Fourth-best, in fact, if you listen to around 800 players who play at the elite level.
Port Adelaide’s skipper was voted in behind Hawthorn’s Luke Hodge, Geelong’s Joel Selwood and Gold Coast’s Gary Ablett in the best captain stakes during Tuesday night’s AFL Players Association MVP awards night.
The chief gong of Most Valuable Player was won by Fremantle’s Nat Fyfe ahead of Ablett and Swans forward Lance Franklin.
AFL Coaches Association Champion Player of the Year winner Robbie Gray was ninth overall.
Chad Wingard was also the only Power player named in the AFLPA’s 22under22 team last night.
Boak has gone from strength-to-strength as captain at Port Adelaide, having posted one of his all-time best performances in Sunday’s elimination final win over Richmond at the Adelaide Oval.
Power coach Ken Hinkley praised both the performance and leadership of Boak for Port Adelaide throughout the 2014 season.
“He’s a big time captain who plays incredibly good, obviously, on game day when it counts for us, but he leads in the right way.
“He’s one of the best captains in the competition - and I don’t individualise very often – but he is one of the best … perhaps as good as any of them.
“Joel [Selwood] and him were drafted in the same year, and I know when I was at Geelong [as an assistant coach] we talked about drafting Boak – at that very draft – and now I end up coaching Port Adelaide and Boak.
“The good ones compete, they just know how to keep competing and they don’t give up, Gary [Ablett] is the same.”
Leigh Matthews Trophy (AFLPA Most Valuable Player)
Winner: Nat Fyfe (Fremantle)
2. Gary Ablett (Gold Coast)
3. Lance Franklin (Sydney)
4. Dyson Heppell (Essendon)
5. Josh Kennedy (Sydney)
6. Scott Pendlebury (Collingwood)
7. Tom Rockliff (Brisbane Lions)
8. Joel Selwood (Geelong)
9. Robbie Gray (Port Adelaide)
10. Patrick Dangerfield (Adelaide Crows)
Robert Rose Most Courageous Award
Winner: Joel Selwood (Geelong)
2. Callan Ward (GWS)
3. Luke Hodge (Hawthorn)
4. Rory Sloane (Adelaide Crows)
5. Ben McGlynn (Hawthorn)
Best First Year Player
Winner: Marcus Bontempelli (Western Bulldogs)
2. Luke Dunstan (St Kilda)
3. Lewis Taylor (Brisbane Lions)
4. Zach Merrett (Essendon)
5. Luke McDonald (North Melbourne)
Best Captain
Winner: Luke Hodge (Hawthorn)
2. Joel Selwood (Geelong)
3. Gary Ablett (Gold Coast)
4. Travis Boak (Port Adelaide)
5. Nick Riewoldt (St Kilda)
