{"id":103101,"date":"2025-08-29T00:00:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T00:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/103101\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T00:00:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T00:00:16","slug":"inside-the-room-at-the-afl-awards-all-australian-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/103101\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the room at the AFL Awards, All-Australian dinner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Daicos was named on the bench. Of all the mistakes the AFL has made throughout the year (and there have been many), the biggest error of the year was saved for the All-Australian selectors, who put the best player in the competition (by some distance) on the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho do you want out of the midfield?\u201d an AA selector said to me after my exasperated rant. \u201cAnyone,\u201d I responded. I mean, it\u2019s not like the midfield was Buckley, Voss, Judd. It was Noah Anderson, Jordan Dawson, Ed Richards. Yes, Jordan has had a great year, but he\u2019s an overrated kick.<\/p>\n

\"Nick<\/p>\n

Nick Daicos arrives at the AFL Awards. He won the players\u2019 MVP, but couldn\u2019t crack a spot on the field in the AA team.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

And I know Champion Data has gone mental for Richards; he\u2019s taken his game to another level, but he also gets to play second fiddle to \u201cthe Bont\u201d most weeks. Daicos, at 21, is basically carrying a team on his shoulders. And the selectors put him on the bench.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d actually be less offended if they omitted him from the team altogether. At least then you\u2019d know it was a genuine error. This just feels more like we are being trolled. And while I\u2019m at it, the other bench warmers in this team? Bont, Matt Rowell and Caleb Serong.<\/p>\n

Four mids? I guess no key player is getting a rest when they play their imaginary game, then. Cool, cool, cool. Rant over.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a bit of who\u2019s who action from the dinner\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Swans<\/p>\n

Swans star Isaac Heeney and partner Steffi Waters arrive together.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\"St<\/p>\n

St Kilda\u2019s $2 million man Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera (right).Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\"Max<\/p>\n

Max and Jessica Gawn make their entrance.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Daicos was named on the bench. Of all the mistakes the AFL has made throughout the year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-103101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}