GETTING the respect of the football world.

Nic Newman has always been highly regarded inside the four walls of IKON Park, for his performances, professionalism and leadership on a day-to-day basis.

But his undeniably career-best run of form is seeing the unassuming Blue get the plaudits externally, and those internally are more than happy to shower the man widely referred to as ‘Noodle’ with the praise he deserves.

Not that it would get to Newman either way, as someone who’s intent on doing his job every week — which he’s been doing with aplomb over the course of 2023. So much so, that some people are even pondering whether the Blue - who’ll give the John Nicholls Medal a red-hot crack - could be in line for All-Australian selection.

“He does the simple things so well. On the back of that, he’s one of our most reliable defenders: he has been all year,” Brodie Kemp told Channel 9’s Sunday Footy Show.

“Whether he gets those individual accolades on the back of that, I think it’ll be well deserved. I’m not sure how the selection process goes, but he’s had an awesome year.

“I love playing with him.”

Newman was already having a good year to start the campaign, by sheer virtue of numbers alone. But it’s been his form in the last few months, having overcome a hamstring injury just before the bye, that has seen him take his game to another level.

Over the last fortnight especially, there hasn’t been a Blue more influential than Newman, who was widely considered the best player on the ground against St Kilda and among the team’s top three against Melbourne. He had 35 disposals against the Saints, backing it up with 33 against the Demons after also starring with seven coaches' votes against the Pies.

He hasn’t dropped below 23 disposals in the last six weeks, with Champion Data benchmarking him as elite for marks and tackles, and above average for kicks, handballs and metres gained: that’s inclusive of a six-disposal game against Sydney when he came from the ground injured back in Round 11.

Newman’s absence was felt in the run-in of 2022, but the added stakes of recent weeks has seen him take his game to a new level. Don’t take our word for it, though: take it from someone who’s spent a fair chunk of his football playing alongside Newman at two different clubs.

“I’ve rarely seen him lose a one-on-one battle or get shrugged off a tackle, which I think goes really underrated. If you watch him carefully, he never gets stepped,” George Hewett said on 3AW.

“Especially with this come-forward style of defending that the AFL plays now, it’s quite hard to tackle people front on, but ‘Newy’ closes the gap so well. With him, Adam Saad and Jacob Weitering back there, we’ve got some good ball handlers down there.

“He’s led the way with his defensive actions and he’s very physical.”

Whether or not any individual accolades are in store for Newman come season’s end, the two-time Best Clubman is hardly likely to seek any fanfare. 

Just like Michael Voss said on Saturday, the job’s not done. And Newman has relished that very scenario more than most in 2023.