announced the 44-man squad for the 2025 All-Australian team<\/a>, which will be narrowed down to a 22-man team on Thursday night.<\/p>\nThere are 18 players who\u2019ve earned selection in the squad for the first time. Of the 44 players, 28 are vying for their first All-Australian team selection \u2014 including triple premiership Tiger Nick Vlastuin, who was ranked equal-fifth in the competition for intercept possessions in his 13th AFL season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis man has put a body of work in over a decade and has never been selected All-Australian,\u201d ex-Tigers teammates Jack Riewoldt told Fox Footy\u2019s On The Couch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the year. Sides are tagging him week-in, week-out. For a side that\u2019s going to finish 16th, you must get him in.\u201d<\/p>\n
One All-Australian point of contention this year is who\u2019ll be named skipper, with five club captains named in the 44-man squad: Melbourne\u2019s Max Gawn \u2014 who\u2019ll be aiming for an eighth All-Australian blazer \u2014 Bulldogs\u2019 Marcus Bontempelli, Adelaide\u2019s Jordan Dawson, Brisbane\u2019s Harris Andrews and Gold Coast\u2019s Noah Anderson.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no need for a ceremonial captain this year \u2013 not when that set are there,\u201d AFL 360 co-host Gerard Whateley said.
Melbourne legend Garry Lyon said Dawson deserved the honour.<\/p>\n
Who is each team’s Finals Wildcard? | 06:26<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pumping hard for Noah Anderson earlier in the year, but I think Jordan Dawson has got his team across the line as much as any singular player in the competition \u2013 and his team just happens to be on top of the AFL ladder,\u201d Lyon told Fox Footy\u2019s AFL 360.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe does it all the time. I\u2019ve been watching a lot of Adelaide over there and, as it has been over the years with (Nat) Fyfe and (Patrick) Dangerfield, your eyes just go to them \u2013 and he\u2019s elevated into their status.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dawson was also Lyon\u2019s pick for the AFLPA MVP award.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll vote really well, because every player would rate him and have great respect for him for what he\u2019s been able to do,\u201d Lyon said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s the \u2018standout\u2019 player \u2013 that would be disrespecting the others \u2013 but he\u2019s got my nod.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watch the 2025 AFL Awards ceremony on Fox Footy from 7.30pm (AEST), or follow along in our live blog below!<\/p>\n
If you can\u2019t see the blog, tap here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the biggest nights on the footy calendar has arrived, with the 2025 All-Australian team to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,689,55,56263,639,3423,73604,73601,73603,73598,10145,61,2485,9130,1823,3514,73600,17282,12097,647,25844,677,73602,45702,701,73597,85,73599,71921,52906,660],"class_list":["post-101214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australian-team","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ben-waterworth","tag-ceremonial-captain","tag-courageous-player-award","tag-ex-tigers-teammates","tag-footy-calendar","tag-garry-lyon","tag-gerard-whateley","tag-gold-coast","tag-gold-coast-suns","tag-jack-riewoldt","tag-jordan-dawson","tag-launches-desperate-plea","tag-live-coverage","tag-max-gawn","tag-melbourne","tag-noah-anderson","tag-oceania","tag-player-award","tag-premiership-season","tag-queensland","tag-singular-player","tag-sports","tag-squad-predictions","tag-tackle-panel-breakdown","tag-team-selection","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}