Welcome to Zero Hanger’s top 50 player rankings for 2025 – a list based primarily on a player’s 2025 production in addition to their career pedigree and future projections.
The bar is as high as ever to impact as an AFL footballer consistently, let alone to a star level. All-Australian discussions are in constant debate as several guns often find themselves snubbed from proper recognition.
We have accumulated who we believe are the league’s best of the best, but before it is unveiled, here is a list of players who just missed the cut:
Unlucky to miss:
Patrick Cripps
Josh Daicos
Nick Vlastuin
Darcy Cameron
Gryan Miers
Touk Miller
George Hewett
Shai Bolton
Josh Worrell
Josh Battle
Here is the first edition (50-41) of our top 50 AFL players right now…
1050th – Tom Liberatore
GEELONG, AUSTRALIA – MAY 22: Bailey Smith of the Cats and Tom Liberatore of the Bulldogs shake hands after the 2025 AFL Round 11 match between the Geelong Cats and the Western Bulldogs at GMHBA Stadium on May 22, 2025 in Geelong, Australia. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
2024 rank: N/A
Liberatore continues to defy Father Time and remains one of the Bulldogs’ most influential players on a weekly basis.
He’s a key cog in the engine room and particularly elevated his game in the first month of 2025 while Marcus Bontempelli was sidelined with an injury, averaging 29.2 disposals in the first five rounds.
The median Player Rating score for a midfielder this season was 8.83. Liberatore, at 33 years old, recorded a Player Rating lower than that just four times in 2025 from 23 matches.
The only other midfielder aged 30 or older this season to record a higher Player Rating than Tom Liberatore? Marcus Bontempelli. That highlights just how brilliant Liberatore remains and deservedly slides inside the top 50 players of 2025.