Who to watch in the AFL this season with new rules and new expectations
A new AFL season is here — with new rules to make some players more important than ever before. Sports Editor At Large Michelangelo Rucci counts down his Top 50 players, starting with 31-50.
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A NEW AFL season, a new rule book and a new set of expectations ... along with a new top 50 list.
But a certainty amid change is how the best players always adapt to stand out from the rest.
Season 2019 is - with the new rules designed to clear congestion - carrying the promise of making ruckman more valuable, inside midfielders more important for their clearance work and every player with pristine ball-delivery skills more admired.
Defenders are to be more challenged by one-on-one contests.
Forwards are to have more opportunities - and fewer moments of being “double-teamed” in marking contests.
As noted by Sydney premiership coach Paul Roos, the guest speaker at The Advertiser Foundation AFL season launch lunch this month, top-level Australian football is to be reshaped again.
“It will change a bit,” said Roos, a 356-game champion with Fitzroy and Sydney before he guided the Swans and Melbourne as a coach.
“If you have a good midfield, you have a big advantage now. They are working to even numbers in the forward line. A good midfield winning clearances and working to a good attack will do well.”
And there is supposed to be more speed - and much more space in which very good players should be most damaging.
Critically, the AFL football boss Steve Hocking is aiming for a game to be decided more by the instinctive skills of a player rather than the collective minds of the coach’s boxes.
The proof in Hocking’s salvation play for football is now to be put up for assessment in a long, demanding winter in the 18-team national competition.
The countdown of the AFL’s top-50 players - based on the form they showed last season and the promise many are to live up to this year - begins today and continues as a subscriber exclusive daily at 11am on Advertiser.com.au with the crowning of the top-10 on Friday morning and the list of 50 will appear in Saturday’sprint edition of The Advertiser.
PLAYER TO WATCH
BRODIE Smith returns full time to the Crows defence - after almost a year on the sidelines with a knee injury and just two AFL games at the end of last season. The metre-gaining half-back immediately enters the AFL top-50.
Smith is at No. 39, in recognition of his strength to change the game with his penetrating kicks that will not only give Adelaide critical rebound from the back half of the field. He also will load up a refreshed Crows attack that intends to be the AFL pacesetter again, as it was in 2017 when it regularly broke the watershed 100-point barrier.
Smith’s ranking also is built on promise - and the opportunity to be a game changer by the changes to the game’s rules, in particular the new kick-in zone after a behind.
No longer is the kick-in specialist hemmed to the nine-metre goalsquare. He can now draw out the play with a further 10 metres - and with his long kick, Smith can take the play immediately from the opposition’s goalfront to Adelaide’s forward half.
“We’re reasonably happy with that (rule change) - particularly when we get (long-kicking) Brodie Smith back (from a knee injury),” Camporeale told SEN1629 last month in reflecting on how the Crows have spent the summer reviewing the rule changes.
“Those extra 10 metres for Brodie to kick the ball out of the back half are a bonus.”
Smith, 27, returns to AFL football for the first time since he was struck down by anterior cruciate ligament damage to his right knee in the home qualifying final against Geelong in early September 2017.
The silver lining from Adelaide’s fall from grand finalist in 2017 to 12th last year is the hold that was kept on Smith, who might have rushed his return to AFL football if the Crows were in the finals race last season.
The extra time in recovery and recuperation must make Smith a sounder player for Season 2019 when he looms as one of the big game changers.
AFL TOP 50
Players 31-50
31. ANDREW GAFF (West Coast)
WAS in career-best form last season - and a critical part of the Eagles’ rise to the top of the AFL rankings. No wonder North Melbourne was prepared to sell the farm to claim his free-agency signature. The depth and strength of the new West Coast engine is highlighted by the flag being won while Gaff served his long suspension for the inexcusable snap in the Brayshaw moment.
32. TOM HAWKINS (Geelong)
PROBABLY should have claimed the Coleman Medal as the AFL leading goalkicker last season (falling five behind winner Jack Riewoldt at Richmond). Hawkins’ conversion rate (59 per cent last season) is a strong pointer to how he will again challenge for this honour this season - and keep Geelong in the top-eight field.
33. DAVID MUNDY (Fremantle)
SUCH a busy and effective player with one concerning flaw - finishing off his plays. In a 294-game career with the Dockers, Mundy has scored 129.105 but in the past two seasons Champion Data has marked Mundy with a less-than 50 per cent accuracy rate. But he is always in the action.
34. SHANE EDWARDS (Richmond)
NAMED last on the All-Australian 22 last season ... but the selectors could not ignore his influence in setting up his Richmond team-mates with scoreboard opportunities. Could slip this season or he could embarrass those who raised their eyebrows with his All-Australian honour. Hard to call.
35. DYSON HEPPELL (Essendon)
PLAYERS who win the ball are gold, even in a game that this season will offer more to those working in space. Someone has to get the ball to those outside runners, however. Heppell’s strength is grabbing possession; his weakness is delivering to his team-mates.
36. TOM McDONALD (Melbourne)
SIMON Goodwin made the call, again swinging McDonald from defence to attack - and he stood up as a big-time forward to rank in the top-six on the AFL goalkicking chart (53 goals). And he is strong on accuracy.
37. JOE DANIHER (Essendon)
HE is fit again. He is superb in collecting the ball, particularly when he has to make those long reaches to ground level. And he has work to do with his goalkicking. But Daniher could be the star in an Essendon line-up ready to charge to a strong position in the AFL top eight.
38. HARRIS ANDREWS (Brisbane)
JUST when Andrews was developing as the “next big thing” among defenders, Brisbane coach Chris Fagan - noting it is time for the Lions to win games - is primed to recast Andrews as a forward. Fascinating script emerging.
39. BRODIE SMITH (Adelaide)
BACK fully after a year on the sidelines with a serious right-knee injury that held him back until the Round 20 Showdown last season - and already primed by the Crows coaching staff to be the most-powerful rebound player from the Adelaide defence.
40. LUKE BREUST (Hawthorn)
RELIABLE both for his durability and his work as a forward - and extremely productive. Could be even more damaging inside and outside the forward-50 arc with the game’s move to starting positions with the 6-6-6 rule.
41. JOEL SELWOOD (Geelong)
A POINTER to the Geelong captain’s fall in the rankings is how the midfielder failed to earn an All-Australian nomination for the first time since 2007. But Selwood still in the “elite” category for his clearances at centre bounces - a quality that will be treasured even more this season by teams seeking to take advantage of the extra space around the centre square at restarts.
42. JOSH KELLY (GWS)
ONE of the game’s best ball movers. Not noted for being in premier company for winning the ball at clearances, but outstanding in picking the right targets in attack - and delivering to them with high efficiency.
43. LUKE SHUEY (West Coast)
SLIPPED in overall productivity last season, but still one of the game’s classy midfielders who - in the grand final win against Collingwood - proved that he will work in the trenches when the big occasions demand telling results.
44. TOM JONAS (Port Adelaide)
BY his own admission, the new Power captain notes he is not the AFL’s most-blessed player. But the Port Adelaide key defender has made it off the rookie list - and to the skipper’s role at Alberton - by not sparing any of his determination or ambition.
45. DEVON SMITH (Essendon)
BEST in the game for tackling in 2018, although some (such as legendary coach Malcolm Blight) will say tacking can be over-rated in a game that demands the ball be won first rather than gained second on a turnover. Ball use is still concerning.
46. DAYNE BEAMS (Collingwood)
BACK to the Magpies, the former Brisbane midfielder can be a very busy player. But he often works to his terms - and aims to get forward of the play rather than become too concerned with challenging his opponents with tackling or pressure.
47. JACK GUNSTON (Hawthorn)
WHO ranks (by the Champion Data points system) second - to Sydney power forward Lance Franklin - in the AFL’s list of key forwards? Gunston. If the Hawks move the ball quickly this season, Gunston again feature high on the AFL goalkicking charts.
48. TOM STEWART (Geelong)
A first-up All-Australian last season - in a back pocket - Stewart should be tested more often by one-on-one duels this season as the AFL’s new rules challenge the use of floating or sweeping defenders.
49. KANE LAMBERT (Richmond)
STRONG work ethic from the Richmond forward who last year developed a preference to opt for the handball rather than a kick. Also greater appetite for contested football captured the All-Australian selectors’ eyes.
50. SHAUN HIGGINS (N Melbourne)
SIGNIFICANT change in image by the move to the North Melbourne midfield earning All-Australian selection for the first time last season. And even at 31 Higgins does not appear to be flagging.
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