Coaches' eye — AFL leaderboard by coaches' votes
The lens that ranks players by what coaches see. After every match each senior coach awards 5-4-3-2-1 AFLCA Champion-Player votes; aggregated per game and scaled within each position, this surfaces the defenders, forwards and rucks whose value isn't fully captured by box-score-driven KICK Rating. 1,058 players in the pool, top 10 shown. Data: AFLCA Champion-Player votes 2003–2025.
A parallel lens to KICK Rating — not a replacement. See how the Coaches' eye is computed and the main KICK leaderboard for the box-score view.
Where the lenses diverge — biggest 'coaches see more' deltas
Active players whose Coaches' eye rank sits well above their box-score-driven KICK rating. Most of this list is key defenders — the position the formula structurally underweights.
- Sam Taylor D +52
- Darcy Moore D +51
- James Sicily D +47
- Harris Andrews D +46
- Tom McDonald D +45
- Tom Stewart D +45
- Tom Barrass D +45
- Jacob Weitering D +44
- Jake Lever D +44
- Steven May D +43
- Jade Gresham +42
- Dylan Moore +42
What this is, and what it isn't
Coaches' eye is a parallel lens alongside KICK Rating. It is not a replacement for KICK and it is not a blended composite. KICK measures on-field actions in the box score; Coaches' eye measures the AFLCA Champion-Player votes those actions earned from the two senior coaches after each match. Reading both is sharper than reading either alone.
Data window: 2003-2025. The 2026 votes won't be available until season's end. Players with fewer than 40 voted-era games don't appear (sample too small to scale).
Why coaches and KICK disagree most on defenders: intercept marks and one-percenters reward defenders in KICK, but spoiling work that prevents a contest, defensive structure that forces turnovers, and decoy running don't always make it to the box score. Coaches see those contributions on tape and vote them. The defender top 10 here barely overlaps with the KICK r40 defender top 10, and that's the point.
Methodology: how the Coaches' eye is computed →