Back in July of last year, Steele Sidebottom had a three-week stretch when his form dipped to a pedestrian level that would often spell the end for a 33-year-old.

Sidebottom couldn’t muster more than 14 disposals in games against Hawthorn, Richmond and Carlton.

Steele Sidebottom is enjoying some of the best form of his career.Credit: Getty Images

But the decision to deploy Sidebottom as a tagger on Sydney’s Errol Gulden in the very next game (round 22) was the beginning of Steele’s surge, as he shifted back into the centre square and re-discovered the touch and uncanny skills that have marked his 342 games for Collingwood.

Entering round 13, Sidebottom sits high in the AFL coaches’ award and has been sufficiently influential in the top team to earn a position in the mid-year all-Australian team.

Sidebottom (34), his teammate Jamie Elliott (32), Max Gawn (33) and Patrick Dangerfield (35) have all had profound impact on the competition in this year of the veteran.

Giant Jesse Hogan and Geelong’s Jeremy Cameron, meanwhile, have supplanted Carlton’s key forwards as the AFL’s best-performed tall forwards – perhaps Cameron has always been superior – despite birth certificates that say they’re on the wrong side of 30.

Sam Collins, surprisingly, turns 31 next weekend – having spent a year in the Werribee wilderness (VFL) before the Suns were able to jump the queue to sign him as a mature-aged concession in 2018. He’s done enough as an intercepting tall back to earn a place in the back six, alongside Lion Harris Andrews.

So, seven players aged 30-plus make this mid-year 22, as the AFL competition follows the trend of tennis – see Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams – and American team sports in which 35 is the new 30, and quarterbacks play until they can’t walk.

Selecting........

© Brisbane Times