This one should come as no surprise Lance Franklin provided the Hawthorn Football Club with 113 goals, 158 marks (of which 125 were inside 50 and 64 were contested) and 18 goal assists in 2008.

Whilst all the statistics on Lance Franklin are compelling its his ability to do freakish things that has ‘Buddy’ so highly rated if you didn’t see his match winning performance against the Brisbane Lions last year, do yourself a favour and at least read about it here there aren’t many better accolades than one from Leigh Matthews.

For all this there has been critics of Franklin one being a regular contributor to ContestedFooty (Lance Franklin, Overrated?), however even those critics don’t dare state that Franklin isn’t the best forward in the game today, instead focusing on how he compares with his reputation, usually with a particular focus on his kicking for goal.

I recognize that I am going to get a lot of criticism for not having Brendon Fevola and I’ll explain when I have a closer look at ‘The Fev’ later.

In a previous article I analyzed Nick Riewoldt’s year in 2008 and his importance to the St Kilda Football Club (Top 5 Most Important Players to St Kilda in 2009), allow me to quote that article “In 2008 Riewoldt was widely acknowledged as one of the major reasons for the turn around in St Kilda’s season, and with good reason. Riewoldt finished the year first in the AFL for marks (second per game), averaged 2.7 goals and 17 disposals per game.”

Riewoldt is another player who is often criticized for his goal kicking but ‘Roo’ provides more than a goal scoring option he provides value all over the ground and is able to give off quite a lot of goals as well (28 in 2008).

Perhaps it is bias that stops Brendon Fevola from ranking second in this list, however I have a few areas to outline that I feel stop him from achieving that ranking.

Fevola kicked 99 goals and took 128 marks in 2008 which is a phenomenal effort when you consider that the Carlton Football Club didn’t make finals. However when I have a closer look at Fevola’s stats I also note that of those marks only 33 were contested which implies he still received good delivery, this coupled with a few off field indiscretions and inappropriate behavior on the field (see St Kilda game) and in my mind I can’t rank him any higher than third.

As much as it pains me to say it Cameron Mooney had a very good year in 2008. He kicked 52 goals, took 201 marks (of which 45 were contested and 103 inside 50) and perhaps most impressively had 36 goal assists. He is important to the Geelong Football Clubs structure and the brand of football they have become known for.

To have a look at Mooney’s faults you needn’t look further than the 2008 Grand Final, he is a player who is either on or can be shockingly off his game and unfortunately in the biggest game of all this year he was off, had he been on perhaps the Geelong Football Club would have another Premiership Cup to its name and I’d have Mooney higher on this list.

Again another player I wish I didn’t have to include on this list but Mathew Pavlich had a great year in 2008. He kicked 65 goals, took 138 marks (of which 40 were contested and 55 inside 50), Pavlich also had a whopping 101 inside 50’s which proved he was more than a mere goal kicking target.

Pavlich’s biggest fault was much publicized this year perhaps unfairly, often it was said that he is a poor kick for goal, in reality he had the second best accuracy for goal of the players who finished in the top 10 for the Coleman Medal. A fairer criticism and one that was explained much less often is that Pavlich often missed ‘crunch shots’ for goal.

So there you have it my top 5 key forwards for 2008, I’m sure I’ll get a lot of negative feedback for this so please keep in mind how difficult it is to do, I invite you all to attempt and justify top 5 lists of your own in the comments section.