Four Swans for All Australian

By Will Dempsey

Josh Kennedy, Kieran Jack, Ted Richards and Lewis Jetta have all been named in the extend squad of forty for All Australian selection.

The Swans players named have never been selected before in an All Australian side, a key reflection of their performance in the sides top four finish in 2012.

New blood has been breed into the extended squad, with the majority of players never been previously named in the All Australian side.

The big names to miss out included Carlton’s dual Brownlow medalist Chris Judd, veteran Western Bulldogs midfielder Matthew Boyd and Hawthorn defender Josh Gibson.

Adelaide and Geelong boast the most the names in this year’s extend squad with five players each, with Sydney, Hawthorn, Richmond and West Coast representing four a piece.

Matthew Pavlich vying for his seventh All Australian selection and Gary Abblett going for a consecutive sixth selection will most likely fight it out for the All Australian captaincy.

The squad selected by the All Australian Selection Committee will be cut down to 22 and announced on Monday September 17 at the All Australian Selection dinner, held in Melbourne.

A total of how 24 members of the squad have never previously been named as an All Australian while Fremantle captain Matthew Pavlich, with six previous All Australian selections, is the most decorated player in the squad. Gold Coast captain Gary Ablett has been selected in the last five consecutive All Australian teams, while the Geelong Cats’ Corey Enright has been selected in the last four consecutive years.

The final team 22 will be selected to best fit team balance as if to play a match. 

2012 ALL-AUSTRALIAN SQUAD

ADELAIDE
Patrick Dangerfield, Sam Jacobs, Brent Reilly, Scott Thompson, Taylor Walker.
CARLTON
Eddie Betts.
COLLINGWOOD
Dayne Beams, Scott Pendlebury, Dane Swan.
ESSENDON
Jobe Watson.
FREMANTLE
Luke McPharlin, Matthew Pavlich.
GEELONG
Corey Enright, Tom Hawkins, Tom Lonergan, Joel Selwood, Harry Taylor.
GOLD COAST
Gary Ablett.
HAWTHORN
Grant Birchall, Lance Franklin, Sam Mitchell, Cyril Rioli.
NORTH MELBOURNE
Drew Petrie, Andrew Swallow.
RICHMOND
Trent Cotchin, Brett Deledio, Ivan Maric, Jack Riewoldt.
ST KILDA
Sean Dempster, Lenny Hayes, Stephen Milne, Nick Riewoldt.
SYDNEY
Kieren Jack, Lewis Jetta, Josh Kennedy, Ted Richards.
WEST COAST
Dean Cox, Darren Glass, Nic Naitanui, Beau Waters.

“Selection in the Four’N Twenty All Australian team is recognition for a tremendous year of football, as the best player in your position across the entire competition,” AFL CEO Mr Andrew Demetriou said. “All Australian selection is a great honour also because of the quality of those players you have competed against, to win your spot, and the selectors nominted the 40-best players of the year to highlight the outstanding players who are in contention for selection as one of the elite players of the season,” he said.The All Australian Selection panel is Andrew Demetriou (chairman), Adrian Anderson, Kevin Bartlett, Luke Darcy, Danny Frawley, Gerard Healy, Glen Jakovich and Mark Ricciuto.