COLLINGWOOD president Eddie McGuire has described as a "disgrace" the AFL's All-Australian squad of 40, which does not contain a single Magpie player.
The squad from which the final 22 all-Australians will be selected is highlighted by Geelong's nine nominees and the failure by three clubs — Carlton, Melbourne and sixth-placed Collingwood — to gain a nomination.
"It's a disgrace — we're sick of it," said McGuire, who added that the Magpies were tired of being overlooked in official teams, after missing out for the AFL team of the century.
"I said to our coach, 'You watch, we'll get it in the neck again'," McGuire said. "You've got to be joking — not one of the Collingwood players are among the top 40 players of the year?"
McGuire said that if no Collingwood player was worthy of the squad, then Mick Malthouse must surely be the coach of the year. "If that's the case, then Mick Malthouse must be Vince Lombardi, Jock McHale and Alex Ferguson rolled into one.
"You would have thought they would have learned their lesson from the team of the century. That was an absolute disgrace."
McGuire said it was a "farce" and that "the AFL needs to totally review their selection criteria in a number of areas". Last year, Collingwood had one All-Australian, small forward Alan Didak.
Selector Gerard Healy said Collingwood midfielder Tarkyn Lockyer was particularly unlucky to miss out on the final squad of 40. "He was one of the last two or three to be knocked out," Healy said on 3AW last night. The All-Australian selectors are Healy, Kevin Bartlett, Robert Walls, Mark Bickley, Chris Mainwaring, AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou, football operations manager Adrian Anderson and football administration manager Rod Austin.
Geelong's domination of the competition has been reflected in the All-Australian nominee squad. The Cats have more than double the representation of the next best teams — Hawthorn and Port Adelaide (four each). The Brisbane Lions, the Kangaroos, St Kilda, Sydney and West Coast have three nominees each, Essendon, Fremantle and Richmond have two apiece and the Western Bulldogs one.
Under the new system for selecting an All-Australian team, the selectors chose a squad of 40 comprised of 12 defenders, 12 forwards and 16 midfielders or ruckmen.
The final 22 will be comprised of six defenders, six forwards, six midfielders, a ruck and four interchange.
Remarkably, the distinguished careers of Jonathan Brown, Daniel Kerr and Scott Lucas have not resulted in All-Australian selection before.
From the 40-player squad, the 22 players who have not been All-Australians before are Jed Adcock (Brisbane), Nathan Foley (Richmond), Campbell Brown, Lance Franklin, Sam Mitchell (Hawthorn), Sam Fisher (St Kilda), Roger Hayden (Fremantle), Nick Malceski (Sydney), Matthew Egan, Darren Milburn, Steven Johnson, Cameron Mooney, Gary Ablett, James Bartel, Joel Corey, Cameron Ling (Geelong), Brett Ebert (Port Adelaide), Corey Jones, Hamish McIntosh (Kangaroos), Lucas (Essendon), Brown (Brisbane Lions) and Kerr (West Coast).
