ADELAIDE Crows captain Simon Goodwin ranks teammate Scott Thompson in the same league as the League's most outstanding midfielders, Gary Ablett and Chris Judd.
Tough, skilful, fast and fair, Thompson is also an accomplished finisher, as evidenced by his six-goal haul to cap a best afield display against Richmond at the MCG last week.
"He's become a real A-grader in the competition," Goodwin said.
"He's not only a guy that wins the hard ball in the middle, but he's a guy that can go forward and they are the most dangerous midfielders to have - the guys who can go forward and kick goals.
"You look at guys like Ablett and Judd, who do kick goals, Thommo is no different.
"He's a quality player in our side and one we really value.
"He's taken enormous pressure off (Andrew) McLeod, (Tyson) Edwards and myself, and is really stepping up and leading the way for the younger guys."
The greatest difference between Ablett, Judd and Thompson is the gap in the 25-year-old Crow's resume - his performances in the biggest games.
In that sense, there is some similarity to Darren Jarman, an all-time great who faced big match queries prior to his goalscoring feats in the 1997 and 1998 grand finals for Adelaide.
In 2006, Thompson played a key role in the Crows' qualifying victory over Fremantle but was quiet in the preliminary against West Coast's gold standard centreline.
Thompson then sullied an otherwise excellent contribution in the 2007 elimination final by kicking wildly out on the full in the dying seconds against the Hawks, allowing Lance Franklin to get on the end of the subsequent Hawthorn movement and kick the match-winning goal.
This week Thompson will have the chance to put that right against the ladder leader Hawks.
Goodwin acknowledged there remained some development to be done if Thompson was to scale the individual summit.
"I think for Thommo it's about consistency," Goodwin said.
"He's certainly putting games on end at the moment, he's done it for two seasons now and he's continuing to develop in that area."
