YOU’VE gotta love the Richo man. Richo the player was unique, often irresistible, always entertaining. Must-viewing.

There was the extraordinary athleticism, the basic honesty of endeavour, the fierce competitive spirit, the raw talent, the bravery — and he was utterly courageous — the remarkable longevity, the admirable loyalty ... the antics. Even his cute discomfort when he was the centre of attention, as he so often was, the slightly awkward Forrest Gump smile, the fundamental humility.

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Now he is a player-friendly, amiable, popular television and radio performer. That’s Matthew Richardson. What a package.

How, then, does he miss a place in the best 50 players from the first 25 years of the AFL — 1990-2014?

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Good question and I’m mighty relieved I’m out of town as the 50 sans Richo is published in the Sunday Herald Sun.

Richo has become football’s Bambi in recent years.

The Richmond fraternity grew to idolise the once erratic, often petulant one, the rest of us gradually grew to admire and embrace him ... big, soft and cuddly and a young man who bled for the wretched Tigers of his time — 1993-2009.

media_camera Matthew Richardson always played his heart out for the Tigers.

But, when lists are done and there’s a finite number of positions, tough calls have to be made. Decisions must be objective, based entirely on all the available evidence.

The most difficult element of this suffocating exercise was pruning the list of key forwards to a reasonable number.

There are a dozen in my list, starting at the top with Wayne Carey, finishing at 50 with Matthew Pavlich.

Plenty will think I have insulted Pav at 50, given his six best-and-fairest awards and All-Australian selection six times. I say he gets due recognition, given he was preferred to Richo and a host of others headed by Chris Grant, Stewie Loewe, Barry Hall and the Melbourne pair Garry Lyon and David Neitz.

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Richo’s 800 goals is a compelling figure, yet he won just one best-and-fairest at the worst-performed club of the past 25 years, when the Tigers finished 16th in 2007.

Perhaps bloodthirsty Richmond followers should be asking questions of their own people.

Richo is one of a dozen players I promised myself would be in the elite 50 of the past 25 years, but he finally was squeezed out ... and I pondered the idea of extending my holiday by a year or two!

What about Scott West and his seven best-and-fairests at the Doggies? I can’t believe I left him out, but I couldn’t fit him in, either.

Then there’s one of my all-time faves, Geelong’s magic man Steve Johnson, the under-appreciated Collingwood premiership hero Gavin Brown, Brisbane’s dashing defender Justin Leppitsch, the legendary Irishman Jimmy Stynes, another Richo-type man-of-the-people, Glenn Archer, and his North Melbourne buddies Anthony Stevens and Wayne Schwass ... the list goes on.

media_camera Mike couldn’t find room for Steve Johnson.

The top 50 exercise has tormented me annually for 25 years. This final episode is no exception; just worse.

This time, the omissions are genuine stars of the game.

To the previous names add West Coast quartet Guy “Bluey’’ McKenna, Dean Kemp, Daniel Kerr and Darren Glass, Adelaide’s premiership heroes Shaun Rehn, Ben Hart and Simon Goodwin and the modern-day John Coleman in terms of public appeal, Tony Modra.

I was such a McKenna fan, I flew to Perth for the announcement of his retirement in 2000.

How could I leave him out? But McKenna in would have meant Nigel Lappin out, and few players in my time have enjoyed the peer-group respect afforded Lappin.

Modra was an irresistible force many times during his seven seasons with the Crows, but he kicked almost half his 440 goals for Adelaide in just two seasons.

media_camera Tony Modra takes off.

Longevity and premierships carry extra weight when I’m differentiating between players.

Warren Tredrea ticks both boxes, while Nick Riewoldt and Pavlich boast extraordinary consistency over many years. While Modra was more spectacular than Tredrea, Riewoldt and Pavlich, he was more a shooting star, too — 165 games in 10 seasons.

No premierships, either, yet he is an unlucky omission.

Opinion is divided on the weight that should be attached to premiership success.

Would, for example, Scotty West be more highly regarded had the Bulldogs won a flag in his time?

Simple answer: yes.

It’s much the same story with Lenny Hayes. The title, “premiership player’’, carries undeniable cachet, even though my long-time On the Couch colleague Gerard Healy never has understood why. Some blokes simply are luckier than other in terms of where they end up, he says.

media_camera Mike couldn’t find a spot for Lenny Hayes in his top 50.

Chris Grant is another example of the syndrome.

I am a huge Grant fan, but there are no flags. Stewart Loewe is yet another example.

Either or both would sit comfortably in my list. There are those who will say they were at least the equal of Warren Tredrea, but Tredrea always was marked hard.

Suffice to say he is Port Adelaide’s most decorated player: four club championships, including the premiership year of 2004.

Picking the best 50 of the first 25 years of the AFL has been a tortuous exercise. Draining. I feel as though I’ve insulted so many great players of the modern era, for the only one who can’t feel hard-done-by is Wayne Carey, who sits at No.1.

Michael Voss down at five, Rob Harvey outside the top 10, Nathan Buckley deep in the teens, Sam Mitchell buried in the 40s.

We are, though, measuring football’s elite, the greats of the modern game.

It is a Cox Plate field and, just like the Cox Plate, only a certain number get a start.

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