05-05-2025
New list ranking the best players in the AFL leaves some footy stars crying foul - so do YOU agree with the pecking order?
Footy fans and video gamers have been delighted by the announcement that a new AFL video game is set to launch later this week.
But the announcement of AFL26 has come with plenty of debate after the stats and attributes of some of the game's best players for the latest addition to the video game franchise had been revealed on social media.
In fact, the stats had some players and fans crying a little foul.
It's been three years since Big Ant Studios and Nacon teamed up to publish a new AFL game.
This year's edition, which works in a similar ranking system to games including EA Sports FC, has ranked Carlton star Patrick Cripps as the highest-rated player in the game.
And there's not much separating the top seven in the game, with the Carlton captain, a two-time Brownlow Medallist for 2022 and 2024, sitting just one point ahead of Collingwood rival Nick Daicos, who has risen to stardom over the past two years for his sensational performances for the Magpies.
Western Bulldogs star Marcus Bontempelli (left) and Nick Daicos (right) rank as joint-second in the rankings
Three-time Leigh Matthews Trophy winner Marcus Bontempelli sits tied in second with Daicos with a rating of 93, while another Brownlow Medallist Lachie Neale leads a quartet of Zak Butters, Jeremy Cameron and Isaac Heeney as the next best-ranked players, all joint on 92.
In fact, the current standings are not far off the AFL's April power rankings, with Daicos sitting top ahead of Cripps, Bontempelli, Heeney and Jeremy Cameron, while Chad Warner squeezes into the top seven ahead of Lachie Neale, while Zak Butters falls to ninth behind Christian Petracca.
Meanwhile, leading stats for each aspect of the game have also been revealed, and one AFL star, Max Holmes, was absolutely filthy that he'd been left off the list for the league's top speedsters.
After revealing AFL26's stats lists on Instagram, Holmes, who was not included in the top-10 fastest players, commented on the post: 'Excuse me?'
Instead, the video game has ranked Sam Switkowski as top, Tyson Stengle second and Brent Daniels in third. Bailey Banfield, Ben Ainsworth, Lachie Schultz, Zach Guthrie and Zac Williams all follow, with Callum Ah Chee and Dylan Moore making up the final two.
Max Gawn was ranked top for hitouts, interestingly above Port ruckman Jordon Sweet, who currently supersedes Gawn for the most hitouts in 2025, and is interestingly not included in AFL360's top-10.
North Melbourne were also aggrieved Nick Larkey was ranked 10th on the list of top set shot takers with his current shot at goal accuracy sitting at 60.6 per cent - one of the best ratios in the league.
'The most accurate set shot of all time in 10th,' North wrote.
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Max Holmes was left aggrived he wasn't included in the top ten for speed on AFL26, while fans questioned why certain players had been omitted from different categories
Larkey was usurped at the top of the list by Josh Treacy, Jesse Hogan, Charlie Curnow, Ben King and Jeremy Cameron.
Others were incensed by the omission of Darcy Fogarty from the set shots line-up.
Some were baffled at why Geelong star Tom Atkins had been omitted from the tackling ladder, despite leading the competition for an average of 10.5 tackles a game.
