Who is the best Brisbane player all-time? It’s a question that is impossible to answer. How do you possibly compare performances from one era to the next? And in a premiership team as opposed to a wooden-spoon team?

But if there’s anything that will at least give us some sort of guide it is a compilation of the top 10 finishers in the Merrett/Murray Medal year by year.

And, on the understanding that a club championship win is significantly more valuable than a finish towards the bottom of the top 10, we’ll allocate a sliding points system.

So, for comparison purposes, a club championship win will be worth 20 points. Second place will be worth 17 points, third place 15 points. And from 4^th to 10^th it will be 13-11-10-9-7-5-3.

Among 351 Brisbane players all-time a total of 121 have finished at least once in the top 10 in the club championship since the late, great Phillip Walsh was the inaugural Brisbane Bears’ club champion in 1987, polling 24 votes to beat Geoff Raines (22), with Mark Mickan and Mike Richardson (17) equal third.

Twenty-four players have shared 43 club championships, known since the Brisbane-Fitzroy merger as the Merrett/Murray Medal. Michael Voss (5) and Dayne Zorko (5) head the list from Lachie Neale (4), Simon Black (3), Jonathan Brown (3), John Gastev (2), Michael McLean (2), Jason Akermanis (2), Joel Patfull (2), Tom Rockliff (2), Walsh, Mark Withers, Martin Leslie, David Bain, Craig Lambert, Matthew Clarke, Chris Scott, Justin Leppitsch, Nigel Lappin, Michael Rischitelli,  Dayne Beams, Stefan Martin, Mitch Robinson and Harris Andrews (1).

And a total of 51 players have finished top three. Black (9) has finished on the dais most often from Zorko (8), Marcus Ashcroft (7), Voss (6), Neale (5), Hugh McCluggage (5), Nigel Lappin (4), Luke Power (4), Jonathan Brown (4), Joel Patful (3), Tom Rockliff (3), Stefan Martin (3),  Matthew Clarke (3) and Dayne Beams (3).

Completing the top three finishers are Jed Adcock (2), Akermanis (2), Leppitsch (2), Scott McIvor (2), Roger Merrett (2), Gastev (2), Pearce Hanley (2), Lambert (2), McLean (2), Jack Redden (2), Bain (2), Jarryd Lyons (2), Geoff Raines (2) and Robinson (2), and Andrews (1), Shaun Hart (1), Daniel Rich (1), Chris Scott (1), Brad Scott (1), Adrian Fletcher (1), Brad Hardie (1), Chris Johnson (1), Martin Leslie (1), Tim Notting  (1), Rischitelli (1), Brandon Starcevich (1), Dunkley (1), Matthew Kennedy (1), Danny Noonan (1), Mike Richardson (1), Justin Sherman (1), Walsh (1), Withers (1), Nathan Buckley (1), Mitch Clark (1), Mark Mickan (1) and Mark Zanotti (1).

In the golden era of the 2001-02-03 premiership hat-trick, combining the club championship votes in each of the 10 finals, Lappin (32.5 votes) prevails from Black (31), Hart (30), Brown (28), Voss (27), Johnson (26.5), Leppitsch and White (25.5), Lynch and Akermanis (24.5), Power (23), Clark Keating (22), and Martin Pike (21).

To the gigantic credit of the conditioning and medical staff, of the 14 players who polled 20-plus votes over the three years, 12 played each final, and Lynch and Power missed one each.

In 2001 Voss shared the Merrett/Murray Medal with Black in 2001, was runner-up in 2002,  and won it outright in 2003. Black, after sharing it in 2001, won it in 2002 and was joint runner-up with Power in 2003. Lappin was third in 2001 and Marcus Ashcroft completed the placings in 2002.

In the 2001 grand final, when Shaun Hart won the Norm Smith Medal in a super-even team performance, the always under-rated tagger/utility was one of nine Brisbane players to poll ‘3’. The others were Voss, Jonathan Brown, Chris Johnson, Lappin, Justin Leppitsch, Alastair Lynch, Luke Power and Brad Scott.

In the 2002 grand final, when Collingwood’s Nathan Buckley received the Norm Smith Medal after voting was done midway through the final quarter before Voss had dragged his side over the line, Voss and Lappin received a team-high ‘4’, from Ashcroft (3), Black (3), Hart (3), Clark Keating (3), Chris Scott (3) and Darryl White (3).

In the 2003 grand final, when Simon Black won the Norm Smith Medal with a career-high 39 possessions, Jason Akermanis topped the club vote with a perfect ‘5’ after he kicked five goals and had 20 possessions. Black earned a ‘4.5’, while four-goal spearhead Lynch and the impassable Michael polled ‘4’ and Hart ‘3.5’.

Nigel Lappin, who heroically played in the 2003 premiership decider with broken ribs and a punctured lung, polled a ‘3’ with Voss, Brown, Johnson, Power, Keating, Daniel Bradshaw, Robert Copeland and Blake Caracella.

And in the 2024 grand final, Norm Smith Medallist Will Ashcroft, Lachie Neale and Brandon Starcevich polled a ‘4’ and a staggering 16 players were rated a ‘3’ – Dayne Zorko, Josh Dunkley, Hugh McCluggage, Darcy Wilmot, Ryan Lester, Harris Andrews, Jarrod Berry, Joe Daniher, Cam Rayner, Callum Ah Chee, Charlie Cameron, Jaspa Fletcher, Kai Lohmann, Jack Payne, Noah Answerth and inspiring ruck replacement Darcy Fort.

So who has been the club’s best player overall?

At least under this extended ratings system, and on the basis that sustained excellence will generally out-rate standout performances over a shorter time frame, the winner is …. Simon Black. He polls 186 votes to edge out Zorko (184) and Voss (170).

It is a triumph for durability and consistency. From his second season in 1999, until his last full season in 2012, Black missed the top 10 only once – in 2005 when he played only 18 of 22 games. He went 10^th-7^th-1^st-1^st-2^nd-3^rd-X-1^st-5^th-2^nd-2^nd-2^nd-2^nd-10^th.

Zorko finished top 10 in each of his first 10 years from 2012, going 7^th-4^th-2^nd-1^st-1^st-1^st-1^st-2^nd-5^th-1^st. And after two years outside the top 10 in 2022-23 he was runner-up in 2024.

And Voss, having won the medal at 20 and 21 in 1995-96, missed out in 1997, was 7^th in 1998 despite breaking his leg in Round 11, and then went 7^th-1^st-1^st-2^nd-1^st-4^th-4^th-7^th until his retirement in 2006.

If you put a loading on finishes in the premiership years of 2001-02-03-24 the gap between Voss and Zorko narrows each time the loading goes up, until finally Voss slips into second spot.

Regardless, Black finishes No.1 in what was never meant to be anything more than a novel exercise, and a means via which we can recognize those who have been standout players over the club’s 38-year history.

The top 10 in the All-Time Best of the Best are:

1^st – Simon Black (186)
2^nd – Dayne Zorko (184)
3^rd – Michael Voss (170)
4^th – Marcus Ashcroft (142)
5^th – Luke Power (124)
6^th – Nigel Lappin (123)
7^th – Jonathan Brown (111)
8^th – Hugh McCluggage (101)
9^th – Lachie Neale (97)
10^th – Harris Andrews (91)