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KICK Rating · All-time · midfielders

All-time midfielders — kick rating leaderboard

The top midfielders right now, ranked by rolling 40-game KICK-M. Mids are the position overall KICK already rewards well, so the calibrated KICK-M number tracks close to a midfielder's raw KICK. Raw formula + overall KICK shown for transparency. 327 midfielders in the pool, top 100 shown. Career average, players with 100+ games.

See how positional KICK works.

A caveat on pre-2000 midfielders

AFL Tables stopped tracking rebound-50s, contested marks, one-percenters and some hit-out data progressively through the 1990s. Midfielders whose careers finished before ~2000 have thinner raw stat lines than modern midfielders — the formula gives them fair credit for what was tracked, but they're structurally underweighted here. The era normaliser lifts 1965–99 scores, but it can't invent missing data. If you want a truer read of older eras, the decade leaderboards control for era and may surface names this list buries.

# Player Team GP KICK-M career Raw KICK-M R40 KICK
ref
1 Marcus Bontempelli 2014-2026 Western Bulldogs 263 100 74 100 73
2 Clayton Oliver 2016-2026 Melbourne 211 94 72 65 71
3 Dane Swan 2003-15 Collingwood 249 93 72 88 71
4 Patrick Cripps 2014-2026 Carlton 233 90 71 82 70
5 Matt Priddis 2006-17 West Coast 235 90 71 78 71
6 Lachie Neale 2012-2026 Brisbane Lions 292 88 70 88 69
7 Gary Ablett 2002-20 Geelong 353 88 70 57 70
8 Tom Mitchell 2013-25 Collingwood 203 88 70 67 70
9 Patrick Dangerfield 2008-2026 Geelong 355 85 69 56 68
10 Joel Selwood 2007-22 Geelong 351 84 69 65 68
11 Zach Merrett 2014-2026 Essendon 251 83 69 81 68
12 Josh Kennedy 2008-22 Sydney 285 83 69 56 68
13 Nat Fyfe 2010-25 Fremantle 233 83 69 43 67
14 Jack Macrae 2013-2026 St Kilda 262 83 69 61 68
15 Nathan Buckley 1993-2007 Collingwood 278 82 68 69 59
16 Tom Rockliff 2009-21 Port Adelaide 203 82 68 65 68
17 Jack Steele 2015-2026 St Kilda 206 79 67 75 66
18 Scott Pendlebury 2006-2026 Collingwood 417 79 67 60 67
19 Dayne Beams 2009-19 Collingwood 176 78 67 83 67
20 Adam Treloar 2012-25 Western Bulldogs 255 78 67 85 66
21 Sam Mitchell 2002-17 West Coast 323 76 67 69 66
22 Rory Sloane 2010-23 Adelaide 247 76 66 62 65
23 Josh Dunkley 2016-2026 Brisbane Lions 200 75 66 74 65
24 Luke Parker 2011-2026 North Melbourne 309 75 66 58 65
25 Jordan Dawson 2017-2026 Adelaide 160 75 66 88 62
26 Chris Judd 2002-15 Carlton 276 75 66 65 66
27 Jimmy Bartel 2002-16 Geelong 296 75 66 66 65
28 Luke Shuey 2010-23 West Coast 242 74 66 62 65
29 Tim Taranto 2017-2026 Richmond 177 74 65 74 65
30 Brad Crouch 2013-24 St Kilda 160 73 65 75 65
31 Jarryd Lyons 2012-24 Brisbane Lions 169 73 65 78 64
32 Tom Liberatore 2011-2026 Western Bulldogs 254 73 65 75 65
33 Dayne Zorko 2012-2026 Brisbane Lions 301 73 65 71 64
34 Marc Murphy 2006-21 Carlton 290 72 64 51 64
35 Christian Petracca 2016-2026 Melbourne 215 72 64 73 64
36 Josh Kelly 2014-25 Greater Western Sydney 221 72 64 62 63
37 Jobe Watson 2004-17 Essendon 213 71 64 67 63
38 Matthew Boyd 2003-17 Western Bulldogs 284 71 64 63 63
39 Ollie Wines 2013-2026 Port Adelaide 272 71 64 67 63
40 Matt Crouch 2014-25 Adelaide 154 71 64 66 63
41 Simon Black 1998-2013 Brisbane Lions 318 70 63 67 62
42 Scott Thompson 2001-17 Adelaide 300 70 63 72 63
43 Shane Tuck 2004-13 Richmond 162 70 63 78 63
44 Rory Laird 2013-2026 Adelaide 272 70 63 65 61
45 Stephen Coniglio 2012-2026 Greater Western Sydney 220 70 63 60 63
46 Touk Miller 2015-2026 Gold Coast 218 70 63 71 62
47 Andrew Swallow 2006-17 North Melbourne 216 70 63 64 63
48 Dustin Martin 2010-24 Richmond 299 70 63 55 63
49 Leigh Montagna 2002-17 St Kilda 280 69 62 64 62
50 Bryce Gibbs 2007-20 Adelaide 266 69 62 66 62
51 Andrew Brayshaw 2018-2026 Fremantle 175 68 62 79 61
52 Jack Viney 2013-25 Melbourne 233 67 61 64 61
53 Dyson Heppell 2011-24 Essendon 251 67 61 51 59
54 Taylor Adams 2012-25 Sydney 220 67 61 48 61
55 Daniel Cross 2002-15 Melbourne 238 67 61 63 60
56 Jack Steven 2009-20 Geelong 191 66 61 62 61
57 Tim Kelly 2018-2026 West Coast 167 66 61 53 60
58 Sam Docherty 2013-25 Carlton 176 66 61 65 57
59 Luke Ball 2003-14 Collingwood 212 66 61 69 61
60 Lenny Hayes 1999-2014 St Kilda 295 66 61 69 60
61 Nick Dal Santo 2002-16 North Melbourne 321 66 61 61 60
62 Trent Cotchin 2008-23 Richmond 302 66 61 52 60
63 Luke Hodge 2002-19 Brisbane Lions 344 65 60 47 59
64 Peter Bell 1995-2008 Fremantle 283 65 60 64 55
65 Scott West 1993-2008 Western Bulldogs 323 65 60 74 54
66 Brendon Goddard 2003-18 Essendon 324 65 60 61 59
67 Travis Boak 2007-25 Port Adelaide 377 65 60 49 60
68 Jordan Lewis 2005-19 Melbourne 316 65 60 52 59
69 Elliot Yeo 2012-2026 West Coast 209 65 60 67 58
70 Callan Ward 2008-25 Greater Western Sydney 317 65 60 49 59
71 James Hird 1992-2007 Essendon 246 65 60 69 53
72 Jack Redden 2009-22 West Coast 262 65 60 67 59
73 Brent Stanton 2004-17 Essendon 248 65 60 63 60
74 Hugh McCluggage 2017-2026 Brisbane Lions 210 65 60 78 59
75 Paul Chapman 2000-15 Essendon 270 64 59 60 59
76 Darcy Parish 2016-2026 Essendon 170 64 59 74 59
77 Joel Corey 2000-13 Geelong 272 63 59 60 59
78 Dion Prestia 2011-2026 Richmond 233 63 59 55 59
79 Dylan Shiel 2012-25 Essendon 224 63 59 60 59
80 Ben Cunnington 2010-23 North Melbourne 233 63 59 66 58
81 Brett Deledio 2005-19 Greater Western Sydney 272 63 59 52 58
82 Steele Sidebottom 2009-2026 Collingwood 356 63 59 57 58
83 Mitch Duncan 2010-25 Geelong 291 62 59 49 57
84 Lachie Whitfield 2013-2026 Greater Western Sydney 257 62 59 70 57
85 Jack Ziebell 2009-23 North Melbourne 267 62 59 52 57
86 Shane Crawford 1993-2008 Hawthorn 304 62 58 57 51
87 Robbie Gray 2007-22 Port Adelaide 265 62 58 47 58
88 Jack Crisp 2012-2026 Collingwood 279 62 58 58 56
89 Robert Harvey 1988-2008 St Kilda 375 61 58 50 49
90 Dan Hannebery 2009-22 St Kilda 221 61 58 48 57
91 Ben Cousins 1996-2010 Richmond 269 61 58 54 54
92 Wayne Campbell 1991-2005 Richmond 295 61 58 50 48
93 Jaeger OMeara 2013-2026 Fremantle 197 61 58 44 57
94 Joel Bowden 1996-2009 Richmond 265 61 58 62 55
95 Brad Ebert 2008-20 Port Adelaide 255 61 58 53 56
96 Andrew Gaff 2011-24 West Coast 273 60 57 46 56
97 David Mundy 2005-22 Fremantle 372 60 57 60 57
98 Kade Simpson 2004-20 Carlton 334 60 57 49 55
99 Adam Simpson 1995-2009 North Melbourne 306 60 57 63 53
100 Adam Cooney 2004-16 Essendon 242 60 57 57 57

Why a separate midfielders leaderboard?

KICK Rating's overall leaderboard is award-aligned — Brownlow votes, All-Australian squads, and AFLCA Champion Player selections all heavily favour midfielders, and KICK tracks them. That's the right number when you want "who does everyone agree is the best player going around?".

But if you're looking for the best midfielders, that mid-heavy bias is the wrong lens. Filtering by position strips it out. Midfielders here are ranked against each other, by the same formula, over the same data since 1897. No re-weighting, no Champion Data licences, no guesswork — just the subset of the same leaderboard that played in the same role.

Read the validation story →