Wings take flight, 'flat out error' on Dusty, veterans snubbed: Winners and losers from the 2023 AFL All-Australian team

The AFL All-Australian team has been named for 2023 – and it might actually be the least controversial 22 selected in years.

With 12 fresh faces, a popular captain in GWS skipper Toby Greene and an even representation of top and bottom teams alike, with Nick Larkey’s 71-goal season earning him a well-deserved blazer even with his North Melbourne managing just three wins, there were few shock selections and even fewer snubs. Even wingmen got their overdue reward, with both Josh Daicos and Errol Gulden named in the specialist position.

Nevertheless, with 44 players being whittled down to just 22, there were bound to be a few stars of the game stiff to miss out.

Here are the winners and losers from the 2023 AFL All-Australian team.

Winners

Wingmen

A popular criticism of All-Australian teams in years past has been selectors’ tendency to put midfielders, well, wherever they’d fit in the 22.

Case in point: the 2022 team featured inside midfield guns Touk Miller and Callum Mills named on the wings, as well as Christian Petracca on a half-forward flank, positions none of that star trio played during the season. The year prior, it was Zach Merrett and Sam Walsh on each wing – again, two midfielders primarily in their teams’ centre bounce rotations – with Petracca and Bontempelli’s heavy scoreboard impact allowing their selection at half-forward.

For the most part, that changed in 2023: for the first time since Andrew Gaff and Steele Sidebottom in 2018, a specialist wingman was selected in the year’s best team. And like buses, when one broke the glass ceiling, two came at once.

So good were Josh Daicos and Errol Gulden’s seasons in their finals-bound Collingwood and Sydney teams respectively that it has been a foregone conclusion for much of the year that they’d earn their All-Australian spots on merit, not as just the year’s best wingers, but two of the best midfielders in the game, full stop.

With 16 goals and averaging over 26 disposals a game, Daicos joined brother Nick in earning a first All-Australian blazer after a spectacular season on the outside as a crucial link man in the Pies’ manic ball movement; Gulden might have been even better, leading the AFL in inside 50s with 143 and averaging nearly 27 disposals per match, including a season-best 42 and two goals in Round 24’s loss to Melbourne.

Half-forward is the next specialist position to be filled: while there’s an argument Petracca’s stints forward this year merited a third consecutive nomination in the position, it’s hard to imagine Connor Rozee, despite 20 goals for the season, spending much time on a flank in Port Adelaide’s run to the finals.

Captains

2023 was a great year to be a skipper: a whopping six club captains were named in the All-Australian team, up from four in each of the last two years.

None were controversial choices, either: Marcus Bontempelli might be the best midfielder in the game, Jordan Dawson and Zach Merrett played elite roles in Adelaide and Essendon’s rises out of the bottom four, Darcy Moore and James Sicily were intercept-marking monoliths in defence, and of course Toby Greene booted 60 goals to drag GWS into a surprise September appearance.

There could have been more, too, with Brisbane co-captains Harris Andrews and Lachie Neale among those lucky to be overlooked, while Patrick Cripps also made the 44-man squad.

It made the awarding of a team captain a more difficult decision than in years gone by, where the accolade has been granted as a self-described ‘legacy appointment’, with champions of the game Tom Hawkins, Lance Franklin and Alex Rance all named as captain despite not holding the role at their respective clubs.

As a result, Bontempelli, named AFL Players Association MVP for the second time, was also deemed the AFLPA’s Best Captain, but had to take vice-captaincy honours in the panel-voted team, with Greene given the top gong.

It’s the second time the Western Bulldogs great has been named vice-captain of the team, pipped in 2021 by Melbourne skipper – and that year’s premiership captain – Max Gawn as well.

Tex

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

Taylor Walker’s selection in the 2023 All-Australian team was a fitting reward not just for a spectacular season, but also for a remarkable career from the 33-year old veteran.

In 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2022, Walker had been named in the preliminary squad, but had missed the final cut; well and truly on the wrong side of 30, it seemed like the accolade would forever elude the Crows’ greatest ever goalkicker.

But if anything, 2023 was a career year for the ageing spearhead: his 76 goals were 13 better than his previous best, all the way back in 2012, with his average of 3.45 majors per match also a personal high.

Three of his best individual match goal hauls also arrived this season: a bag of seven against Port Adelaide (and a maiden Showdown Medal) as well as nine and ten in a pair of games against West Coast, the former of which nearly saw him pinch the Coleman Medal off Charlie Curnow in the final days of the season.

With 11 other first-timers in the team, Walker is far from the only debutant: though it’s worth noting the second-oldest of that group behind ‘Tex’ was James Sicily, at 28.

North Melbourne

In 2022, seven of the All-Australian 22 came from the ten teams that failed to qualify for finals. This year, that jumped to nine – including the entire interchange bench.

Indeed, only three teams – Gold Coast, Richmond and wooden spooners West Coast – finished without representation in the team of the year; the surest sign yet that the competition has never been more even.

Perhaps the best achievement of all was Larkey’s nod: in a struggling North Melbourne team which won only three games for the year to sit mere percentage ahead of the last-placed Eagles at the foot of the ladder, the spearhead bagged 71 goals at over three per game to be a shining light all season long.

20 of those came in a three-week purple patch to close out the season and seal his nomination, with a haul of nine in Round 24 against Gold Coast making his spot all but set in stone.

Remarkably, he’s the first Kangaroo to make the team since Shaun Higgins in 2018 – who in turn was the first since Todd Goldstein was named as ruckman in 2015 – as well as the first Roo to even make the preliminary squad since Ben Brown and Ben Cunnington were both shortlisted but missed the final cut in 2019.

It capped a night to treasure for long-suffering North fans, with young gun Harry Sheezel also taking home the AFL Rising Star Award, as well as the AFLPA Best First Year Player gong.

With a core of young talent led by Sheezel across half-back and Larkey in the forward line, the Kangaroos have the building blocks of a team capable of lifting them out of the mire and back into finals contention in the years to come. We doubt it’s the last time this pair will feature prominently on awards night.

Losers

Richmond (but especially Dusty)

Despite Richmond missing the finals, a campaign began late in the home-and-away season for Dustin Martin’s spectacular run of form to be rewarded with a fifth All-Australian blazer.

Mixing his time between midfield and the forward line, the triple Norm Smith Medallist bagged 25 goals at more than one per game while also averaging 23.6 disposals – up to nearly 28 from Round 13 onwards.

Martin’s snub from the team was one of the more controversial omissions, and speaking on Fox Footy after the 22 was announced, former player and media pundit David King described it as ‘a flat out error’ to not have the Tigers champion in.

“He’s being judged against Dusty’s standard of the past, not the standard of the competition or what’s happened in 2023.

“The year he’s had across half-forward has been unbelievable… he finished so strong, he stamped the year for me. Had I done one [an All-Australian team] at the end of the year, you would have had to have him.”

The Tigers had already been snubbed during the All-Australian selection process, with star midfielder Tim Taranto controversially overlooked for the 44-man squad despite nearly 29 disposals and booting 19 goals in an outstanding first season at Punt Road.

Libba

Taylor Walker’s maiden All-Australian selection might have been a victory for the old campaigners, but it was a rare one.

Along with Martin, two other controversial omissions from the 22 were experienced bulls Tom Liberatore and Jack Viney after career-best seasons, and with the Bulldogs tyro 31 and the Demons premiership hero to be 30 in April next year, 2023 may prove their last and best chances to secure well-deserved blazers.

Arguably the best stoppage player in the AFL, Liberatore averaged nearly eight clearances per game, second-most in the league behind Lachie Neale, while also posting a career-high for disposals (27.33).

Viney, meanwhile, stepped up tremendously to cover for the long-term absence of star Dees on-baller Clayton Oliver, averaging 25.6 disposals and more than six tackles a game and reaffirming his status as one of the AFL’s toughest players.

Speaking on Fox Footy, King again questioned the omission of Liberatore in particular.

(Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

“This is probably his [Liberatore’s] last chance, really – he’s the game’s number one player at winning the ball inside the clearance. You’ve got to recognise that somewhere,” King said.

“When coaches talk about the importance of clearance in the modern game, getting the ball into your forward half and controlling territory from there and having everything else work after you’ve gathered your territory, you must recognise the number one in an under player in the competition.

“He’s not sneaking up on anyone – he’s not a name that hasn’t had a great year. He’s had more impact on games than some of those on the bench.

“He’s harshly judged, Libba: I’m just not sure whether all the All-Australian selectors are fans of the style of footballer that he is, which is disappointing.”

Mark Howard

Darcy Moore has already proved himself as one of the more well-spoken captains in the AFL, so it was no surprise when the Collingwood captain provided a cheeky answer to a question from Fox Footy’s Mark Howard about his plans post-football.

“When you finish up playing footy after seven more All-Australians, a couple more premierships… have you got a path you’d like to follow?” Howard asked after Moore was named at centre-half back in the 2023 team for his second career blazer.

“I’m not sure yet – I’m still analysing my options really,” Moore began, before sensing the opportunity to get a laugh from the crowd at Howard’s, who commentates AFL and cricket on Fox, expense.

“Who knows – maybe I’ll be calling footy, and I’ll put you out of a job!” Moore quipped.

For Howard, though, there’s one key reason Moore should think about another line of work after his playing days.

“You’re far too educated, Darcy – far too educated to be calling football – and the other thing you couldn’t do is afford the pay cut!” he shot back.

Moore 1, Howard 1.