19/05/2008 11:19 AM
David Neitz deserves to be remembered as Melbourne's greatest ever player.
The Demons skipper, who has announced his retirement, will end his career without a premiership but that is the only accolade missing from a wonderful career.
Despite holding virtually every club record imaginable, in many ways Neitz has not received the accolades he so richly deserves in a career that began way back in 1993.
When analysing the greatest players ever at the AFL's oldest club it is easy to overlook Neitz.
He might not have had the pure skill of Robert Flower or the inspirational leadership of Garry Lyon or a Brownlow Medal like Jim Stynes - the Demons' three other modern-day legends - nor have the premiership medals of Melbourne's most famous player Ron Barassi and the many other legends from the Demons' greatest era in the 1950s and 1960s but a close look at Neitz's record would suggest he outstrips them all.
It is not just the fact he has played the most games (306) in the club's history or kicked the most goals (631) but the fact he has been a champion player at both ends of the ground and been the club's longest serving captain to boot.
In all Neitz has led the Demons into battle on 175 occasions - far in excess of Flower's 127 matches, Lyon's 119 matches and Barassi's 92 matches as captain.
During that period he also became the first player in Melbourne's history to reach 300 games - the ultimate tribute to his longevity.
But it is not just the fact Neitz has played more games, kicked more goals and spent longer as captain than anyone else that deserves to see him ranked as Melbourne's all-time greatest player.
Instead it is the fact that he began his career as one of the best centre half-backs in the game and ended it as one of the AFL's most consistent full-forwards that sums up his greatness.
It is easy to forget now that in the mid 1990s Neitz - playing at centre half-back - was one of the few players capable of matching arguably the game's greatest player and certainly the game's greatest centre half-forward, North Melbourne's Wayne Carey.
In 1995 Neitz was good enough to make the All-Australian side while playing mostly as a defender, even though he still kicked 33 goals that season, while also finishing runner-up in the Demons' best and fairest.
Fast forward seven years to 2002 and Neitz