The identity of the injured Brendan Whitecross’ replacement in the Hawthorn line-up for Saturday’s grand final is sure to fill plenty of column space over the next few days.

Yesterday’s VFL grand final provided a perfect dress rehearsal for the candidates to put their hands up for the chance to play in two premierships in as many weeks.

There’s Anderson, Savage, Duryea, Cheney and the Norm Goss medallist, Jonathan Simpkin, all in contention if the Hawks want to go with a like-for-like replacement and bolster its midfield depth or outside run.

The selection committee has a tough decision to make, but if left solely to the fans, the selection would be clear-cut – it would be Matthew Spangher or as he is more commonly referred to Sir Matthew Spangher.

While hardly football royalty, the 26-year-old has assumed cult figure status over the last month with his long flowing hair, bushy beard, athleticism and team-first ethos.

Now at his third club in eight years, this AFL journeyman has played just four AFL games this year, but his work in the VFL has been top notch and people have only recently started to take notice.

Read the Matt Spangher story here

Earlier this month a Facebook page, titled Sir Matthew Spangher, was created to lobby for his inclusion in the Hawthorn side.

While the contributions to this page might be a little generous and its validity questionable, the support is genuine. The page rightly highlights Geelong has beaten Hawthorn eleven times without Spangher, but not once with Spangher (he hasn’t played for Hawthorn against Geelong before) however, it’s claim the All-Australian selectors made a mistake in announcing Jeremy Cameron at full-forward instead of Spangher is less credible.

The page has attracted more than 8000 followers in just two weeks and the noise inside Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon sounded more like a gathering of the faithful than that of two teams playing in a VFL grand final.

Every time Spangher got his hands on the ball, the crowd roared and the cheers were deafening when he was presented with his premiership medallion. He must have posed for 50 photos after the game – he may have even kissed a baby.

To say that his selection prospects are based solely on his fan-favoritism would be unfair, he was one of Hawthorn’s best in the Qualifying Final win against Sydney and was unlucky despite making way for Lance Franklin for Friday night’s preliminary. With his 19-possesion-performance in defense, Spangher was beaten by just one vote in the Norm Goss medal voting for the best player on the ground yesterday.

There is little doubt that if a key position goes down with injury this week, then Spangher is the first in. However, if the power of the people has any impact he might just find his way into the team regardless.