Eleven Blokes Who Made the Sky Their Business

There is no moment in Australian rules football quite like a screamer. That split-second when a bloke launches himself off another bloke’s shoulders and plucks the ball out of the sky — pure, uncut footy magic that makes even opposition fans forget to stay bitter.

I have spent a lifetime watching the Pies and I can tell you, there is nothing that gets the MCG trembling like a towering grab. So let’s settle in and talk about teh eleven blokes who did it better than anyone else.

What Makes a True Aerialist?

Before we get stuck in, let’s define what we’re talking about. Not just a bloke who takes plenty of marks. We’re talking about the ones who redefined what was physically possible, who made the pack a launching pad, who had that rare combination of timing, courage and raw athleticism that separates the good from the legendary.

These are the players who made you drop your pie. And at the footy, nothing makes you drop your pie.

Modra — The Standard That Others Are Judged By

We have to start here. Tony Modra is, for many of us who watched through the nineties, the single most exciting player to have ever taken a contested mark. The Adelaide forward had spring in those legs that seemed genuinely unfair.

His 1993 screamer — you know the one — is probably the most replayed mark in the game’s history. The guy just launched. He didn’t climb opponents so much as use them as a suggestion. Modra at his peak was a full-blown spectacle every time he ran into a contest, and that is not something you can manufacture. That is God-given footy brilliance.

Doesn’t mean I enjoyed watching him kick goals against us. But fair is fair.

Peter Ditterich — The Original

You cannot have this conversation without the bloke who arguably started it all. Peter Ditterich of St Kilda was climbing blokes and hauling in screamers long before it became the internet moment it is today. Playing through the sixties and seventies, Ditterich was the prototype — a genuine high-flyer who made the speccy part of the mainstream footy vocabulary.

If Modra is the bloke you show your kids, Ditterich is the bloke you tell your kids about. His legacy runs through every spectacular mark taken in this game since.

Mark Williams — Pies Fans Know

Now we’re talking. Choco Williams before he became a beloved coach was an absolute monster in the air for Collingwood. Opponents dreaded a Williams contest because the man was fearless. He’d launch into packs that sensible humans would run away from.

Carn the Pies. Williams is proof that Collingwood has always produced or attracted players who go at the ball with a ferocity that makes the rest of the competition nervous. I am not even remotely biased. He was definately one of the elite aerialists of his era, and any honest list includes him.

Jason Dunstall — Power and Precision

Hawthorn’s deadliest forward of the eighties and nineties was not just a marking machine in terms of volume — he was genuinely electric when the contest called for elevation. Dunstall combined the strength of a full-forward with a leap that surprised people who assumed big blokes couldn’t get airborne.

Four premierships. 1254 career goals. And a highlight reel of contested marks that would keep you busy on a rainy afternoon. He belongs on any serious list of the best aerialists this competition has produced.

Gary Ablett Sr — Football’s Own Solar System

Ablett Senior exists slightly outside the normal rules that govern human footballers. His 1989 Grand Final was something from another dimension, and his ability to explode into a pack and claim the footy was supernatural on a good day.

Putting Gary Ablett Sr on a list of elite aerialists feels like saying Beethoven was a decent pianist, but here we are. He goes on the list. He stays on the list. Move on.

Matthew Lloyd — Underrated in the Air

People talk about Lloyd’s goal-kicking — and rightfully so, the bloke was a machine — but his marking ability in a contest is sometimes overlooked. The Essendon forward had tremendous hands and was brave going up in traffic. He wasn’t the flashiest of the bunch but he took critical marks when the game was on the line, which is arguably what separates the great ones from the rest.

I will grudgingly acknowledge quality when I see it, even when it wears red and black.

Nick Riewoldt — The Modern Blueprint

If you wanted to teach a young forward what a contested mark should look like, you’d put on Nick Riewoldt tape. Long arms, perfect timing, the ability to read where the ball would land and position accordingly. Saints fans will tell you he was the best marking forward of his generation and they would have a serious case.

His speccy collection is genuinely outstanding. There are grabs in there that defy the apparent limits of what a human torso can achieve in mid-flight. He was brilliant, simple as that.

Jonathan Brown — The Barrel-Chested Bomber

Brisbane’s Jonathan Brown looked like he shouldn’t be able to get off the ground. He was built like a bloke who moved furniture for a living. And yet he launched himself into packs with a combination of strength and spring that regularly produced breathtaking marks.

Brown was courageous to the point of recklessness, which is part of why his career was cut shorter than it should have been. But when he was right, he was an awesome sight in the air. The good folk of Brisbane know exactly what they had there.

Jeremy Howe — The Current Standard-Bearer

Now we’re into the contemporary era, and I am absolutely allowed to be biased here. Jeremy Howe of the Collingwood Football Club is the best aerialist currently playing the game, and it isn’t remotely close. If you disagree, you’re watching a different sport.

The height he gets. The composure. The fact that he seems to slow time down once he’s airborne. Howe has taken marks that have made hardened football journalists forget what they were writing about. His screamer collection would hold up against literally anyone on this list, and he’s still playing. Carn the Pies.

There is a particular Howe mark against GWS — you’ll remember it — where he simply rose above a pack of blokes who had no business being below him, and plucked the ball one-handed. I have watched it approximately four hundred times and it does not get old.

Two More Who Deserve Their Flowers

We’ve got two spots left and there are several players fighting for them. Here’s who makes the cut:

• Peter Sumich — West Coast’s aerial threat of the early nineties was a genuinely spectacular mark-taker who doesn’t always get the national recognition he deserves.
• Wayne Carey — reluctantly, because the bloke infuriates me for reasons that have nothing to do with football, the Duck was one of the most dominant contested-mark takers the game has seen. His strength and athleticism meant he was a nightmare for defenders.

What the Speccy Means to the Game

Here is the thing. We can argue about who should be on this list until the cows come home — and frankly, that argument is half the fun. But the speccy matters because it is the moment in Australian football when the laws of physics feel like they’ve been put on pause.

No other sport has this. The contested high mark, the launch off an opponent’s shoulders, the one-handed grab on the boundary — these are ours. They belong to our game and they are why people who grew up watching footy literally cannot explain to outsiders why they love it so much.

Sometimes the best you can do is drag someone to the footy, wait for a screamer, and watch their face.

That’s what these eleven blokes gave us. And some of them are still giving it to us every single week. Keep your eye on the contests, folks — the next great aerialist might be out there right now, waiting for the right pack, the right angle, and the right moment to make all of us drop our pies.