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 second edition (40-31) of our top 50 AFL players right now...
READ: PART 1 (50-41)
38th - Aaron Naughton
2024 rank: N/A
Aaron Naughton took his goalkicking game to new heights in 2025, booting a career-high 60 goals in 23 matches, which included five hauls of five or more goals.
Naughton's dominance inside forward 50 wasn't instant this year, opening the season with just five goals from four games, including a three-week patch between Rounds 2 and 4 where he managed just five shots at goal.
However, in the 19 games that followed, Naughton kicked multiple goals 14 times and, between Rounds 16 and 24, kicked fewer than three goals just twice (two goals vs Brisbane and Fremantle).
The Bulldogs' attack was historic in 2025, becoming the first club since Adelaide in 2016 to kick an average of 16 goals per game, and Naughton's monstrous efforts played a major factor in that.
