Fremantle captain Nat Fyfe leads the group of 10 to miss the top 10 of the AFL Top 50 rankings
Advertiser Sports Editor-at-large Michelangelo Rucci is closing in on his Top 10 AFL players but one superstar has slipped from that elite group into 11-20 bracket.
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FOR every player in the AFL’s top-10 rankings, there is a rival not far off the mark to claiming the “elite” tag.
They make up the 11-20 group in the AFL Top 50 ... and many could well prove themselves top-10 players again by October.
This certainly is the case with Fremantle captain Nat Fyfe, new Crows co-captain Rory Sloane, Western Bulldogs pin-up boy Marcus Bontempelli and Greater Western Sydney defender Lachie Whitfield.
And some, by the form shown in Season 2018, might just slip further in the rankings with an erosion of their credit points built up across a decade with outstanding football form. In this category is Collingwood captain and polished midfielder Scott Pendlebury.
This 11-20 group is loaded with players who are either rising in status by expectation or falling as a new crop of superstars emerges.
Each has his challenge in Season 2019. How does Sloane respond to taggers? How does 2018 All-Australian captain Alex Rance change his game in the Richmond defence to deal with the 6-6-6 start-up rule if opposition forwards get great service from a winning midfield?
Will Crows midfielder Matt Crouch keep developing new edges to his game to make his big possession numbers count more and more against opposition teams?
And can West Coast premiership forward Josh Kennedy - already an important team player for the Eagles - emerge as the AFL’s best key forward?
It is a season of great expectation for this group of 10 players.
And tomorrow the elite, the game’s top-10 players to watch in Season 2019.
AFL TOP 50
11-20
11. NAT FYFE (Fremantle)
IF only the 2015 Brownlow Medallist would start a new season without an injury cloud - or without surgery, as he has this year (to clear an elbow problem). Still appears the ideal footballer who can be so effective in the midfield - and so threatening in attack where his upper-body strength and skills terrify defenders.
12. STEELE SIDEBOTTOM (Collingwood)
FINALLY was able to step out of the shadows of Collingwood’s much-lauded midfielders to earn his first All-Australian selection last season. So much of Sidebottom’s work is so good, but the “elite” tag still needs to be earned by the Magpies’ outside midfielder.
13. MARCUS BONTEMPELLI (W Bulldogs)
PERHAPS so much is expected of “The Bont” or he is not part of a fashionable line-up. Certainly there is a huge amount loaded on Bontempelli’s shoulders. His ability to rise above these demands - to consistently deliver - will push him to the AFL top-10 rankings.
14. RORY SLOANE (Adelaide)
A TOUGH season for the Crows’ spiritual leader last year as a foot injury for Sloane - and those pesky taggers - hurt his productivity. But his spirit and work ethic are never in question. A confirmed leadership role - as joint captain with Taylor Walker - should not burden Sloane as he proved in 2014 as co-captain with Patrick Dangerfield.
15. ALEX RANCE (Richmond)
AN interesting year looms for many key defenders who are clearly the big losers from the new 6-6-6 rule that stops key forwards from being double-teamed or cut-off by sweeping, intercept defenders such as Jeremy McGovern. Rance’s intercept work will be worth watching this season.
16. SCOTT PENDLEBURY (Collingwood)
ONCE a first-choice top-10 player, the long-serving Magpies captain is no longer holding to that status on last year’s form. The smooth-moving midfielder - who does understand the need to defend - is still a first-pick player. But his top-10 status has fallen by his form moving from “elite” to “above average”.
17. LACHIE WHITFIELD (GWS)
ONE of the classic half-backs - the type who get that annoying title of being a “quarter-back” because the Giants built their plays from Whitfield’s work. There will be greater attention put on cutting off Whitfield this season. If he overcomes this challenge, he pushes harder to the top-10 rankings.
18. ROBBIE GRAY (Port Adelaide)
HOW will Father Time treat one of Port Adelaide’s greatest players in its AFL story? The All-Australian midfielder-forward starts his 13th season having already celebrated his 30th birthday - and having overcome a serious knee injury early in 2012. He is still a match-winner.
19. MATT CROUCH (Adelaide)
SUCH a busy player, the young Crows midfielder - who has held AFL records for possession counts - need only advance to that crew that has quality mean more than quantity. Then Crouch will be in elite status.
20. JOSH KENNEDY (West Coast)
WEST Coast has won the long game in the Kennedy-Chris Judd trade. But when the title of “best key forward” is handed out, it still stays with Sydney power forward Lance Franklin. It is telling that the Eagles win more often (13-1 last season) with Kennedy in the side (compared with the 6-5 count when he was missing with injury last year).
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