The forward line is the glamour position in Australian football, home to the game's most famous and loved players.
The key forward often grabs the headlines with match-winning hauls and highlight-reel moments, providing the finishing touch that turns dominance into scoreboard pressure.
These five superstars epitomise that and will look to spearhead their respective club's attacks again in 2026.
So, who are the favourites to claim the leading goalkicker title this year? And more importantly, could any of them break the elusive 100-goal barrier?
Honourable mentions: Aaron Cadman, Logan Morris, Mitch Georgiades, Nick Larkey, Riley Thilthorpe
3Sam Darcy
If not for a knee injury that disrupted the middle part of his year, Darcy was on pace to kick 70 goals in 2025, highlighting just how close he is to making the AFL his world.
The physical gifts that Darcy possesses make him an almost impossible task for defenders, with the combination of his size, strength and surprising mobility enabling him to dominate aerially but also at the drop of the ball. Among key forwards, Darcy has the second-best win rate of offensive one-on-one contests, claiming victory in 40.4 per cent of his 3.4 per game.
Similarly to King, Darcy has an impressive shot accuracy of 63 per cent. If he can remain fully fit in 2026 and bolster his shots at goal to the levels of a Jeremy Cameron or Jack Gunston, he could very easily take home this award - and potentially become the first Bulldog to eclipse 80 goals in a single season since the great Simon Beasley accomplished the feat in 1988.
assuming he stays injury free, then I reckon Mitch Lewis might surprise a few.