A few eyebrows were raised in an interview between Mike Sheahan and the late broadcast doyen Tony Charlton on the Open Mike program.  Charlton was emphatic.  It was a no contest. Sheahan was disbelieving, Incredulous.  John Coleman was clearly better than Wayne Carey and James Hird. Charlton saw them all live.

Soon after Charlton’s death in 2012, Martin Flanagan from The Age recalled an interview he did with the broadcaster;

When I asked his best footballer, he gave the name in one word because two words would detract from its power: "Coleman." Essendon's John Coleman played fewer than 100 games, his career ending prematurely through a knee injury. His high marking is legendary. "How can you explain to anyone today who didn't see him? He had it all - intelligent, good-looking. He had an extraordinary hold on the public imagination." He was also dead at 44 from thrombosis.

Jack Jones, Essendon’s veteran of seven Grand Finals will confirm what we probably knew.  There is Coleman, and then take your pick.  Our champion rover Bill Hutchison is often slotted in somewhere after R.S Reynolds and Coleman.  Dig deeper and Hutchison outshines Reynolds in Jones’ opinion.  James Hird’s exploits are firmly in the mind of the young generation, as they grew up with him and idolised his on-field exploits.  

Like all champions of Essendon, they had the amazing ability to ‘lift Essendon’ and to drive them over the line.  I worked with Hird for eight years and watched the drive, focus and determination to drag his teammates along with him.  His training standards were high, as were his expectations of teammates.  He changed the course of games.

Coleman and Reynolds changed the course of Essendon.  So on everyone’s assumption he comes in at number four behind Hutchy, Coley and Dick?

Well not so fast in my opinion.

During a 10-year career through the 70’s and 80’s I had a front row seat.  Well actually a back row seat, from full back and back pocket, I looked down the ground and while I wasn’t having goals kicked on me, I marvelled at two players - Tim Watson and Simon Madden.

We grew up together in the 70’s, got married and all the kids are the same age. Tim and I are grandparents.  There is a closer affinity between teammates (Madden and Watson) than there is as a coach (Hird).  

A view from looking down the ground from the coaches’ box or the view from on the ground, alongside them - I’m confident I’ve got the angles covered.

Time, of course, challenges memory and vison.  Can I rank Watson and Madden in front of Hird? Maybe not, but I certainly can’t see the evidence to rank them behind.  I’m happy to go with the historians and rank Coleman, Reynolds and Hutchison.

I saw Watson play midfield, half forward flank, centre half forward, full-forward and off the half back/wing.  He had explosive pace, was strong and tough at the football, a great handballer and had the ability to turn his opponent.  His ability to put five metres on his opponent over the ‘first ten’ was exceptional.  Watson’s ability also highlighted clean ball handling and an almost instinctive ability to find the right target by foot.  He could run and bounce the ball at full pace.  Now that is a tough skill to master.

Madden’s toughness should not be underestimated.  He began in an era with Don McKenzie just finishing, combined with the great Graham Moss and then took over as the number one ruckman.  The extraordinary stat is that Madden also scored 575 goals.  Madden rucked against the likes of Peter Jones, Carl Ditterich, his brother Justin, Mick Nolan, Mike Fitzpatrick, Gary Dempsey, Don Scott, Ron Alexander, the athletic Peter Moore and of course ‘Crackers’ Keenan.

Now I assume that’s a fair cross section of talent, experience and toughness.  He was only 198cm tall and was schooled in the art of ruckwork by John ‘Sam’ Newman.  While we laugh with, or at, Sam, one thing is for certain - he was a genius of a ruck coach, teaching Madden technique and body position.  Simon played 378 games, Tim played 307. 

I’m going Coleman, Hutchison, Reynolds, Madden, Watson and Hird as my top six.  But that’s neither here nor there.

There is an honourable mention out there and a name that doesn’t appear in Essendon’s ‘top 25’.

Robert Shaw ranks the skills of Mark Mercuri and Tim Watson very highly.

Mark Mercuri was the best player I saw in terms of influencing a game in the shortest amount of time.  None of his teammates will disagree with me.

Madden was relentless and powerful, Hird worked you into the ground then added that touch of class and Tim, well he was just Watson.

‘Mercs’ had sublime football talent.  When Mercs was on, he was as good as any of them.  Here is an example of what I mean.

In the first final of 1999 against Sydney, Mercuri only had 13 touches.  He also kicked three goals, took five marks, had two inside 50’s, eight contested possessions, five uncontested possessions and one centre clearance.  Solid day at the office from Mercs?

What the stats sheets doen’t show is that Mark limped off with a groin strain at the five-minute mark of the 2^nd quarter.  Essendon led 9.4.58 to Sydney 1.2.8.  Mercuri had closed the deal.  

No player had the capacity to finish a game off so quickly.  He was decisive, gifted, balanced and destructive.  Maximum output for minimal disposals.  ‘Mercs’ was not an 'accumulator'. ‘Mercs’ was a 'terminator', a closer.

Mark Harvey and I worked closely together in the coaches’ box. Harves would look across to me and say; ‘he’s on’.

He was only ever referring to one player.