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Opinion
The game’s best defender over the past four years, Harris Andrews, has not produced at his premium level this year, while the AFL’s highest-paid player, Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, has been curtailed by injury.
Hawthorn’s Josh Battle has been better than solid, but not All-Australian standard. Ditto Bulldogs playmaker Bailey Dale and Fremantle’s Jordan Clark. Giant Sam Taylor, whose aerial prowess rivals that of Andrews, has barely played.
Not one defender from the AFL’s official team of the year in 2025 has performed at a level sufficient to make this All-Australian team at the season’s mid-point.
Carlton’s Jacob Weitering, a constant contender for a berth in the AFL’s best side, is another tall defender whose output has been below his standard.
Maybe the rule changes and the quicker ball movement and greater space have made it harder for the AFL’s defenders as scoring has risen. Or, in Andrews’ and Weitering’s case, are they predominantly victims of downturns of their teams’ midfields?
Whatever the cause, gun defenders – be they tall backs or runners who set up play – haven’t stood out as they did in the previous decade. Up to his injury, Wanganeen-Milera had been deployed everywhere; he wasn’t a half-back any longer.
The only absolute standout tall defender isn’t a genuine key-position player, St Kilda’s co-captain Callum Wilkie, who often finds himself matched to taller opponents, and yet finds a way to stymie the behemoths and find the ball.
Wilkie, the centre half-back in my mid-season All-Australian side, and the team’s full-back, Sam Collins (Gold Coast), were both latecomers to the AFL – Wilkie ditching his accounting career and part-time footy at North Adelaide to join the Saints in 2018’s rookie draft, the same year that the Suns shrewdly recruited Collins (who had been cut by Fremantle) from relative obscurity in Werribee.
Wayne Milera of the Crows has been exceptional as a small running defender, and gets one slot in the back six. Hawk Jarman Impey is another small backman whose excellence has, finally, been noticed. Sydney’s Nick Blakey is the best tall/small running half-back in the caper – “the Lizard”, though, could not ever be described as “defender”.
That leaves one spot, which came down to Hawthorn’s super interceptor James Sicily and Collingwood’s pit bull Brayden Maynard, who has held the Magpies’ defence together, often by manning taller men – and quelling them. Maynard got the nod due to his defensive versatility and ferocity.
Maynard (2022) and Wilkie (2023) aside, the defenders are all upstarts in this team.
Then there are the usual suspects.
Marcus Bontempelli, Nick Daicos and Isaac Heeney have stood apart as the AFL’s premier trio since 2024 – earlier in the case of “the Bont”, who in the absence of the repeatedly concussed Tom Liberatore, and with Ed Richards struggling until lately, has carried the kind of load that Patrick Cripps has long shouldered.
Heeney’s goal-kicking prowess and marking means he can be selected at half-forward, allowing Bontempelli and Daicos to complement the AFL’s most dynamic ruck/follower of this time, Fremantle’s Luke Jackson, who edges out the generational ruckman Max Gawn (on track for his ninth AA jumper).
Gawn makes the five-man bench, just pipping his 2023 teammate Brodie Grundy, who has flourished under Dean Cox’s tutelage.
If “Bont”, Daicos and Heeney are the top troika, then Zak Butters might be the fourth best in the AFL, and some would put him on the podium. In what will likely be his final season at Port Adelaide, Butters has shown a champion’s resolve – irrespective of the opponent, scoreboard and situation, Zak’s attack on the ball never ceases.
Kysaiah Pickett has been the most electrifying player in 2026 to date, his move into the midfield enabling Melbourne’s unexpected rise to the top eight (to now). It is permissible to pick “Kozzy” at half-forward, so I have done so.
Jack Gunston (forward pocket) and Jeremy Cameron (full-forward), too, are forwards who’ve done enough to warrant selection in a team that was composed before this weekend’s round – Cameron having had one of his worst outings on Thursday night in Adelaide.
“Jezza” was clearly still carrying an arm injury, though.
Nick Watson (forward pocket) is one of the first selected and is surely the most capable jockey-sized player since Brent Harvey. “The Wizard” is mesmerising – a quick-footed (and witted), super-skilled footballer, who, like Cyril Rioli, gets brown-and-gold scarves fluttering and fans out of their seats.
The new chum in this forward line is Fremantle’s Josh Treacy, whose selection in the rookie draft during COVID (2020) from the Bendigo Pioneers stands is one of the draft’s most consequential calls. Others kick more goals, but no key forward competes more effectively.
In 2026, there haven’t been any wingmen – such as Hugh McCluggage of yesteryear – who’ve done enough to earn a spot in the 23. So, I’ve bent the rules, as the selectors do, and slotted two running mids on to the wings: Geelong speedster Max Holmes and another upstart, Swan Justin McInerney, who has made the great leap forward this year.
Bailey Smith hasn’t dropped off after his stunning first year at Geelong, and occupies one bench position, alongside Gawn, Gold Coast’s seminal recruit Christian Petracca (who can play forward and midfield), and Fremantle’s game-changer Shai Bolton – another midfielder/forward hybrid.
The fifth and final spot on the bench, in the first 23-man team? Many could fill it. Having picked a side on Thursday, Jordan Dawson reminded us all of his considerable talents that evening and confirmed his spot. He’d already shown his resilience in his return after losing his brother Jaryd in April.
The most unfortunate among the dozens of omissions – and some will move into the team by season’s close – were Grundy, Sicily, Freo tyro Murphy Reid, North’s goal sneak Paul Curtis, Sydney pair Tom McCartin and Chad Warner, and Giant running back Lachie Ash.
Should Cripps and Carlton continue what the ABC’s Corbin Middlemas called “the Honeymoon Frase” – a reference to Josh Fraser’s winning stewardship – they might complete an improbable double: the Blues in the expanded finals series, and Cripps a fifth all-Australian gong.
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Jake Niall is a Walkley award-winning sports journalist and chief AFL writer for The Age.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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