Who are the players you just love watching? You know, not necessarily favourites from the team you support, but the players from across the league who stop you in your tracks and make you tune in anytime, anywhere?
Welcome to ESPN's sixth annual Top 20 Must-Watch Players list.
This isn't just a countdown of the competition's biggest names, but a ranking of the players we simply can't wait to watch in action in 2024. It's a mix of the game's superstars, big names who have switched clubs, young guns who look ready to explode, those returning from injury, top draftees, or basically anyone we will be watching with interest this year.
The players ranked 20-11 were revealed last week. Here are those ranked 10-1.
Click here to look at the 2023 edition.
Click here to look at the 2022 edition.
Click here to look at the 2021 edition.
Click here to look at the 2020 edition.
Click here to look at the 2019 edition.
10. Shai Bolton
There aren't many players who have the ability to wow a crowd with almost every touch of the Sherrin, but Bolton certainly falls into that camp. Richmond's electric mid-forward put together a career-best season in 2022, resulting in All-Australian selection, and backed it up last year with more disposals, tackles, clearances and inside 50s. Bolton's pace, agility, craftiness, and versatility -- he has been enjoying close to a 50-50 midfield to forward split -- makes him one of the most dangerous players in the league. When it comes to his potential as a footballer, the 25-year-old is only just scratching the surface.
9. Charlie Cameron
Speaking of 'wow factor', Cameron has it in spades. Coming into 2024, Cameron is comfortably one of the league's best and most consistent full-time small forwards. He's kicked 50 or more goals in his past three seasons (and four of the past five, with the only miss being the shortened COVID-19 year), and uses his speed and dynamic turn of foot to bamboozle opponents and nip away from packs. He's just about worth the price of admission on his own, and when the Gabba starts rocking with "Country Roads", you know he's on.
8. Jeremy Cameron
At the quarter mark of last season, Cameron was tracking towards the rare 100-goal campaign. Geelong's lethal spearhead had booted 27 majors through the first six weeks and had become a near unbackable favourite to win another Coleman Medal. But some form issues and injuries meant Cameron fell well short of the magical triple figures, instead tallying 53 goals by season's end. There's two reasons to not take your eyes off him this year. Firstly, how does he respond after what was a relatively disappointing end to the year? And secondly, well, he might just be the most gifted player in the competition.
7. Brodie Grundy
It's a third club in three years for Grundy, which makes the nature of his 'must-watch' case more of a curiosity more than anything else. Clearly not suited to Melbourne and playing second fiddle to Max Gawn, Grundy will most likely get a consistent run as the No. 1 guy at Sydney. Can he re-reach those heights which saw him in the conversation as the league's best ruck? Will the acquisition of Grundy (and others like Taylor Adams and James Jordon) propel Sydney back into flag contention? Grundy's season is definitely one to watch.
6. Christian Petracca
One of the genuine stars of the competition now for at least half a decade, Petracca's name is basically rubber-stamped in this column, and for good reason. The 27-year-old averaged 27.8 disposals, six clearances, 5.9 inside 50s (3rd in the AFL), 10.3 ground ball gets, and 8.4 score involvements (1st) last season, on his way to 26 Brownlow votes and a fourth-consecutive All-Australian blazer. Petracca is damaging around stoppages -- his trademark fend-off and quick burst out of congestion a major highlight -- but can also hit the scoreboard, registering 87 shots on goal in 2023, 15 more than the next player not officially listed as a key forward. After a season that ended with a straight sets exit and the external pressure surrounding the club, you get the feeling the Demons are going to be out to prove a lot of people wrong.
5. Nick Daicos
If it wasn't for a leg injury in the later part of the season, Daicos very likely ends his second year in the AFL as a Brownlow medallist, such is the quality of the 21-year-old. The son of Collingwood legend Peter, and brother of Josh, didn't need to do too much across his first two seasons to be a 'must-watch' player, but the sheer weight of his performances were instantly too hard to ignore. In 2023, Daicos averaged 31 disposals (23.3 effective -- the most in the AFL) and 6.6 score involvements per game, unsurprisingly touching the ball more often than any other player on Grand Final day. Now an All-Australian, Daicos has a Scott Pendlebury-like poise, balance on both sides of his body, incredible foot skills and a footy IQ well beyond his inexperience.
4. Marcus Bontempelli
Western Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli ended last season with the most 'rating points' in the entire competition, and it's very difficult to argue he wasn't the best player of the season. He also finished runner-up in the Brownlow Medal count for the second time in three seasons and, put simply, almost carried his team to the finals on the back of his own ridiculous performances. Bont's 194cm frame makes him an imposing figure around the contest and also gives him the ability to be deployed deep inside forward 50 as a marking threat. There aren't many players who have the same aerial capacity, evasiveness, poise, and elite skills on both sides of their body as Bontempelli, and he remains a joy to watch.
3. Charlie Curnow
Back-to-back Coleman Medal-winner Curnow is an out-and-out star of the AFL. He has the swagger, the smarts, and the skills to overcome just about any opponent in the game, and has taken the mantle of the competition's best tall forward in the last 18 months. Not only is it his ability to play tall and clunk marks while keeping an opponent at bay, it's his athleticism; he gets up the ground, wheels around from 60, and flies higher than just about any other forward his size. He's a beast, and someone you just can't help but pay attention to when he's playing.
2. Toby Greene
Is Greene the new best player in the league? Some think so, and if you're not one of those, he can't be far away. Greene took his game to ridiculous levels in 2023 after being named GWS skipper. He booted a career-best 66 goals, led his side to a shock preliminary final berth -- falling by a point to eventual premier Collingwood -- and was rewarded with the All-Australian captaincy. Greene's versatility is simply remarkable. He's able to play as a lead-up forward, a crumbing small and push into the midfield when required. He's lethal in front of the big sticks, as clever as they come, and doesn't mind getting into a scrap or two. You simply cannot take your eyes off this guy!
1. Harley Reid
There's hype, and then there's hype. It's not unfair to say the expectation surrounding Reid is the most intense it's been for a No. 1 pick ... almost ever! He already has a man's body, having played in and played well in a number of VFL clashes in 2023, and he comes to West Coast as a hard-edged, contested midfielder in a team desperately needing more class and grunt in the middle. Reid will be scrutinised heavily in his first year, and it's clear that he's the No. 1 must-watch player for the 2024 AFL season.