Western Bulldogs champion Marcus Bontempelli, Collingwood young gun Nick Daicos, and Melbourne star Christian Petracca.Credit: Photos: Getty Images. Artwork: Aresna Villanueva
Marcus Bontempelli and Nick Daicos would not be a difficult quinella, if one could bet on the best pair of footballers in the competition.
Placing the champions in order and selecting one as top dog, so to speak, was more challenging.
Eventually, I gave Bontempelli the narrow nod over Daicos, whose production in his first three seasons has been unprecedented since the introduction of the draft.
The pair effectively duelled in the Collingwood-Bulldogs game in round 12 of last year, when “the Bont” had 38 disposals and just shaded Daicos (32 and two goals). Bontempelli’s size and overhead marking prowess hand him a marginal edge over Collingwood’s wunderkind, whose advantages are pace and slightly superior ball use.
Bontempelli has earned his position, not simply on the back of another MVP season in 2024. These rankings borrow the international golf rankings method of using a two-year period (minimum, in my case) to ensure that players have a sustained form line.
This exercise is simply about who’s the best, not the most irreplaceable (which involves team defects as much as player quality). The ability to influence games, consistently, is the primary measure of a player’s worth.
Why the top 30, and not the first 50, the template established by Mike Sheahan back in the ’90s?
To be top 30 in an 18-team competition defines a footballer as genuinely elite – an average of fewer than two players per club.
If you’re top 30 in 2025, you’re entitled to be paid a million dollars or thereabouts (the Brisbane Lions’ Will Ashcroft, as a third-year player, will be paid much less).
Sydney, Geelong, Carlton, GWS and the Lions each have three players rated inside 30. St Kilda and Richmond have none, despite Jack Sinclair’s quality. Several clubs – Collingwood, Essendon, Fremantle, Gold Coast, North Melbourne, West Coast and the Bulldogs – have one on the list.
Hawthorn captain James Sicily.Credit: Getty Images
While seven of the top 10 are midfielders, I’ve sought to recognise defenders and key forwards in a way that both the umpires and media awards don’t. Accordingly, there are a number of intercepting or rebounding backmen, headed by Tom Stewart and James Sicily.
Christian Petracca’s placement at No.3 will draw some arguments. Mine is based on what Petracca produced over two or three seasons and on his underlying potency; he wasn’t as effective as Isaac Heeney, Patrick Cripps, Zak Butters or Lachie Neale in 2024, no. But, at his best, he’s ahead of that group.
Jesse Hogan at 12 is another eyebrow-raiser but if you watched the Giants often, it wouldn’t be. He was comfortably the best-performed key forward of last year.
The 30 highlights the scarcity of elite ruckmen – Max Gawn is sui generis (of his own kind). It was perhaps surprising that there was no small forward deemed worthy besides Izak Rankine, a forward who moonlights in the midfield.
Another 20-25 players were close. These included Port skipper Connor Rozee, rising Sun Matt Rowell, St Kilda’s Sinclair, Collingwood recruit Dan Houston, Carlton’s Sam Walsh, key backs Sam Taylor (GWS) and Steven May (Melbourne), smooth mover Josh Kelly (GWS), Sydney’s Nick Blakey and Fremantle’s Hayden Young and Andrew Brayshaw.
The top 30
Rankings consider the player’s consistency, capacity to influence games and are formed over at least the previous two seasons.
Western Bulldogs skipper Marcus Bontempelli is the best in the business.Credit: Getty Images
In a line-ball contest with Daicos, the Bulldog skipper’s imposing size, overhead game and versatility give him a small edge. Jake Stringer carried the label of “the Package”. Bontempelli, who does everything conceivable for his team, is worthy of that moniker.
Has there been a better player in years one to three since the draft? I don’t think even Chris Judd matched the Marvel’s son. Quick, evasive, brilliant with the ball and owning the work rate that marks midfield champions, Daicos is a rare instance of artistry and mass production.
Melbourne’s season – and the president’s tenure – effectively ended after Petracca left the field on King’s Birthday and while 2024 wasn’t a happy season for “Trac”, he still polled 16 Brownlow votes. Possesses strength, touch, acceleration and Dusty-like forward menace.
The Demons sorely missed injured star Christian Petracca in 2024.Credit: Getty Images
It’s easy to focus on what the indomitable Cripps can’t do – run quickly, kick with precision. What he can do is a) win the ball in contests as well as anyone, and b), elevate his game to drag the Blues over the line.
Heeney was close to the AFL’s best player for much of 2024, and his hobbled horror grand final shouldn’t override his series of match-turning games, in the midfield and attack, including the first finals.
Curnow is the game’s premier key forward, with spring heels, a huge tank and rocket right boot. He only needs to bring that A-game to finals now. Michael Voss should remember Charlie’s knee in prayers.
If he wasn’t the best player of 2023, when he took a second Brownlow, Neale was stiff not to take the Norm Smith Medal last year. Damaging both inside and outside the contest and metronomic in output.
Butters was likened to Gary Ablett jnr in his early days, his lateral movement, smarts and reckless attack on the footy compensating for his modest size in a time of monster midfielders.
The genial skipper is in another universe to other ruckmen, and the only ruck to make this top 30. Transforms games from both ruck contests and with his marking.
Melbourne’s Max Gawn is in a class of his own.Credit: AFL Photos
“Jezza” doesn’t soar like the last player known by that abbreviation, but his skills and goal sense for a 196-centimetre forward are ludicrous. Bananas, dribblers on the run, snaps, he has much of Lance Franklin’s tool kit.
Warner’s pace/power combination allows him to burst tackles in a single bound and his 32 goals in 2024 led AFL mids. If he leaves as a free agent, he’ll be rich enough for Perth’s Peppermint Grove.
Hogan is the code’s best current advertisement for seeking sanctuary in Sydney, where only one of 1000 would spot him a line-up. Brilliant at reading the ball in flight and body work, Hogan has belatedly fulfilled his early promise.
Rival teams put so much work into Stewart – a measure of his influence – that coach Chris Scott moved him upfield like a chess piece, with considerable success. Few defenders read the game like him.
Serong is Fremantle’s best player. In the old world, he’d be a classic rover. Skilled, brave and indefatigable.
Sicily isn’t dissimilar to Stewart – not key position size but a defender whom the opposition is compelled to defend. Aerially brilliant, adept on the deck, Sicily also impacts as relocated forward.
Much like a less-visible version of Cripps, Green is a huge body who just gets the footy in the scrimmages.
Arguably the most structurally important Lion, Collingwood won the premiership in 2023 by blanketing Andrews with a defensive Billy Frampton, but the Swans failed on that (and every other) score last year. A superb interceptor/spoiler.
Harris Andrews (left) and Lachie Neale with last year’s premiership cup.Credit: AFL Photos
Merrett’s problem is akin to Nathan Buckley for much of his Collingwood playing days, his frustrations fuelled by the club’s inability to find players of his professional standards and capability. A surgeon with the Sherrin.
Yes, higher than many would have him, but he’s an electrifying match-winner, in attack and periodic bursts through the middle.
Horne-Francis has Patrick Dangerfield’s power, pace and contested capacity. An immense talent, should be a top-10 player soon.
McGovern overcame injuries in 2024 to remind everyone that there was an interceptor-in-chief before Stewart, Sicily et al. Looks like a country footballer, doesn’t play like one.
A kid who arrived at Arden St with more footy nous and higher standards than nearly the whole list. An utterly bankable ball magnet.
Young Roo Harry Sheezel.Credit: AFL Photos
Gulden shreds the opposition with that laser left boot, outside speed and endurance. Curtailed somewhat via tagging late last year.
Greene had a relatively down 2024, but his 2023 and every previous year is sufficient to keep him top 30. Equal parts brilliance and brutality, I expect a rebound.
Composed on and off-field, Anderson just shades teammate Rowell in the pecking order. Hard-running and hard at the contest.
Holmes inherited his Olympian sprinting mother Lee Naylor’s acceleration. He took off, in every sense, during 2024. If not for his hammy in the preliminary final, the Cats might have been premiers.
A fluent mover with superb skills, Dawson’s class stands apart in a blue-collar midfield brigade.
Newcombe has been undersold, in part because he was plucked mid-season from Box Hill. A midfield beast who can run; superb in the 2024 finals.
Hard to shift in marking tussles, Weitering improved his team defence and intercepting in 2023-24, heeding Aaron Hamill’s instruction, “It’s not your man, it’s our man”.
Numbers over two seasons would not put midfielder Ashcroft in the top 30. What I’ve witnessed – especially last September – suggests otherwise.
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