SC360’s Jordy Perry has analysed what he believes will be the top 10 for each line at the end of the SuperCoach 2026 season based on total points, with reasons included.
Credit: Jordy Perry from AFLSC360
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Defenders:
#1. Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera
#2. Jack Sinclair
#3. Lachie Whitfield
#4. Connor Rozee
#5. Lachie Ash
#6. Nick Blakey
#7. Jordan Clark
#8. Rory Laird
#9. Bailey Dale
#10. Tom McCarthy
Feel like #1 through to #5 is pretty self explanatory, Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera was injected into the Saints midfield late in the 2025 season and showed what he was capable of in that role, with Steele traded and Jones delisted Nasiah will be the main midfielder for the Saints in 2026 and I see him averaging 120+ this year.
Jack Sinclair will be the beneficiary of Nasiah moving into the midfield as he’ll once again be the quarterback in defence which is the best role for Sinclair and his SuperCoach scoring. Lachie Whitfield is as reliable of a SuperCoach scorer as any premium in defence, he would have been the #1 averaging defender in 2025 if he didn’t cop that injury affected 16.
Connor Rozee moved into the backline early in the 2025 season and I expect him to stay in that role in 2026 as the move into the backline for Rozee was a Josh Carr mastermind and as we know Josh Carr is replacing Ken Hinkley as the coach of Port Adelaide. Lachie Ash broke out in 2025 upping his average from 84.8 to 107.7 and I see no reason for that form to not continue for Ash in 2026.
This is where we get a bit interesting, Nick Blakey comes in at #6 which some may say is a bit high for Blakey but hear me out, he was forced to play as the 3rd tall in the early stages of 2025 due to the injuries the Swans were dealing with at the time but when Mills came back Blakey’s role was opened up and he went bang averaging 114.5 in his last 11 games, I expect Sydney to be better in 2026 and with that I believe Blakey can be a top 6 defender at season’s end.
Jordan Clark has been a consistently reliable option in defence for the last 2 years giving use consistent 100+ scores and only going under 100 12 times in that time, with Freo wanting to make their game plan faster in 2026 I see no reason for Clark slow down and once again be a consistently reliable option for us.
Rory Laird moved into more of a defence role at Adelaide in 2025 to allow for some of the younger players to inject themselves into the Adelaide midfield mix and he was still able to average pretty well averaging 103.3, could be a decent POD to start with in defence.
Bailey Dale has been the main distributor for the Dogs for the last few years now and he’s been very consistent with his scoring averaging at least 90+ since 2021 and in 2025 averaging 102.5, definitely being overlooked over some of the other defenders on that round 3 bye.
At #10 we have Tom McCarthy who the Eagles picked at #1 in the mid-season draft and in the 10 games he played he averaged 93.3, now coming into 2026 it’s his first full preseason training camp at the Eagles and he’s been one of the standouts training in the midfield and playing as a midfielder in match simulation, if that role holds for McCarthy I believe he can be a top 10 defender.
Midfielders:
#1. Marcus Bontempelli
#2. Zak Butters
#3. Nick Daicos
#4. Isaac Heeney
#5. Finn Callaghan
#6. Hugh McCluggage
#7. Ed Richards
#8. Noah Anderson
#9. Bailey Smith
#10. Andrew Brayshaw
#1 through to #3 is pretty simple, Marcus Bontempelli has been the #1 averaging midfielder in SuperCoach for the last 3 years and unlike 2025 has no injury coming into the 2026 season.
Same with Bont, Zak Butters is coming into 2026 injury free unlike 2025, he’s averaged 120+ for the last 2 years and coming into a contract year Butters just needs to be locked into your team.
Nick Daicos is an interesting one as he wasn’t able to reach the 120+ average that we were hoping he would in 2025 and in the preseason there’s been a couple of injury scares throughout Collingwood training but he proved in the state of origin game that he’s fine and these new rules to make the game faster will suit Daicos to a tee and I believe 2026 is the year we get Daicos at a 120+ average at season’s end.
This next one is a really spicy take, I believe Isaac Heeney will be a top 5 midfielder at the end of the 2026 season, when all of Sydney’s best players came back from injury after their round 14 bye Heeney went on an absolute tear averaging 119.1 in his last 10 games of 2025, with Sydney adding Curnow and Rosas to their forward ranks there’s not a need for Heeney to be swung forward as much and stay in the midfield which is where he plays his best football.
Finn Callaghan has been the talk of the SuperCoach community with the ACL to Green and how that will affect him and now he’s got a hip injury and is out for at least the 2 GWS praccy games and potentially round 0, even with all this I believe Callaghan is still going to be one of the best premium midfielders in SuperCoach as in his last 10 games of the 2025 regular season he averaged 120.2 and these new rules coming into 2026 really suit his game style IMO.
Coming in at #6 is Hugh McCluggage who had a massive breakout season in 2025 upping his average from 98.1 to 119.4, McCluggage was interesting to rank in this list for me as I do believe that he’s the most likely one to get the tag in that Lions midfield so I expect a slight drop from him in 2026 but in saying that I don’t think it’ll be a massive drop from 2025.
Ed Richards was one of the breakout players in 2025 upping his average from 98.5 to 111.3, what I like most with Richards is their multiple elements to his scoring with his elite disposal and ability to go forward and kick goals, Richards is one that I believe can improve on his average from 2025.
The Sun in this top 10 midfielders list is next and it’s the captain Noah Anderson who showed he’s capable of being that uber premium midfielder in 2025 and I see no reason why he can’t continue his form from 2025 into 2026, with the early fixture the Suns have I’m heavily considering Anderson for my starting team.
We all expected Bailey Smith to be a great starting selection for our sides in 2025 as a mid/fwd DPP but I don’t think any of us expected him to be averaging 118.0, in 2026 he’s only available as a midfielder but still provides a great premium selection to consider in your midfield.
Andrew Brayshaw finishes off the top 10 midfielders and what he provides you as a premium selection is consistent scoring only going under 100 5 times in 2025 and unlike at lot of these other players in this top 10 list he doesn’t have the early, will be a great POD to start with as at the time of this write-up he’s only in 5% of teams.
Rucks:
#1. Tristan Xerri
#2. Max Gawn
#3. Brodie Grundy
#4. Luke Jackson
#5. Tim English
#6. Darcy Cameron
#7. Tom De Koning
#8. Toby Nankervis
#9. Jarrod Witts
#10. Lloyd Meek
Probably the biggest talking point in the SuperCoach community is how will these new ruck rules affect the rucks. Could be a hot take but I believe Tristan Xerri will overtake Max Gawn as the #1 ruck in SuperCoach in 2026, he was averaging 121.5 in the 17 games he played before being injured in round 18 but when he came back in round 22 he finished the season strongly with 2 scores of 180+ in his last 3 games of the 2025 season to finish with an average of 127.0.
Max Gawn comes in at #2 and he has said in an interview that he’s struggling with these new ruck rules but I’m not betting against the big man who’s averaged at least 120+ in 6 of the last 8 seasons, I think he’ll adjust just fine to these new rules.
Brodie Grundy averaged 120+ for the first time since 2020 and we all remember the tear he went on in his last 11 games of 2025 averaging a whopping 148.0 in that time, feel like he’s being overlooked only being in 8% of sides.
Luke Jackson is next who as we know only does well if Sean Darcy is out of the Freo team with injury and that showed in 2025 as in the 7 games Darcy didn’t play Jackson averaged 137.1. 2026 is a little bit different for Jackson though as he’s been training as a midfielder at Freo which I believe will add another element of scoring for him and keep him as a top 4 ruck.
Tim English hasn’t been able to reach the heights of 2022 where he averaged 128.0 but I believe 2026 can be his best year since 2022 as these new ruck rules really suit him as he already preferred to jump in the ruck contest in the centre square rather than wrestle and with the woes of the Bulldogs backline I believe English will play a similar role to Gawn where he’s in the ruck contest than drifts into the backline to be that extra man in defence and this will add another element of scoring that I really like for English.
These new ruck rules will suit Darcy Cameron really well IMO, his average has been trending up from year to year and last year when Mason Cox wasn’t in the team Cameron averaged 116. TDK was looking like one of the best rucks in the league in his first 12 games of 2025 averaging 114.3 but it was from round 15 that his scoring dropped off a cliff and he ended up averaging 96.9, if it looks like the ruck split between TDK and Rowan Marshall is 70/30 than I can see a world where TDK averages 100+ in 2026.
Toby Nankervis was one of the better rucks in SuperCoach in 2023 and 2024 averaging 104.3 in 2023 and 110.2 in 2024 but 2025 wasn’t his year as his average dropped to 97.9, I think he can get his average back up to 100+ and be a decent POD throughout the season.
Jarrod Witts has been one of the most consistent rucks in SuperCoach for the last 4 years, I don’t think these new ruck rules suit him but he’s given consistent 100+ scores and I see no reason why he won’t be a top 10 ruck again in 2026.
Lloyd Meek has averaged 100+ in the last 2 seasons but this year could be different for Meek as judging from the Hawks praccy game against Geelong Meek was sharing the ruck opportunities with Ned Reeves, that could change though so I’m willing to still put him in my top 10 rucks.
Forwards:
#1: Harry Sheezel
#2. Sam Darcy
#3. Christian Petracca
#4. Kysaiah Pickett
#5. Izak Rankine
#6. Riley Thilthorpe
#7. Joel Freijah
#8. Gryan Miers
#9. Zac Bailey
#10. Dylan Moore
#1 is pretty obvious, Harry Sheezel is the clear #1 forward and he doesn’t even need to get back up to 110+ average to be the #1 forward.
The hardest decision for me to make was who to put at #2 and #3 between Sam Darcy and Christian Petracca, I went with Darcy and normally key forwards are very unlikely to be top 5 let alone top 2 but Darcy isn’t just a key forward he’s a superhuman who towers over every defender he plays against, he’s just gonna be kicking bags of goals over every defenders heads and he’s my pick for the Coleman in 2026.
It was a miracle that Christian Petracca even played last year after his life threatening injury in 2024, now in 2026 he’s been traded to the Gold Coast Suns and so far throughout the preseason it looks like Trac is going to be the 3rd banana in that Suns midfield behind Rowell and Anderson so I expect Trac to get back up to 100+ average in 2026.
Kysaiah Pickett looks to be the biggest beneficiary of Melbourne trading Oliver and Petracca with him getting more responsibility in the midfield, he’s looked awesome throughout demons training and in the demons praccy game last week against North Melbourne and I believe 2026 will be Kozzy’s big breakout year.
Last year Izak Rankine was a top 5 forward and I’ve got him staying in the top 5 forwards in 2026, he’s the perfect Swiss Army knife for Adelaide with his electric speed through the midfield and his elite goal kicking ability, he’s one every team should have in their forward line at the end of the season.
Another Adelaide player comes in at #6 and it’s Riley Thilthorpe who ended 2025 as the 2nd highest forward in SuperCoach for total points and the 4th highest forward in SuperCoach for average, although he ended up in the top 5 forwards both total points and average I’ve got him sitting just outside of my top 5 and it’s because if Darcy, Rankine and Pickett played the same amount of games that Thilthorpe did I don’t believe Thilthorpe would’ve been top 5 on total points, still a great option for to get in your forward line throughout the season.
Judging off a lot of the preseason reports from the Bulldogs show Joel Freijah is gonna be the 3rd banana in the Bulldogs midfield in 2026 and the SuperCoach history suggests that this is gonna be great for Freijah’s scoring as since 2019 at least 3 of the Bulldogs midfielder’s have averaged at least 100+ at the end of the season.
Gryan Miers ended 2025 as the 7th highest forward in SuperCoach for total points and the 7th highest forward in SuperCoach for average, it was his last 8 games that brought his average up to 94.0 as he averaged 107.4 and before those last 8 games he was averaging 89.3, I see Miers continuing his strong form from 2025 in 2026.
If you believe that being on a contract year helps to motivate a player more on field than this one is for you, Zac Bailey had a career best year in SuperCoach in 2025 averaging 87.7, he’s one of the best high half-forward players in the AFL and if he gets more midfield time this year than he could be a great POD to have in your forward line throughout the season.
Dylan Moore comes in at #10 to finish off the forwards, another player who’s one of the best high half-forward’s in the AFL, he’s been in the top 10 forwards in SuperCoach for the last 3 years and I don’t see him not being in the top 10 forwards in 2026, could even get some decent midfield time early with Worpel needing to be replaced through the midfield at the Hawks and Day is out until mid-season at least.
Credit: Jordy Perry from AFLSC360
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