyone's best," Carey said.
"In the 90s I remember those prelims. The prelim he played against the Bombers (in 1999) to get them into a Grand Final was just heroic.
"He was magnificent, but I think Kouta's longevity at the top wasn't like some of these other players.
"I think Kouta had two brilliant years and some other good years, but didn't string 8-11 years of really consistent high-level football (together), but his best was as good as anyone's".
Tony Lockett playing for the Sydney Swans in 1999. (Getty) Getty
Carey's selection of Dunstall ahead of the AFL's all-time leading goalkicker Lockett also raised eyebrows, but he said Dunstall's pressure won him the nod.
"Plugger (Lockett) was team-orientated, there's no question about that, he did have that element to his game," he said.
"I've always said it, I sat back and watched both of those guys even though I played some footy against them, I thought Dunstall was more team-orientated.
"I thought he was ahead of his game in terms of putting pressure on as a full-forward.
"He was chasing and tackling and doing those things that other full-forwards probably weren't doing.
"He's an unbelievably strong mark and I would argue that if he didn't do his knee and have a fractured skull, that we'd be looking at the all-time leading goalkicker of our game."
