With players returning from their end-of-season break and getting back into the swing of things for pre-season, the 2027 season slowly keeps getting closer.
Established players will want to dominate training sessions while emerging young stars will want to push their case forward for a round one start.
Each player has something to work on with the season nearing, a lot more than others, and these are the AFL players from each club with the most to prove heading into 2027.
Geelong
Tanner Bruhn
After missing the whole 2025 season due to legal proceedings, Bruhn was able to play 23 out of the 25 games in 2026 in what was a good year back for the 24-year-old.
Chris Scott moved Bruhn from the midfield into a rebounding half-back role for the year, and he started the year great before some inconsistent performances questioned whether it was the best position for him.
Bruhn was a regular in the Cats' midfield before 2025. In 2023 he attended 273 centre bounces, 289 in 2024 (4th most for the club), which dropped to only 130 this year with a move to half-back.
A large reason for this dramatic drop-off was because of both missing a year of footy and their growing midfield consisting of recruits Bailey Smith and James Worpel, Oisin Mullin playing larger tagging roles alongside Max Holmes and Tom Atkins.
Burhn will look to find some more consistency and eliminate games with disposals in the low to middle teens, but he was able to rack up more than 25 disposals on nine occasions throughout the season, and a career-high 31 in opening round.
