Chris Judd had a unique ability to explode from stoppages and repeatedly run at high pace.
Judd left stoppages like a kid escaping a maze, leaving in his wake the best on-ballers of his generation to open up space for his teammates.
It was new when he began, but it seems familiar now, with Greater Western Sydney's Dylan Shiel, Adelaide's Patrick Dangerfield or Gold Coast's Gary Ablett and Jaeger O'Meara all doing on a weekly basis (when fit) what Judd first thrilled us with back in the noughties.
In this way he changed the game.
He ended his career on 1500 clearances, a round figure that should roll off the tongue when history discusses Judd.
If he was caught, he lifted his arms free and found a teammate because he was harder to drag down than a giant sequoia tree.
Another champion of his era, Luke Ball, said Judd was almost impossible to bring down in his early prime.
The ball went up, ruckmen leapt and suddenly Judd was on his own, heading towards goal with ball in hand.
"To look at, he had a wiry build but he was so strong through his legs and hips and so explosive that for a period there … he was a nightmare at a stoppage because which ever way you tackled him, he either used his pace to get away or strength to stand up in a tackle and dispose of the ball," Ball told AFL.com.au.
Judd said this year that until he arrived at Carlton, he probably undervalued how important champion Eagles ruckman Dean Cox was to him being able to win clearances.
It was modest, but fair too, as the two combined with a synergy few ruck-midfielders have possessed in the past.
Looking at Judd's career through a statistical lens allows us to reflect on how the game changed in his time at the forefront, and his brilliance in adapting to what was thrown at him.
In his first game on April 6, 2002, Judd's Eagles had 270 disposals between them, with 174 kicks and 96 handballs.
Judd had 15 kicks and four handballs (9 per cent of the total) bursting on the scene once selectors decided Mark Merenda better make way after round one so the youngster could make his memorable debut.
By season's end he had two kicks for every handball. By career's end, he had 1.1 kicks to every handball.
Behind-the-scenes: Judd retires
By midway through his career, in game 139 (his fifth game at Carlton), the Blues gathered 356 disposals with Judd contributing 26 touches (7.3 per cent of the total) and earning three Brownlow votes.
In Judd's final game on Saturday, Carlton had 410 disposals, even without the 32-year-old's ball-winning presence after quarter-time.
The number of times the ball changes hands nowadays has led to a less contested game – no less chaotic or dangerous – but less contested.
Either inside or out the contest, however, Judd excelled.
He won more contested possessions than his contemporaries who were selected in the top 20 of the 2002 NAB AFL Draft.
His total of 3289 contested possessions in 279 games at an average of 11.8 is more than Luke Hodge (2151 – 8.4), Luke Ball (2056 – 9.2), Jimmy Bartel (2274 – 8.3), Nick Dal Santo (2530 – 9.0) and James Kelly (2147 – 8.13).
That he managed to win such numbers and then use his explosive pace to turn them into gold for his team was what made him the best of the lot.
It nudged him ahead of champions such as Hodge, Ball, Bartel and alongside Ablett (who coincidentally has averaged 11.5 contested possessions in his 270 games so far).
Wiley on Judd retirement
Judd managed to win 15.8 per cent of his possessions in the forward 50 and 11.3 per cent in the back 50, with 72.9 per cent coming between the arcs.
His kicking efficiency dipped below 70 per cent after his first season at Carlton, when he began winning the ball in tight more regularly through necessity.
He was never able to kick more than 20 goals in a season at the Blues, despite booting more than 20 goals in five of his six seasons at the Eagles.
By the end of 2014 he had polled 209 Brownlow votes, including a record 46 best on grounds, the first of these coincidentally coming against Carlton in round 15, 2003.
His votes per game average of .823 puts him behind current players Nat Fyfe (.904), Joel Selwood (.840) and Gary Ablett (.833) but still sixth of all time.
He polled 30 votes in each of his two medal-winning seasons six years apart and won one in a finals team and one when his club did not make the finals.
This week, even after the announcement was made and the tributes written, his peers were still talking about how good he was and what made him great.
He added to the continuum of running players that begins about the time of Hayden Bunton and evolved through Dick Reynolds, Ron Barassi, Bob Skilton, Ian Stewart, Greg Williams, Robert Harvey, Michael Voss and Nathan Buckley and will continue with Ablett and looks likely to shift to Fyfe.
Numbers only tell half the story, something Judd will come to appreciate in his retirement if he honours his promise to 3AW that he looks forward to being able to "sit and watch players and almost become a fan".
Unfortunately, he won't have the luxury afforded the rest of us: to be able to compare those players that follow to Judd.
