Monfries is the AFL's deadliest player close to goal

PORT Adelaide small forward Angus Monfries has kicked more close-range goals than any other player in the AFL this season.

ANGUS Monfries is the AFL's great poacher.

Port Adelaide's prized small forward has kicked more goals from close range than any other player this season.

Of Monfries' career-high 35 goals, 13 have been booted from within 15 metres of the big sticks.

This is one more than GWS star Jeremy Cameron and two more than his next-closest rivals, Hawthorn's Jack Gunston and Jarryd Roughead, Fremantle goalsneak Chris Mayne and North Melbourne livewire Lindsay Thomas.

Monfries - whose freak left-foot snap shot from 40m in the dying stages helped the Power beat Adelaide in Showdown XXXV - has patrolled the goalsquare like a panther.

There has been no more dangerous predator than him this year.

Most of his close goals (seven) have come from general play when he has brilliantly read the ball off hands and reacted the fastest to a loose ball.

The other six have come from marks and free kicks.

Of his 22 other goals, eight have been kicked from 15-30m, six from 31-40m and eight from 41-50m. He has not kicked a goal from outside 50m, having scored just one behind from that distance.

But the former Bomber - who kicked a career-high seven goals against premiership contender Geelong at Simonds Stadium on Saturday - has been deadly when he gets a good look at the big white uprights.

Port teammate Robbie Gray, who also is dangerous around goal, lauded Monfries' performances in his first year at Alberton.

Monfries' 35 goals sit one behind Jay Schulz and Chad Wingard in the intriguing race to be the Power's leading goalkicker.

Once impotent in attack, Port is the only club to have three players in the top-16 goalkickers in the league this year.

Monfries, who booted 165 goals in 150 games for Essendon, has come better than advertised for the Power, which with an 11-8 record is heading for its first finals campaign since 2007.

"He's been massive for us,'' Gray said of Port's latest weapon.

"Obviously he's got a fair bit of experience and he has come in and played his role really well.

"He had a great game on the weekend and he's had different jobs throughout the year.

"He's played as a defensive forward sometimes and he's done his job there as well.

"On the weekend he was able to slot a few (goals) and he's one of those guys who just seem to play his role really well every week.''

Gray said Monfries' ability to get hold of the ball so close to goal came down to his "smarts'' and fitness.

"He reads the game well and he's really fit, so he can get up and down the ground really well,'' he said.

"That's another reason why he's able to get over the back (of defenders) so well.''

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