Well, that's what selectors Andrew Demetriou (chairman), Adrian Anderson, Rod Austin, Kevin Bartlett, Mark Bickley, Gerard Healy, Glen Jakovich and Robert Walls faced when choosing this year's All-Australian team.
It's a challenging task, with so many factors and questions coming into play.
Even selecting players in definitive positions is now difficult thanks to zones and rotations clouding such titles as 'centre' and 'ruck-rover', for example.
But like any team, several players were unlucky not to be included.
In this following 2008 All-Australian team, the line-up includes three emergencies and does not take into account the official 40-man squad. Two players from outside that list – Brendon Goddard (St Kilda) and Jason Akermanis (Western Bulldogs) – have been included here.
Goddard got the nod at half-back after an outstanding 2008, particularly his second half of the season. There was no doubt his significant contribution was one of the reasons for St Kilda's surge into the top four, and he now looms as a top-three contender in the club's best-and-fairest award.
Akermanis may have been disappointing from rounds 16 to 19, but he was one of the AFL's standouts over the first 15 matches. In fact, he was fifth-favourite for the Brownlow Medal, according to TAB Sportsbet, after round 15. Still, 'Aka' managed to hit back late in the season, and booted four goals against Essendon in round 21. He earned a berth in the forward pocket. (For the record, from the official squad, Paul Medhurst would've replaced Akermanis, with Daniel Pratt coming in for Goddard.)
Choosing the midfielders was extremely difficult. Gary Ablett, Jimmy Bartel, Simon Black, Adam Cooney, Chris Judd and Brett Kirk made up the midfield, with Joel Corey, Daniel Cross and Sam Mitchell in the 25-man squad.
Nominating Corey as an emergency was agonising, but who do you leave out – Ablett, Bartel, Black, Cooney, Judd or Kirk?
Matthew Richardson was rewarded with the other midfield position, as he was regarded as the best 'utility' in 2008, playing wing/key forward. Had Lance Franklin not played in attack, he may well have joined Richardson on the wing.
'Buddy', Brendan Fevola, Nick Riewoldt and Matthew Pavlich edged out Jonathan Brown and Daniel Bradshaw for the tall forward posts. Ryan O'Keefe was chosen as the mid-sized forward, with Brent Harvey joining Akermanis as the other small in attack.
Key talls Matthew Scarlett, Sam Fisher and Nathan Bock were locked in down back, with Corey Enright, Luke Hodge and Goddard making up the rest of the defensive unit.
Like most teams, two ruckmen were named – Dean Cox and Aaron Sandilands.
Cox was unquestionably the best all-around ruckman in 2008 – a remarkable achievement, considering he played much of the season with a broken foot. Sandilands won more hit outs – and to advantage – than any ruckman in 2008.
Twelve clubs have been represented, but there are no players from Collingwood, Essendon, Port Adelaide and Melbourne. Not surprisingly, five of the 25-man squad is from Geelong.
Fellow top-four teams Hawthorn, Western Bulldogs and St Kilda have three players each.
Only seven players were not involved in finals – Richardson (Richmond), Black (Brisbane Lions), Fevola and Judd (Carlton), Pavlich and Sandilands (Fremantle) and Cox (West Coast).
Still, every effort was made to reward the finest 2008 players while still acknowledging the respective positions; never an easy task, but that's the scenario when choosing the team of the year.
Click here to see Matt Burgan's full team list and profiles
