Editing Spectacular mark (section)

== Stepladder and springboard ==

In [[Australian words|Australian slang]], a '''stepladder''' describes the player over whom another player [[Mark (Australian football)|mark]]s to take a ''specky''. In the past, full-backs have been renowned for inadvertently acting as stepladders.

Some players have achieved fame for their role as stepladders of famous marks, including [[Graeme Jenkin|Graeme "Jerker" Jenkin]], who was the stepladder for Alex Jesaulenko's mark in the [[1970 VFL grand final|1970 VFL Grand Final]]. Melbourne band [[TISM]] wrote the 1986 song "The Back Upon Which Jezza Jumped" about him.

Strong [[Football (Australian rules) positions|full-back]]s [[Gary Pert]], [[Mick Martyn (Australian footballer)|Mick Martyn]], [[Chris Langford]] and [[Matthew Scarlett]] have been stepladders for speckies on multiple occasions.

[[Warren Tredrea]] was the stepladder of a rare Grand Final spectacular mark taken by [[Paul Chapman (footballer, born 1981)|Paul Chapman]] in the [[2007 AFL Grand Final]].

In some rare cases, a would-be stepladder becomes a '''springboard''' when the marking player gets a secondary boost off another player. A famous example is a 2001 Essendon–Western Bulldogs game where Essendon's [[Gary Moorcroft]] took [[Mark of the Year]] by using Western Bulldogs' [[Brad Johnson (Australian footballer)|Brad Johnson]] as a springboard, a mark which many consider to be the greatest mark of all time.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The greatest EVER mark confirmed: The fans have spoken |url=https://www.afl.com.au/news/632065/so-what-is-the-greatest-mark-ever-the-fans-have-spoken |access-date=2022-08-07 |website=afl.com.au |language=en}}</ref>