LEIGH Matthews, Kevin Bartlett, Jason Dunstall, Simon Black, Michael Voss, Gary Ablett jnr and now Corey Enright all have something in common over the past 50 years.
They are multiple winners of their club's best and fairest in a premiership year.
Think about that for a minute: to win a premiership is one thing, to cap it off with a best and fairest in the same year is as good as it gets.
Enright, who has won Geelong's best and fairest for a second time, might be the lowest profile of those seven players but it doesn't dilute his standing among the game's modern-day stars.
In 2009, Enright shared the award with Ablett, who'd won it outright in the Cats' 2007 drought-breaking premiership team.
That Enright could be mentioned in the same breath as Matthews and Bartlett would sit uncomfortably with the quietly spoken defender from the tiny South Australian town of Kimba.
He needs one more best and fairest - and another premiership - to catch Matthews and Bartlett, who achieved the feat three times for their respective clubs Hawthorn and Richmond.
But he has joined Dunstall, Black, Voss and Ablett as two-time best and fairests in a premiership season in the past 50 years and it's an accolade that deserves wider acknowledgment.
The bigger bodies of Matthew Scarlett and Harry Taylor have been the pillars of Geelong's defence for several seasons (many in Scarlett's case), but Enright's role has been no less significant.
He plays what some call "stress-free" football. He doesn't panic, he makes the right decisions and he can play tall or small. It's one of the luxuries rookie coach Chris Scott says he inherited when he took over this time last year.
You can't imagine Scott, a defender of some standing himself, overloading Enright with a playbook full of instructions.
And you won't find Enright's name in a book of great football quotes.
That might have something to do with his upbringing in Kimba, best known for being the halfway point between east and west Australia.
He did his VCE in a class of five and he would make either the five-hour road trip to Adelaide, or a 90-minute car ride to Whyalla and 45-minute flight, to the SA capital to play for the Port Adelaide Magpies colts side in the SANFL in the late 1990s.
Enright was another draft gem for the Cats, taken at pick No. 47 in 1999, a selection that came Geelong's way via the Leigh Colbert trade to North Melbourne.
It's been some journey but Enright has collected two best and fairests, three premiership medals and selection in four All Australian teams along the way. He can walk tall in any company now.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
