NAT FYFE is the best player in the AFL, almost-Cat Patrick Dangerfield is second and Port Adelaide will again have three players among the 50 top shelf footballers in Australia when the first ball is bounced in 2016.

So says The Advertiser's Michelangelo Rucci, whose annual top 50 puts Robbie Gray, Chad Wingard and Travis Boak in the top 25 players in the competition.

In another telling ranking of the Power's standout trio Gray (at No. 17) and Wingard (ranked 19th) are virtually inseperable, adding weight to the possibility that the mercurial mid-forwards will lead the John Cahill Medal vote count on Friday 5 December.

Port Adelaide skipper Travis Boak was ranked 24th - still among the game's elite, but a 15-position drop on his rating in Rucci's pre-season top 50.

Gray has also dropped significantly, down from a fourth-place ranking from pre-season, while Wingard jumped into the top 20 from rank 31.

Justin Westhoff - 21st in pre-season - has disappeared from Rucci's post-season audit.

STATE OF THE LISTS: Changes to Freo, Hawks, Eagles



Rucci's Top 50

1. Nat Fyfe (Fremantle)

2. Patrick Dangerfield (Adelaide Crows)

3. Josh Kennedy (Sydney)

4. Todd Goldstein (North Melbourne)

5. Josh Kennedy (West Coast)

6. Scott Pendlebury (Collingwood)

7. Luke Hodge (Hawthorn)

8. Dan Hannebery (Sydney)

9. Matt Priddis (West Coast)

10. Sam Mitchell (Hawthorn)

11. Dustin Martin (Richmond)

12. Andrew Gaff (West Coast)

13. Alex Rance (Richmond)

14. Taylor Walker (Adelaide Crows)

16. Brett Deledio (Richmond)

16. Jarryd Roughead (Hawthorn)

17. Robbie Gray (Port Adelaide)

18. Callan Ward (GWS)

19. Chad Wingard (Port Adelaide)

20. Dane Swan (Collingwood)

21. Eddie Betts (Adelaide Crows)

22. Shaun Burgoyne (Hawthorn)

23. Aaron Sandilands (Fremantle)

24. Travis Boak (Port Adelaide)

25. Cyril Rioli (Hawthorn)

26. Jack Riewoldt (Richmond)

27. David Mundy (Fremantle)

28. Sam Jacobs (Adelaide Crows)

29. Jeremy Cameron (GWS)

30. Matthew Boyd (Western Bulldogs)

31. Heath Shaw (GWS)

32. Lachie Neale (Fremantle)

33. Nic Naitanui (West Coast)

34. Issac Smith (Hawthorn)

35. Jake Stringer (Western Bulldogs)

36. Daniel Talia (Adelaide Crows)

37. Dayne Zorko (Brisbane Lions)

38. Jack Gunston (Hawthorn)

39. Robert Murphy (Western Bulldogs)

40. David Armitage (St Kilda)

41. Easton Wood (Western Bulldogs)

42. Luke Breust (Hawthorn)

43. Tom Lynch (Gold Coast)

44. Dyson Heppell (Essendon)

45. Michael Hurley (Essendon)

46. Josh Gibson (Hawthorn)

47. Marcus Bontempelli (Western Bulldogs)

48. Rory Sloane (Adelaide Crows)

49. Jeremy McGovern (West Coast)

50. Bernie Vince (Melbourne)