This is the second pre-season I\u2019ve picked my own list of \u201cA-graders\u201d at each club. The concept was launched on the Tradies podcast last year, and now it\u2019s expanded so you can read and critique my decisions in The Age, too.<\/p>\n
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\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n
There are four casualties from last year\u2019s list: Sam Walsh, Steven May, Clayton Oliver and Taylor Walker. And four \u201cins\u201d (scroll down to find out who).<\/p>\n
The rulesThe 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.Once you earn A-grade status, it takes more than one sub-par season to lose it. Club best-and-fairest results, All-Australian selection, coaches\u2019 votes, position on the ground, skill and performance in big games are all considered.
Rules can be broken if a player has absolutely blown us away. Think of it as the \u201cbreak glass in case of emergency\u201d rule.<\/p>\n
Lastly, the list is subjective. It\u2019s for the players who, in my view, are best of the best, the cream of the crop \u2013 the guys who make the difference, week-in, week-out.<\/p>\n
2026 A-GradersAdelaide<\/p>\n
Jordan Dawson<\/p>\n
He\u2019s now won three consecutive best and fairests since arriving at Adelaide. In that time, he\u2019s polled 65 Brownlow votes and should have been named All-Australian captain if not for the selectors trying to be slightly \u201cindie\u201d and giving it to Jeremy Cameron. Has now elevated himself to be one of the premium midfielders of the competition.<\/p>\n
Brisbane Lions<\/p>\n
Lachie Neale<\/p>\n
Recent headlines aside<\/a>, 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\u2019s a consistent match winner of the highest order.<\/p>\n Harris Andrews<\/p>\n He has gone from being an excellent defender to potentially being mentioned in the same sentence as Carlton\u2019s full-back of the century Stephen Silvagni<\/a>, and Geelong great Matthew Scarlett. He rarely gets outmarked and is consistently among the Lions\u2019 best few players.<\/p>\n Charlie Cameron<\/p>\n He\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s on the watch list.<\/p>\n Charlie Cameron had a down 2025 by his standards, but he\u2019s still one of the competition\u2019s elite forwards.Credit: AFL Photos<\/p>\n Dayne Zorko<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Hugh McCluggage<\/p>\n He has finished inside the top five of Lions\u2019 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\u2019s precisely what he did.<\/p>\n Carlton<\/p>\n Patrick Cripps<\/p>\n 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\u2019s barely missed a game despite carrying some horrendous injuries that he refused to make public. He\u2019s a gravitational force who could finish on the podium of Carlton\u2019s greatest-ever players.<\/p>\n Jacob Weitering<\/p>\n 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\u2019s probably unlucky to have only won two best and fairests. Imagine Weitering\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Collingwood<\/p>\n Nick Daicos<\/p>\n He is head and shoulders the best player in the competition. No notes.<\/p>\n Nick Daicos is the game\u2019s best player \u2013 even if his list of accolades doesn\u2019t match that yet.Credit: AFL Photos<\/p>\n Essendon<\/p>\n Zach Merrett<\/p>\n Is he in the conversation for Essendon\u2019s greatest-ever player? Perhaps. He doesn\u2019t 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\u2019s never polled more than 20 Brownlow votes in a season.<\/p>\n Fremantle<\/p>\n Caleb Serong<\/p>\n He doesn\u2019t get talked about nearly enough. In each of the past three seasons he\u2019s won Fremantle\u2019s best and fairest and been named All-Australian, and he\u2019s also polled 77 Brownlow votes in that stretch. Admired equally internally as he is across the competition, he is bordering on superstar status.<\/p>\n Andrew Brayshaw<\/p>\n Another best-and-fairest and All-Australian midfielder at Justin Longmuir\u2019s disposal, Brayshaw has managed 48 Brownlow votes in his past 47 games, despite Serong stealing many from him. His critics will say he doesn\u2019t hurt teams enough with his disposal, but some of the greatest players of all-time haven\u2019t been the best kicks. He is also a consistent coaches\u2019 votes receiver and won the players\u2019 association vote in 2022.<\/p>\n Geelong<\/p>\n Jeremy Cameron<\/p>\n 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\u2019s career tally of 800. He is one of the greatest forwards the game has ever seen.<\/p>\n Patrick Dangerfield<\/p>\n 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\u2019s still some petrol left in the old boy\u2019s tank. He\u2019s a player who consistently changes games.<\/p>\n Patrick Dangerfield has one of football\u2019s greatest CVs.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n Tom Stewart<\/p>\n 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\u2019s impossible to replace when he\u2019s injured or suspended. The 17 other clubs would bleed to have a player like Stewart in their back six.<\/p>\n Gold Coast<\/p>\n Noah Anderson<\/p>\n 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\u2019s polled 25 Brownlow votes, won the coaches\u2019 association award alongside Bailey Smith, and led the Suns to their first finals win. He\u2019s undoubtedly one of the premier players in the competition.<\/p>\n Matt Rowell<\/p>\n He surprised the competition by winning the Brownlow in the fashion he did, but he\u2019d 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\u2019 association voting. Even if someone had beaten him in Brownlow voting last year, the fact is he has put two A-Grade seasons together.<\/p>\n Christian Petracca<\/p>\n He has his share of detractors, but he\u2019s 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<\/a>. He still came second in the Demons\u2019 best and fairest last year, and could be rejuvenated at the Suns under Damien Hardwick.<\/p>\n GWS<\/p>\n Toby Greene<\/p>\n 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\u2019s as someone who\u2019s spent considerable time in the midfield. One of the hardest players to match up against in the past 25 years, he\u2019s another consistent game-changer.<\/p>\n Tom Green<\/p>\n![\"Charlie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/073db345d77faaa1f7a2ad353f0a984b1f494adf.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Nick](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/dbd31c258155e834603a1610c5f95784a664eae8.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Patrick](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/b30d9f55c0007182547c01f6d53bee6ad22a3652.jpeg\")
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![\"James](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/b58dd6267393ee951544374bd26d9df1a74b6161.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Zak](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/413018c94c104191763c14f5989ee76ba49c1218.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Charlie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/c66e031fc3c32bcf9fc0e3fa080f0b1df88b0e54.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Sam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/7df8da1f01ea5f378433a96b207fdfab6a660794.jpeg\")
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