Competition over. There will be no better in 2011!!
This was an absolute pearler of a grab from Andrew Walker, already bandaged from a previous incident in the latest renewal of the Carlton vs. Essendon rivalry (Saturday night at Etihad Stadium).
The bandaged noggin didn't stop him from elevating to great heights on the back of Jake Carlisle - he used the Bomber player like a stepladder; the stairway almost all the way up to heaven - to take the epic mark late in the fourth quarter of a game that the Blues dominated. The score won't be remembered quite as much as the mark.
Perhaps the Channel Ten commentators were right? Maybe there were Bomber fans cheering the mark, too. It looked spectacular live, but you get a better idea of how high he elevated when you see the slo-mo replay. If you're a fan of the athletic ability of AFL players, it would be hard not to be impressed. Witness the stunned silence in Etihad.
It was almost super-human, and Walker pretty much guarantees himself the grand prize - is it still a brand-new Toyota? - for Mark of the Year. Hell, they should give him a Ferrari because that was probably Mark of the Century. Certainly it was the best since Essendon's Gary Moorcroft rose to similar heights at the same venue a decade ago.
The best thing? The YouTube video above was a featured in a blog on an NFL blog on Yahoo Sports. Nice international exposure for one of the great marks in AFL history.
Just for comparison, below is Moorcroft's sensational hang:
And what about Adelaide's Brett Burton in 2009? They don't call him the Bird Man for nothing!!
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