We've made it to the end of August and our 2024 All-Australian side is set!
For this instalment, we'll provide more of a deep dive into each selection, highlighting who's stiff to miss on each line. Picking a team of the year in the AFL landscape proves more challenging each season, as the volume of stars in the competition seemingly increases.
Players are also more versatile than ever before, making it difficult to organise the field and prioritise positional integrity over who is simply the best.
The selection of the following team intends to find a healthy balance, but feel free to have your say using our All-Australian Team Picker.
Without further ado, here is our official 2024 All-Australian team.
Defenders
Luke Ryan is a numbers machine and potentially unpopular pick but still a general nonetheless. He has been the most prolific rebounder in the comp and statistically is the most effective kick, while clearly not as ambitious as others. Still, Fremantle conceded the second fewest goals this season and the fourth fewest shots as a team in 2024. Ryan has arguably been the most integral part of that success, given Docker skipper Alex Pearce's injuries and inconsistency.
Harris Andrews is the most formidable defensive presence in the competition behind Sam Taylor, who unfortunately fails to qualify after an interrupted season. He's taken by far the most intercept marks in the competition this season, 14 more than the next best. The contested marking stats are also profound, no key defender is close - 44 toย Taylor's 30. But the real separator is his accountability on an opponent; he's entered the second most one one-on-one contests in the league, 77, and lost only 11.
Sam Collins is one of the few guys everyone would've picked in the Round 5 rolling side thinking he would fade away from contention, but he's kept it up all season. The stats say plenty - most intercepts in the competition, second most intercept marks, third most one one-on-one contests for just a 14% loss rate.
There are few players in the league you'd want as your half-back roamer over Harry Sheezel. He's got a case to be on any positional line but in this side he'll have the licence to stroll where he wants and still hit the scoreboard. He's quickly becoming the AFL's most reliable player with the ball in hand, moving like a smaller right-footed Bontempelli or Pendlebury but with his own style. He clearly has his head switched on, has a high IQ and, as any coach can feel safe fielding him anywhere.
Jeremy McGovern is back to his All-Australian form and has been all year, but he's done it in a different way through 2024. He's averaging the most disposals of his career and not playing as heavy of an intercepting and lockdown role as he has before. He has more rebound 50s than ever before but is generating a lot of scores from his possession, averaging the most score launches of any key defender and doing so on a bottom four team. He's also been helped somewhat by a surprising lack of dominant key defenders this year, with Weitering unfortunately snubbed again.ย
Lachie Whitfield has played his way onto the other flank through sheer volume. He's got one of the highest work rates in the comp, routinely gets 30 touches with around eight marks or so. He has the most effective disposals in the comp and has managed to go at over 81% efficiency in doing so. His run and dash also complement Sheezel nicely.
Stiff to miss:
Midfielders
Starting with a surprise packet on the wing, we have named a first-timer in Hugh McCluggage, who despite arguably a career-best season has been forgotten about in All-Australian discussion. Obviously he plays more midfield with the Lions, where he wins clearances and shows his underrated strength. But he is primarily a winger with an elite work rate and a strong ability to win contests on the wider regions of the ground when balls are kicked to space. Importantly however, he is a match-winner, and this has been on display more this year than ever - kicking that go-ahead goal against Melbourne from the boundary and often hitting the scoreboard with tallies of two and three goals in big games.
Zach Merrett is the best lead-by-example player in the comp and earns the centre spot in this side. He may not have the Bontempelli brilliance or Isaac Heeney x-factor, but he does everything well. He wins heaps of the ball inside the contest, is clean, effective and smooth outside the contest, is the king of the one-percenters and is an astonishingly strong tackler for his size. It looked as though he was single-handedly trying to drag his side to September this year, we felt for him in some of Essendon's late-season defeats but he's had an inspired season nonetheless.
Errol Gulden has continued on his merry way into another season and gets another nod on his favourite wing. He's clearly one of the fittest players in the comp - he seems to always be running at full tilt but also seemingly never stops. He's kicked less goals but had more scoreboard impact this year and he's still the best kick going inside 50, if not the best kick in the league. He also proved himself to be a finals performer last season so there are exciting times ahead at Sydney.
Max Gawn's selection may be controversial, but the big man just keeps showing that he's still got it, even as the club go through a crisis. He may not get the fantasy points of Rowan Marshall or Tristan Xerri, but he has more impact. He also doesn't get the clearance numbers of these two, but he creates more clearances with his tap work. He's still a dominant pack marker, an intercepting king who still covers the ground like a young onballer, and still racks up touches while doing so. He'll kick a big goal from outside 50 every now and then, and he's still the same game-changer and big-game player that made him a premiership captain in 2021.
Patrick Cripps' role at Carlton is one of the great challenges in footy. He's relied on to win the first possession at basically every stoppage and the opposition knows it. Yet he still does it and continues to add layers to his game - this year kicking a lot of goals and it feels like he emerges out the front of stoppage more often. He's insanely fast for his size and insanely resilient to keep going at full tint in the fourth quarter every week after being battered and bruised by opponents in the 90 minutes prior.
Nick Daicos has adapted his game to suit what Collingwood have asked of him, despite an all-time great season in a different role last year. Playing more outside in 2023, he is now good enough to be that first-possession winner at stoppage and still do the silly things he does outside on the run, like that goal he kicked through the middle of the MCG against Brisbane. But his inside work is just as effective and he often looks a level above the rest - remember that first quarter against the Dogs in Round 12 where he had six clearances, all out of centre stoppage, against Bontempelli, Treloar and Richards. He also finished with 27 contested possessions that game. He's probably the second-strongest candidate for best player in the comp.
Stiff to miss:
Forwards
Marcus Bontempelli probably has the strongest case for best player in the competition. Many will be upset over his position and say "he's a midfielder, put him in the midfield". The reality is, he's a midfielder who has spent a lot of time up forward, has kicked 30 goals, assisted 25 and leads the league for score involvements. He seems pretty capable in the front half. He is also the skipper in this side, deserves a Brownlow this year, will feature prominently when we look back at the best performances of the year and will definitely do some damage in September. Probably the biggest lock of the entire 2024 playing crop.
Charlie Curnow's injury unfortunately ended his home & away season and followed a brief period of scrutiny where he lost a bit of form and ended that consecutive goalkicking streak in the loss against Collingwood. However, he is still, at worst, the second most worrying matchup for any defender in the competition, He's still the player who can kick four goals in 10 minutes and change a game in the blink of an eye and he's done it plenty of times this season.ย
Isaac Heeney was the best player in the competition for the majority of the season. Again, he played more midfield, but has played a lot forward, especially in recent weeks. He is a swiss-army knife - a strong aerial threat, strong ground ball threat, explosive in contests and knows where the goals are. Like Curnow, he can also just turn it on for a quarter and wreak havoc like he did against Collingwood in the fourth, and as he did in just about every game through the first half of the season. He obviously hasn't maintained that ludicrous form from the start of the year but is still also an All-Australian lock.
Brent Daniels probably locked himself in the side with the performance against Fremantle in Round 23 - potentially the performance of the year. He might be the most disciplined player in the comp, given the role he plays and the level he plays it at. Everyone talks about the work ethic of high half-forwards - getting up the ground to assist defensively, before charging back to win it forward - but the way he produces midfielder-type numbers with usually 70%+ game time in the offensive half is mind-boggling. It's a selfless role, since he could easily rack up numbers in the midfield and not work as hard as he does for his 15, 18, 20 touches, but he gets a spot in the All-Australian side for it.
Jesse Hogan has ripped the mantle of the league's best key forward off Curnow this year. He's emerged as the most dominant contested mark we've seen for a while and does it by just mauling his opponent, allowing himself a clean look and saying farwell. He also may be the most relied-on key forward as the Giants look to kick to him every time and Hogan is yet to let them down. He's claimed the Coleman Medal, the most contested marks in the game and the most marks inside 50 by a landslide, with the only question being whether he can do it in finals.
Dylan Moore is another Brent Daniels prototype and it's probably a race between those two over who is the best high half-forward in the game. He might be the fittest player in the competition, but he's added real damage to his game in the past few seasons and is now doing it on a red-hot team. In a year of success for Hawthorn, you've gotta get a Hawk in the All-Australian side and Moore is the strongest contender by far.
Interchange
Caleb Serong set the scene for his campaign from the start of the year with 46 disposals against Brisbane - still a league-wide season-high - and his consistency since then deserves to be rewarded. He's been an elite player from the start of his career but has broken out again this year, adding goalkicking to his repertoire. He's led the charge for a strong midfield at the Dockers and should earn another blazer.
Adam Treloar is another one who should finally claim a spot. He's been the most prolific ball-winner for the year, is very smart in knowing where to go to find the footy and has also become a strong contributor to scores.
Jason Horne-Francis' selection may be another controversial pick but it shouldn't be. He might be the biggest game-changer going around when he turns it on.ย One of the best fourth-quarter performers in the league, the Power youngster will be a must-tag player for the next 10 years in this league in a midfield with Zak Butters and Connor Rozee. A strong factor in his case is he can be picked as a forward, having played plenty of it this year and potentially being the best at Port Adelaide. Crucially, he has become far more consistent than he was while still lifting towards his peak.ย
Nick Blakey - aka The Lizard - hasn't had the most consistent season, at times fading along with the team during the moments of poor form. But it's what he brings when he's on, and his impact instead of statistical production, that has many putting his name up. We all see speed, acceleration, elite kicking, but plenty of half-backs can do that. It's when it's combined with the aerial presence, ability to spoil opponents of any size and play a lockdown role that makes him so unique. And the way takes the game on is thrilling, even if it's sometimes to his detriment.
FULL TEAM
FB: Luke Ryan (FRE), Harris Andrews (BRIS), Sam Collins (GC)
HB:ย Harry Sheezel (NM), Jeremy McGovern (WCE), Lachie Whitfield (GWS)
C:ย Hugh McCluggage (BRIS), Zach Merrett (ESS), Errol Gulden (SYD)
HF:ย Marcus Bontempelliย (c) (WB), Charlie Curnowย (CARL), Isaac Heeney (SYD)
FF:ย Brent Daniels (GWS), Jesse Hogan (GWS), Dylan Moore (HAW)
R:ย Max Gawn (MELB), Patrick Cripps (CARL), Nick Daicos (COLL)
I/C:ย Caleb Serong (FRE), Adam Treloar (WB), Jason Horne-Francis (PA), Nick Blakey (SYD)
Coach:ย Sam Mitchell (HAW)
