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...

646th - Mitch Georgiades

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 27: Mitch Georgiades of the Power controls the ball during the round three AFL match between Essendon Bombers and Port Adelaide Power at Marvel Stadium, on March 27, 2025, in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 27: Mitch Georgiades of the Power controls the ball during the round three AFL match between Essendon Bombers and Port Adelaide Power at Marvel Stadium, on March 27, 2025, in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

2024 rank: N/A

Mitch Georgiades was one of the few sources of inspiration for the Power going forward in 2025, leading Port Adelaide with 58 goals - 31 more than the next Power goalkicker.

It was a career-best output for Georgiades, and there's potential for him to get even better in 2026. Newly appointed senior coach Josh Carr is hunting to add more avenues to attack inside 50 in his system, while Georgiades shot at a subpar 51.8% accuracy in 2025 - the fourth-lowest accuracy among players who kicked 40-plus goals this season.

If that returns to a respectable 60% in 2026, Georgiades could easily kick 60-70 goals, based on his volume from the past two years.

Georgiades also had one of the highest rates of score involvement in the league this year, contributing to 29.6% of all Port Adelaide scores.

Among forwards, only Jack Gunston had a higher rate (32.0%), indicating the level of impact Georgiades offers for Port Adelaide.

1 COMMENT

  1. 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.

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