Sam McClure names his A-grade players from across the AFL, and there is one player who breaks the rules. Players include Nick Daicos, Marcus Bontempelli, Max Gawn and Lachie Neale

Every AFL club has its own list of “top-end” players, both in their own ranks and at other clubs. The number of elite players – not good or very good, but elite – helps determine how close a team is to contending for a premiership, and shapes its recruiting decisions.

For instance, Hawthorn’s assessment that only one player made the grade despite making a preliminary final was behind their aggressive pursuit of then Essendon captain Zach Merrett.

This is the second pre-season I’ve picked my own list of “A-graders” at each club. The concept was launched on the Tradies podcast last year, and now it’s expanded so you can read and critique my decisions in The Age, too.

The fact that there are only 31 A-graders across the competition in 2026 says it all. And if you look at my list from 2025, you’ll see how the amount of A-grade talent helps shape the ladder. Brisbane, with an equal competition-high four A-graders, won the flag, while three of the four clubs with no A-graders (Richmond, West Coast, North Melbourne and St Kilda) occupied the last three spots on the ladder.

There are four casualties from last year’s list: Sam Walsh, Steven May, Clayton Oliver and Taylor Walker. And four “ins” (scroll down to find out who).

The rules

1. The status of an A-grader has to be earned over at least two consecutive seasons. It means you have to be an A-grader for back-to-back years to be considered. For far too long we have been defining players as superstars after a breakout six to eight weeks.
2. Once you earn A-grade status, it takes more than one sub-par season to lose it.
3. Club best-and-fairest results, All-Australian selection, coaches’ votes, position on the ground, skill and performance in big games are all considered.
4. Rules can be broken if a player has absolutely blown us away. Think of it as the “break glass in case of emergency” rule.

Lastly, the list is subjective. It’s for the players who, in my view, are best of the best, the cream of the crop – the guys who make the difference, week-in, week-out.

2026 A-Graders

Adelaide

Jordan Dawson

He’s now won three consecutive best and fairests since arriving at Adelaide. In that time, he’s polled 65 Brownlow votes and should have been named All-Australian captain if not for the selectors trying to be slightly “indie” and giving it to Jeremy Cameron. Has now elevated himself to be one of the premium midfielders of the competition.

Brisbane Lions

Lachie Neale

Recent headlines aside, there have been few players in the past six seasons who have played at a higher level than Neale. A dual Brownlow medallist and now a dual premiership captain, he’s a consistent match winner of the highest order.

Harris Andrews

He has gone from being an excellent defender to potentially being mentioned in the same sentence as Carlton’s full-back of the century Stephen Silvagni, and Geelong great Matthew Scarlett. He rarely gets outmarked and is consistently among the Lions’ best few players.

Charlie Cameron

He’s lucky to be selected. Cameron had an uncharacteristically poor season with only 32 goals in 2025. But in the four previous seasons, he kicked 212 goals. That’s an excellent return for any sort of forward, let alone a small forward. He has earned his status as a genuine A-grader, but he’s on the watch list.

Dayne Zorko

A remarkable career when you assess his numbers. Going into 2026, Zorko is a five-time best-and-fairest winner and a two-time leading goalkicker. He had polled Brownlow votes in 10 of his first 13 seasons, accumulated in almost every position on the ground. Then, as a 36-year-old, he played all 27 games and polled another 14 votes in 2025. He had 54 disposals across the past two grand finals.

Hugh McCluggage

He has finished inside the top five of Lions’ best and fairest an astonishing seven times. The incredibly consistent wingman had arguably the best year of his career in 2025 when he polled 21 Brownlow votes and was finally named an All-Australian. I was looking for him to bang the door down last year, and that’s precisely what he did.

Carlton

Patrick Cripps

A five-time best and fairest, four-time All-Australian and dual Brownlow medallist, he has polled 29 Brownlow votes on average in his past four seasons, during which time he’s barely missed a game despite carrying some horrendous injuries that he refused to make public. He’s a gravitational force who could finish on the podium of Carlton’s greatest-ever players.

Jacob Weitering

There would be few defenders in the past 50 years who could have done what Weitering has done. He has played 204 games in 10 seasons. Of those, 126 were losses. Only four of them were finals. He’s probably unlucky to have only won two best and fairests. Imagine Weitering’s career if he slipped to the Lions at No.2 in the 2015 draft and the Blues instead opted for Josh Schache at No.1.

Collingwood

Nick Daicos

He is head and shoulders the best player in the competition. No notes.

Essendon

Zach Merrett

Is he in the conversation for Essendon’s greatest-ever player? Perhaps. He doesn’t have the class of James Hird or the leadership of Matthew Lloyd, but his consistency is unmatched. He is a six-time best-and-fairest winner and three-time All-Australian but, curiously, he’s never polled more than 20 Brownlow votes in a season.

Fremantle

Caleb Serong

He doesn’t get talked about nearly enough. In each of the past three seasons he’s won Fremantle’s best and fairest and been named All-Australian, and he’s also polled 77 Brownlow votes in that stretch. Admired equally internally as he is across the competition, he is bordering on superstar status.

Andrew Brayshaw

Another best-and-fairest and All-Australian midfielder at Justin Longmuir’s disposal, Brayshaw has managed 48 Brownlow votes in his past 47 games, despite Serong stealing many from him. His critics will say he doesn’t hurt teams enough with his disposal, but some of the greatest players of all-time haven’t been the best kicks. He is also a consistent coaches’ votes receiver and won the players’ association vote in 2022.

Geelong

Jeremy Cameron

A five-time All-Australian, two-time Coleman medallist, and 12-time leading goalkicker across two clubs, if Cameron kicks 65 goals or more this year he goes past Matthew Richardson’s career tally of 800. He is one of the greatest forwards the game has ever seen.

Patrick Dangerfield

Almost the definition of an A-grader, Dangerfield played 23 games as a 35-year-old and was influential in more than half of them. He had 31 touches and kicked three goals in the epic preliminary-final win over Hawthorn to show there’s still some petrol left in the old boy’s tank. He’s a player who consistently changes games.

Tom Stewart

A five-time All-Australian and two-time best-and-fairest winner, he always seems to be in the right place at the right time. A defensive general who exudes toughness and class, he’s impossible to replace when he’s injured or suspended. The 17 other clubs would bleed to have a player like Stewart in their back six.

Gold Coast

Noah Anderson

I was laughed at when he made the list last year, but his numbers stood up at the time. In the 12 months since he’s polled 25 Brownlow votes, won the coaches’ association award alongside Bailey Smith, and led the Suns to their first finals win. He’s undoubtedly one of the premier players in the competition.

Matt Rowell

He surprised the competition by winning the Brownlow in the fashion he did, but he’d been earning the respect of his peers for many months. He was in the All-Australian squad in 2024 and finished 13th in the coaches’ association voting. Even if someone had beaten him in Brownlow voting last year, the fact is he has put two A-Grade seasons together.

Christian Petracca

He has his share of detractors, but he’s a player who has consistently caused headaches for opposition coaches over the years. He has polled 125 Brownlow votes in the past six seasons, which included a year when he played just 13 games after nearly losing his life. He still came second in the Demons’ best and fairest last year, and could be rejuvenated at the Suns under Damien Hardwick.

GWS

Toby Greene

A four-time leading goalkicker, three-time All-Australian and two-time best-and-fairest winner, he has kicked 40-plus goals in six separate seasons and that’s as someone who’s spent considerable time in the midfield. One of the hardest players to match up against in the past 25 years, he’s another consistent game-changer.

Tom Green

He finally broke through for his first club best-and-fairest award after three consecutive seasons of top-three finishes. He polled 63 Brownlow votes in the past three years but has mysteriously eluded the attention of All-Australian selectors, much to the frustration of GWS coaches and teammates. His absence in 2026 will be felt deeply by a midfield he has so often carried.

Sam Taylor

He’s one I lost sleep over last year when I put him on the list. The decision was thankfully vindicated when he was named All-Australian full-back. He rarely loses one-on-one battles and rarely has bags of goals kicked on him. He’s a generational stopper.

Hawthorn

James Sicily

A highly skilled player whose career can’t be categorised or defined by awards, he has only won one best and fairest (2022) and has been named All-Australian just once (2023). But his status has been earned by his ability to consistently alter the outcome of games and do it while playing a multitude of roles. He can stop the best forwards, he can play loose in defence, and he can be a devastating interceptor. He can also go forward and kick big goals in big games.

Melbourne

Max Gawn

An eight-time All-Australian who, amazingly, has only won three best and fairests, Gawn now has to be considered as both the greatest ruckman of all-time and the greatest Demon of all-time. The epitome of an A-grader, he polled a career high 23 Brownlow votes last year as a 33-year-old.

Port Adelaide

Connor Rozee

He has had a fascinating career so far, having won a best and fairest in his fourth season but not claiming another one since, although he finished third last year. He has recorded 63 Brownlow votes in his past four seasons and, crucially, averages just under a goal per game (124 in 150). He’s also a two-time All-Australian.

Zak Butters

He has won Port Adelaide’s past three best and fairests and, during that time, polled 77 Brownlow votes. Butters has been in the top 10 of the coaches’ association votes in the past two seasons. He’s inspiring, tough and up until last year was a consistent goal kicker from the midfield. He’s still only 25.

St Kilda

Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera

Has “Nas” played two consecutive seasons at A-grade level? No. Is he worth breaking your No.1 rule over? Yes.

Sydney

Errol Gulden

A two-time All-Australian whose season last year was ruined by injury, Gulden is a ball magnet who doesn’t waste a disposal and kicks goals. He finished seventh in the 2024 coaches’ association award in a season during which he polled 25 Brownlow votes.

Chad Warner

A consistent top-end performer who wins his own ball and kicks goals, he has recorded 72 Brownlow votes in the past four years and has finished in the top four of Sydney’s best-and-fairest count the past three years running. He has only been All-Australian once but that number won’t hold for long. He has also kicked 20-plus goals in three of the past four seasons.

Isaac Heeney

He has finally put consecutive outstanding seasons together. He had been floating in purgatory for so long, in part because the Swans didn’t know how to properly utilise him. But he exploded in 2024 and backed it up last year. Heeney has now won back-to-back best-and-fairest and All-Australian honours. He has kicked 71 goals and polled 45 Brownlow votes across the past two seasons and has earned his status.

Charlie Curnow

A two-time All-Australian and two-time Coleman medallist, Curnow is a five-time leading goalkicker. He kicked 202 goals between 2022 and 2024 and still gets unfairly maligned by so many in the industry. Last year’s haul of 32.27 in 18 games in a broken system wasn’t a disaster. He will thrive in a team that knows how to utilise him.

Western Bulldogs

Marcus Bontempelli

Words, let alone numbers, don’t do “the Bont” justice when describing his quality. He has clearly been unfairly overlooked by the umpires but has still managed to poll 213 Brownlow votes in 258 games so far. A seven-time All-Australian and six-time best-and-fairest winner, he is one of the classiest players to ever pull on a pair of boots.

The following players wouldn’t want another sub-par year

Charlie Cameron, Jacob Weitering and Christian Petracca.

These players are on my watch list

Sam Darcy will almost certainly reach A-grade status, probably this time next year.

Ben King’s goal return across his career is extremely impressive. He’s a best-and-fairest gong or an All-Australian guernsey away from being considered.

Jai Newcombe has been knocking on the door for three years. I’m looking for him to bang it down.

Josh Dunkley is a tough one. He could already be in as a tackling machine who is so highly rated internally. He was third in the Lions’ best and fairest for the first of their back-to-back flags in 2024-25, and won it last season. He hasn’t been an All-Australian. It just feels like he’s half a cut below the competition’s premier midfielders.

Will Ashcroft is a two-time Norm Smith medallist, so how is he not an A-grader? It sounds harsh, I know. I just need to see more consistency across the whole year before he’s elevated.

Harry Sheezel is North Melbourne’s best player and already a two-time club best-and-fairest winner. Is it easier or harder to be a gun in a poor team?

Max Holmes has won back-to-back best and fairests and is continuing to build his career. He is unlikely to be considered an A-grader until the rest of the competition begins to view him like Geelong do.

Bailey Smith had a phenomenal year. Now do it again.

Ed Richards. See above.

Kozzie Pickett has an excellent goal return. He was a first-time All-Australian last year, which raised some eyebrows. He has a tendency to occasionally go missing. If he improves on last year he’s likely to find himself on the list.