Welcome to Zero Hanger's top 50 player rankings for 2025 - a list based primarily on a player's 2025 production in addition to their career pedigree and future projections.
The bar is as high as ever to impact as an AFL footballer consistently, let alone to a star level. All-Australian discussions are in constant debate as several guns often find themselves snubbed from proper recognition.
Here is the final edition (10-1) of our top 50 AFL players of 2025...
READ: PART 1 (50-41)
READ: PART 2 (40-31)
READ: PART 3 (30-21)
READ: PART 4 (20-11)
9th - Max Gawn
2024 rank: 8
Max Gawn remains the league's most dominant and influential ruckman, and perhaps the best captain in the competition too.
While Gawn was unable to guide the Demons' ship back to September, the soon-to-be 34-year-old's influence was as elite as ever, averaging a career-high 20.7 disposals, 5.7 marks and 6.8 score involvements, mitigating an intraclub cultural disaster with on and off-field class.
His ability at stoppages is unmatched, while his off-ball work rate to either get behind the next kick or push forward to add to the scoreboard is just as damaging, and was worthy name to equal the All-Australian blazer record this year, sharing the honour with fellow greats Gary Ablett Jnr, Patrick Dangerfield, Lance Franklin, Robert Harvey and Mark Ricciuto.
Time will tell if he can break the record in 2026, but there's every possibility the twilight years of Gawn's stellar career aren't here just yet.
