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.
We have accumulated who we believe are the league's best of the best, but before it is unveiled, here is a list of players who just missed the cut:
Unlucky to miss:
Patrick Cripps
Josh Daicos
Nick Vlastuin
Darcy Cameron
Gryan Miers
Touk Miller
George Hewett
Shai Bolton
Josh Worrell
Josh Battle
Here is the first edition (50-41) of our top 50 AFL players right now...
1050th - Tom Liberatore
2024 rank: N/A
Liberatore continues to defy Father Time and remains one of the Bulldogs' most influential players on a weekly basis.
He's a key cog in the engine room and particularly elevated his game in the first month of 2025 while Marcus Bontempelli was sidelined with an injury, averaging 29.2 disposals in the first five rounds.
The median Player Rating score for a midfielder this season was 8.83. Liberatore, at 33 years old, recorded a Player Rating lower than that just four times in 2025 from 23 matches.
The only other midfielder aged 30 or older this season to record a higher Player Rating than Tom Liberatore? Marcus Bontempelli. That highlights just how brilliant Liberatore remains and deservedly slides inside the top 50 players of 2025.
You have to wonder how these lists are compiled. What do they look for? Clearly it is the flashy players. Collingwood played in the Preliminary Final despite only having 2 players in the top 50. Port Adelaide, Western Bulldogs and Melbourne had, apparently, more of the best players in the competition but couldn’t even make the finals. Go figure.