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KICK Rating · by position

Defenders — KICK Rating leaderboard

The top defenders right now, ranked by rolling 40-game KICK-D (positional KICK). KICK-D lifts intercept marks, one-percenters and rebounds to what their real impact justifies — so defenders aren't punished for not racking up midfielder disposals. The overall KICK column stays for reference. 200 defenders rated, top 100 shown.

Same rating formula as the overall leaderboard — just filtered to this position. See why we split by position.

# Player Team GP KICK-D R40 KICK-D career KICK
ref
1 Jeremy McGovern West Coast 190 71 65 47
2 James Sicily Hawthorn 184 69 68 53
3 Tom Stewart Geelong 187 69 69 53
4 Steven May Melbourne 245 68 61 44
5 Callum Wilkie St Kilda 160 68 59 44
6 Jordan Ridley Essendon 99 66 64 48
7 Luke Ryan Fremantle 183 65 67 52
8 Beau Waters West Coast 116 64 54 47
9 Alex Rance Richmond 199 63 62 45
10 Harris Andrews Brisbane Lions 240 61 60 41
11 Harry Himmelberg Greater Western Sydney 205 60 52 44
12 Nick Vlastuin Richmond 252 60 59 45
13 Darren Milburn Geelong 288 60 57 50
14 Nick Haynes Carlton 224 59 58 43
15 Michael Hurley Essendon 191 59 60 48
16 Sam Taylor Greater Western Sydney 128 59 58 40
17 Jacob Weitering Carlton 205 58 57 41
18 Jeremy Howe Collingwood 264 57 61 48
19 Brian Lake Hawthorn 249 57 53 42
20 Aliir Aliir Port Adelaide 181 57 56 40
21 Connor Idun Greater Western Sydney 122 57 50 40
22 Matt Maguire Brisbane Lions 154 56 45 36
23 Sam Fisher St Kilda 224 56 58 49
24 Tom McDonald Melbourne 249 56 57 46
25 Sean Dempster St Kilda 217 56 45 36
26 Josh Battle Hawthorn 148 56 51 40
27 Scott Thompson North Melbourne 239 56 55 43
28 Nathan Bassett Adelaide 204 55 43 35
29 Zach Guthrie Geelong 130 55 50 40
30 Marcus Adams Brisbane Lions 72 55 55 40
31 Mark Keane Adelaide 56 55 53 37
32 Kade Kolodjashnij Melbourne 79 55 56 45
33 Lee Spurr Fremantle 120 55 52 42
34 James Clement Collingwood 230 54 44 36
35 Bodhi Uwland Gold Coast 53 54 52 40
36 Nick Maxwell Collingwood 203 54 49 41
37 Luke McPharlin Fremantle 251 54 49 41
38 Matt Scharenberg Collingwood 39 54 54 41
39 Heath Grundy Sydney 256 54 51 40
40 Sam Collins Gold Coast 154 53 54 37
41 Jake Lever Melbourne 188 53 55 38
42 Eric Mackenzie West Coast 147 53 47 35
43 Jack Scrimshaw Hawthorn 117 52 53 41
44 Brad Sheppard West Coast 210 52 49 41
45 Jack Henry Geelong 164 52 47 35
46 Lawson Humphries Geelong 39 52 52 43
47 Paul Bower Carlton 67 52 47 38
48 Darcy Moore Collingwood 187 52 55 40
49 James Gwilt Essendon 145 52 47 40
50 Jack Buckley Greater Western Sydney 88 52 52 38
51 Garrick Ibbotson Fremantle 171 52 52 44
52 Nathan Grima Essendon 88 52 53 42
53 Lachie Henderson Geelong 205 51 50 41
54 Jayden Laverde Greater Western Sydney 146 51 46 37
55 Daniel Pratt North Melbourne 114 51 48 41
56 Tom McCartin Sydney 155 51 46 33
57 Charlie Comben North Melbourne 51 51 49 35
58 Ben Miller Richmond 72 51 47 35
59 Ben Reid Collingwood 147 51 51 42
60 Michael Johnson Fremantle 239 51 54 45
61 Andrew Kellaway Richmond 169 51 46 40
62 Mac Andrew Gold Coast 69 50 50 37
63 Matt Dea Essendon 69 50 43 34
64 Scott McMahon North Melbourne 123 50 48 40
65 Marco Paparone Brisbane Lions 51 50 47 40
66 Matthew Scarlett Geelong 282 50 44 37
67 Jared Rivers Geelong 188 50 47 37
68 Connor OSullivan Geelong 31 50 50 37
69 Michael Hartley Hawthorn 49 50 49 35
70 Michael Talia Sydney 31 50 50 38
71 Danny Jacobs Hawthorn 122 50 45 39
72 Troy Chaplin Richmond 212 49 50 40
73 Bret Thornton Greater Western Sydney 186 49 44 37
74 Justin Leppitsch Brisbane Lions 224 49 42 34
75 Hayden Crozier Western Bulldogs 130 49 48 41
76 Sam De Koning Geelong 88 49 47 35
77 Charlie Ballard Gold Coast 136 49 49 34
78 Phil Davis Greater Western Sydney 182 48 52 37
79 Tom Barrass Hawthorn 180 48 55 37
80 Nathan Broad Richmond 174 48 47 35
81 Brodie Kemp Carlton 54 48 48 37
82 Ted Richards Sydney 251 48 46 36
83 Alex Johnson Sydney 46 48 46 37
84 David Astbury Richmond 154 48 46 35
85 Lewis Young Carlton 84 48 50 36
86 Jordan Russell Collingwood 120 48 44 39
87 Noah Balta Richmond 118 48 49 37
88 Tim Mohr Greater Western Sydney 46 48 48 36
89 Cale Hooker Essendon 214 47 56 44
90 Simon Beaumont Hawthorn 177 47 45 39
91 Kyle Cheney Adelaide 81 47 45 36
92 Jack Payne Brisbane Lions 78 47 48 33
93 Trent McKenzie Port Adelaide 159 47 50 40
94 Tom Cole West Coast 130 47 42 34
95 Craig Bolton Sydney 198 47 43 36
96 Griffin Logue North Melbourne 98 47 45 33
97 Daniel Talia Adelaide 196 47 47 34
98 Dougal Howard St Kilda 136 46 51 35
99 Brenton Sanderson Geelong 208 46 40 34
100 Kyle Hardingham Essendon 64 46 48 38

Why a separate defenders 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 defenders, that mid-heavy bias is the wrong lens. Filtering by position strips it out. Defenders 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 →