Whateley
Collingwood's road to contention - The Eminently Sensible Phil Davis | Whateley (10.06.26)
10 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
We've got a pretty jammed up last hour here. I wanted to touch base with Phil Davis, as we do every Wednesday. The eminently sensible Phil Davis. We've given him the Collingwood assignment this week, but not before we talk Hall of Fame. Phil, welcome back.
Gerard, great to be here.
Chapter 2: What insights does Phil Davis share about the Hall of Fame?
Gary Ablett into the Australian Football Hall of Fame. Two startups, two captains, and little Gaz is right there.
Yes, a couple of things in common, Gerard, but an important one that he's 10 times the player I was and was rightfully looked after last night. I loved Gary. I was an unashamed admirer when we played against Gary. I just loved it.
Chapter 3: How does Phil Davis evaluate Gary Ablett's career?
I just thought he was just incredible. I was most of my time a spectator when I played against Gary. I thought he was the best player that I played against in the 21st century. Yeah, he was just remarkable on all fronts and then also just a beautiful human that I thought came out in his speech last night. Just a humble, yeah, soul of the earth guy. He's just remarkable. I just love him.
What made him great in your eye?
He's the most consistent player I've seen. And what I really loved about the story was he was this remarkable player at Geelong and everyone said, oh, he'll go to the Gold Coast, he'll really struggle, you know, blah, blah. And he was even better.
Yes.
It was almost as though, like, to an extent, it highlighted that to a lesser degree, he was suppressing his game at Geelong to make the bigger engine purr. Pardon the pun, Gerard. But he... That's the bit that I found also amazing, but he was just, he kicked goals, Gerard, like just kicked so many goals from the midfield.
We tagged him one day and we said we did a good job and he had 35 and three. And we won the game. And I remember being like, yeah, we actually did because theoretically he could have had 50 and five. Yeah, I think his consistency was remarkable. Yeah. And the consistency, we lauded Scott Penelope the other week just for how consistent he's been.
Gary's consistency was a 20% higher than Scott's, I think, in output. I just thought what Gary did was as good as I've seen. The only comparable player of the 21st century in my mind is Buddy Franklin. That's because he played a different position. In a competition dominated by midfielders, he's, to me, the best midfielder.
And so when you compare it to Scarlett or Franklin or whoever you want to do that doesn't play midfield, that's a discussion I'm willing to have. But if we go purely midfield, he's the best midfielder I've seen. Nice.
And it was a lot to take on, wasn't it? At least in your time with Cal Ward, the team rose and played finals. He did the hardest years where the promise didn't amount. Whatever he was sold, it didn't come to fruition.
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