Zach Merrett has become the first player to make 10 All-Australian squads.
Max Gawn remains right on his heels, earning his 9th appearance. He’ll be 35 coming into next season, how many more can he make before his career comes to an end?
And after a year in the doldrums at Melbourne, with his career at a crossroads, Brodie Grundy has made the last two teams, and now finds himself with 8 appearances under his belt.
Speaking of records, Nick Daicos is up to 4 AA-appearances. Sheezel has just made his 3rd. They appear to be the obvious heirs to the Merrett/Gawn supremacy.
Despite there being many familiar faces, as always, we do have a handful of newcomers. This year sees 7 players earn their first guernsey. Reckon you would’ve got fair odds on John Noble, All-Australian three seasons ago.
2026 All-Australian Team
Number of All-Australian appearances
What did we say in the pre-season survey?
I think we did a pretty good job. Here’s a few things that stand out though.
Defenders
- 7 coaches picked Connor Rozee to make the team down back. Injury derailed us there.
- Clark (Devils), Dale (Sparkles) and McKercher (Chiefs) were the other defenders to get at least two votes who didn’t make the squad.
- Zorko (MSHB), Roberts (Defenestrators) and Salem (Roughnecks) each had a vote. Salem can’t have been too far off… (yikes)
- Nobody backed John Noble or Jarman Impey.
Midfielders
- Gulden (Midnight) and Dunkley (MSHB) were the big misses. They each had 5 votes. Andrew Brayshaw (Vipers) was the other big miss, with 4 votes
- Caldwell (Vipers), Young (Soldiers) and Jagga Smith (Soldiers) also had a vote each. None got particularly close.
- Nobody backed Lachie Neale or Ed Richards.
Ruck
- Everybody thought Tim English (Pukekos) would return to form and make the team. Nope.
- Gawn only had two votes, Xerri had 1, and Grundy had 1.
Forwards
- Sheezel was backed unanimously. So was Flanders (Roughnecks). Think we can chalk that up to poor injury fortune though – his average was good enough, just didn’t quite play enough games.
- Petracca (MSHB) was the big miss, with 5 votes. Gee it looked a good call after the first 3 rounds though.
- Miers (Chiefs), Darcy (Soldiers) and Thilthorpe (Pukekos) all had multiple votes. Horne-Francis (Devils) and Mannagh (Defenestrators) also scored nominations.
- Unsurprisingly, nobody backed Brad Hill. Zac Bailey and Izak Rankine were also unbacked. As always, the forward line throws up a few surprises.