Robbo’s Top 50: Mark Robinson names his top 50 AFL players ahead of the 2024 season
He’s not what he was, but it’s hard to argue still that there’s many better than Dustin Martin. Check out where Dusty ranks among the AFL’s best in Robbo’s Top 50.
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They’re the playmakers, or the free-wheelers, the midfielders who get a license to think creative offence ahead of disciplined defence.
Dusty and Richmond were the kings of it.
Martin had/has free rein to hunt the pill and others, namely Kane Lambert, the half-forward with a defensive bent, would be the midfield cover man.
Collingwood’s Jordan De Goey is Mr Offensive.
He’ll be a number at the stoppages, but bet your last $20 he’s thinking, as the ball is bounced, what carnage can I inflict now?
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His teammate Nick Daicos might be the best link man in the game. Not might. He is. And he’s only 21.
Not sure he’s taken more than a handful of contested marks in his two-year career, but that’s not his go. He’s there to see what others can’t. The gaps. The next play. He’s Mr Imagination.
Those two players fill two spots in the top 10, and if it was a top 60 and not a top 50, another teammate, Jack Crisp, would be nudging it. Crisp defends, but he takes every opportunity to find space and gallop.
Bulldog Marcus Bontempelli is the most complete player. He freewheels, he defends, he wins the contested ball, he takes contested marks, he mops up clearances. He’s everything. He’s 193cm and note that the great Wayne Carey played at 191cm. What a powerhouse player Bontempelli is.
He’s No.1 ahead of Port Adelaide’s Zak Butters at No.2.
Butters is the dynamo. He’s quick, brave and smart as a rat and although lacking the suaveness of Daicos, he’s equally as damaging. Those two represent the new world order.
Christian Petracca is the next of the freewheelers. He’s 28 and at the top of his game. It’s been said before, if only he could kick straighter in front of goal.
Toby Greene is the highest-ranked forward, ahead of Charlie Curnow. A so-so finals series last year doesn’t dictate Curnow’s No.6 placing, because the pre-season Top 50 is a look ahead to the end of this year, but there’s no doubt, if the Blues play finals, the focus will be extreme on Charlie in that first week.
Jeremy Cameron returns to his rightful place, while Giant Sam Taylor is the highest-ranked defender ahead of James Sicily and Tom Stewart.
Tom Green, Connor Rozee, Errol Gulden, Noah Anderson and Luke Davies-Uniacke complete the arrival of the young guns, and they are all inside the Top 20. Footy is in good hands.
If Sydney’s Gulden can consolidate on his breakout season of ’23, a Brownlow Medal is in his grasp, as well as a challenge to the top five players.
Newbies are Keidean Coleman at Brisbane (No.37), Hawks best and fairest winner and runner-up Will Day (No.50) and Jai Newcombe (No.28), Luke Jackson (No.44), Matt Rowell (No.46) and Jamarra-Ugle-Hagan (No.49).
The young Bulldog beat out his teammate Aaron Naughton, who appears set to play a higher role, while another Bulldog, Tim English, also missed.
Ugle-Hagan has the footy world at his feet and a sizeable contract in his hand.
You might ask how can the All-Australian ruckman in English not be in the Top 50?
You might also ask why a player who finished seventh in the Bulldogs’ best and fairest and for a team which didn’t play finals should be in the Top 50?
The most difficult spot was No.50. It went to Day ahead of the likes of Quaynor, Houston, Warner, Mitch Lewis, Rankine, Langford, Dunkley, Laird, Vlastuin, Luke Ryan, the King brothers, Fritsch, Sheezel, Wilkie, Liberatore and Taranto.
The most gut-wrenching call was leaving out walk-up Hall of Famer Patrick Dangerfield. He’s been a top 50 player for 12 years, and a top 10 player for half of that time, and although his brilliance remains, there’s queries about his consistency.
Originally published as Robbo’s Top 50: Mark Robinson names his top 50 AFL players ahead of the 2024 season
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