AFL All-Australia Team 2025: Josh Barnes’ best side after Round 6

We’re a quarter of the way through season 2025 and the standouts are starting to become clear. Here’s our rolling All Australian side – and those mighty stiff to miss out.

It is essentially quarter-time in this AFL home-and-away season but we are still just feeling things out.

It’s hard to find a standout team, or standout players, as we settle into the year.

And so it’s tough working out where the best players fit in this season and who exactly is on track for All-Australian honours.

Welcome to the first edition of our rolling All-Australian side, which will be updated at regular intervals through the year.

When picking the team, only two players were locked in – defenders Sam Taylor and Darcy Moore.

The rest of the team either haven’t dominated in the way that made them must-picks or just bumped someone else out.

So expect this team to change wildly as the year goes on.

Before we get there, some rules.

Players had to play four out of six games (or in Essendon and Gold Coast’s case, three out of five) to qualify.

That’s bad lucky for Zak Butters.

And the team is built to somewhat resemble an actual team, with two genuine ruck options and not just stacked with tall defenders.

Let’s get into it.

INTERCHANGE

Zach Merrett (Essendon), Bailey Smith (Geelong), Andrew Brayshaw (Fremantle), Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera (St Kilda), Hugh McCluggage (Brisbane Lions)

Bailey Smith just had to make the team somewhere. He has to be No.1 in the league for unusual antics but he has also been exactly what Geelong needs. Without Smith and Max Holmes, the Cats midfield would be nowhere, even if he needs to fix up his kicking. No player beats his metres gained average of 615.6. Zach Merrett and Andrew Brayshaw have been at high standards, while Hugh McCluggage led the league in coaches votes before round 6. Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera forced his way in, which is unusual that it gives St Kilda who players in the same position, but him and Sinclair have been exceptional.

ON THE BUBBLE (JUST MISSED)

RUCK BUBBLE: Darcy Cameron

Dreadfully unlucky, but given teams rarely play two rucks just couldn’t sneak him on the bench.

DEF BUBBLE: Lachie Whitfield, Dayne Zorko, Jack Silvagni, Daniel Rioli, Zach Guthrie, Karl Amon

Whitfield was just nudged out for Wanganeen-Milera and it is a real race between all those rebounding defenders. Karl Amon has had a sneaky great offensive year.

MID BUBBLE: Jack Macrae, Lachie Neale, Noah Anderson, George Hewett, Tom Liberatore, Jordan Dawson, Tom Atkins

All I can do is apologise, all these players are stiff. They could all be in the team next time. Shoutout to Tom Atkins, who is doing serious grunt work for the Cats.

FWD BUBBLE: Izak Rankine, Riley Thilthorpe, Paul Curtis, Nick Larkey

Izak Rankine just didn’t do enough. He has played largely as a midfielder but wasn’t good enough to beat out midfielders and his impact forward of the ball has been less than others.