Round 21 presented a wealth of classy performances from this season's batch of rookies, several of whom made notable impacts in big wins for their respective clubs.
A Melbourne midfielder has made his case to make a late charge for top spot in this week's Rookie Rankings, while two defenders have jumped up a rung in pursuit of a top-five finish.
Selection Criteria: Zero Hanger's Rookie Rankings ONLY consider players who have made their debut this season. Other players who may still be eligible for a Rising Star nomination but have already made their debut before the 2025 season will not be considered. I.e. Rising Star eligible players such as Nate Caddy, Dan Curtin and Connor O'Sullivan are ineligible, having already played an AFL match before Opening Round, 2025. Suspension does not make a player ineligible for our Rookie Rankings.
Honourable mentions:
Taj Hotton (Richmond) - 14 disposals, five marks, five score involvements
Xavier Lindsay (Melbourne) - Nine disposals, two goals
Luke Trainor (Richmond) - 14 disposals, three tackles
77. Sam Lalor (-)
Lalor remains in seventh as he recovers from the nasty hamstring injury he suffered against Geelong back in Round 17, which ended his rookie campaign.
Despite this, it's hard to eliminate Lalor from the top eight, considering his impact in 11 games with the Tigers. If you exclude his two matches against Essendon and Geelong, where he exited the game early with injury, Lalor averaged 14.4 disposals and 5.2 score involvements per game, similar to the levels of production seen by first-year stars Murphy Reid and Max Hall.
It highlights how damaging Lalor can be at full strength, so while it's unfortunate his rookie year has not gone to plan, his small sample size is certainly enough to get excited over for the Richmond faithful.
Defender
Marks
Disposals
Goals
