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...
545th - Jason Horne-Francis
2024 rank: 19
Jason Horne-Francis' injury-interrupted 2025 sees him take a fair tumble down our rankings 12 months on, but he remains one of the more exciting young midfield bulls in the league.
Excluding the two matches where Horne-Francis was substituted out of the game early, he averaged a career-high 23.2 disposals per game as well as 5.3 clearances.
Ultimately, the fact that the 22-year-old excitement machine only played in half of Port Adelaide's fixtures hurts his chances of being represented further up, but there's a real possibility JHF finds himself back inside the top 20 in 2026.
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.