From its Rum Corps era infancy, Sydney has witnessed an unceasing battle for influence and control.

The contest, beneath a veneer of civility (and sometimes without even that) has a white-hot intensity for one simple reason: if you make it here, you get the keys to the kingdom. It’s no accident seven of the past nine prime ministers called the harbour city home.

And while power here takes many shapes, its most direct manifestation sits with our elected leaders.

So this year’s No. 1 in the power list is an elementary choice. With his commanding election triumph this year, Anthony Albanese is at the peak of his powers and arguably in the most authoritative position of any politician since Tony Abbott when he swept to power in 2013. The magnitude of his win enabled him to eclipse last year’s No.1 Chris Minns, who continues to dominate Macquarie St barely 15 months from his own electoral reckoning.

Yet while the top of the list remains fairly stable, further down there have been telling and significant moves.

Minns defers much of the strategic work to his hardworking treasurer Daniel Mookhey, paving the way for a meteoric rise up the power rankings.

And as the Brisbane Games loom over the horizon, so does the sun rise for Australian Olympic Committee chief executive Mark Arbib. He is on course to rival perennial top-10 occupant Peter V’landys as the most powerful figure in sport.

Also surging from relative obscurity, freshly-minted Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon is a logical addition to the top 10.

It’s an unarguably impressive list - personifying Sydney’s hungry, combustible nature. One thing remains consistent, those who sit on their laurels should look around for the exit.

Read the power players in spots 75 to 51 here, and spots 100 to 76.

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