Quick Hands Summary:

• Max Gawn is named captain and becomes the first player in VFL/AFL history to earn a ninth All-Australian selection
• Fremantle lead all clubs with five blazers, while nine players earn their first
• Callum Wilkie completes a stunning turnaround, back in the twenty-two a year after missing the extended squad altogether

The 2026 All-Australian team has landed, and Max Gawn stands alone.

The Melbourne ruckman has been named captain of a side that features five Fremantle players, nine first-time blazers, and one of the great redemption stories of the modern era.

AFL All-Australian Team 2026

FB: Wayne Milera (Adelaide), Callum Wilkie (St Kilda), Jarman Impey (Hawthorn)

HB: Lachie Ash (GWS), Harris Andrews (Brisbane), Jordan Clark (Fremantle)

C: Bailey Smith (Geelong), Marcus Bontempelli (Western Bulldogs), Ollie Dempsey (Geelong)

HF: Shai Bolton (Fremantle), Josh Treacy (Fremantle), Kysaiah Pickett (Melbourne)

FF: Nick Watson (Hawthorn), Charlie Curnow (Sydney), Logan Morris (Brisbane)

FOLL: Max Gawn (Melbourne) (c), Jordan Dawson (Adelaide), Nick Daicos (Collingwood)

I/C: Luke Jackson (Fremantle), Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera (St Kilda), Murphy Reid (Fremantle), Zac Bailey (Brisbane), Zak Butters (Port Adelaide)

AFL All Australian Extended Squad 2026

Aliir Aliir, Jye Amiss, Harris Andrews, Lachie Ash, Will Ashcroft, Zac Bailey, Shai Bolton, Marcus Bontempelli, Zak Butters, Charlie Cameron, Jordan Clark, Patrick Cripps, Charlie Curnow, Josh Daicos, Nick Daicos, Luke Davies-Uniacke, Oliver Dempsey, Jordan Dawson, Max Gawn, Mitch Georgiades, Brodie Grundy, Jack Gunston, Max Holmes, Jason Horne-Francis, Jarman Impey, Luke Jackson, Ben King, Wayne Milera, Logan Morris, Lachie Neale, Jai Newcombe, Clayton Oliver, Connor O'Sullivan, Alex Pearce, Kysaiah Pickett, Izak Rankine, Murphy Reid, Ed Richards, Caleb Serong, James Sicily, Bailey Smith, Josh Treacy, Bodhi Uwland, Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, Nick Watson, Callum Wilkie

Gawn Stands Alone with Nine All-Australian Selections

Nine All-Australian selections. Nobody has done it before.

Gawn's previous eight came in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024 and 2025, a run that already had him level with the most decorated players in the competition's history. The 2026 blazer puts him out on his own.

He also takes the captaincy for a second time, having led the 2021 side. For a ruckman to sustain that level of output across a decade is remarkable, and the panel have acknowledged it in the most emphatic way available to them.

Marcus Bontempelli joins the record group he has just been pushed out of. The Bulldogs skipper adds an eighth blazer to a collection that began in 2016, and he is named in the centre after spending 2025 on the interchange.

Fremantle Set the Standard

Five Dockers in a twenty-two is a statement.

Jordan Clark returns to the back flank he held in 2025, while Shai Bolton and Josh Treacy occupy two-thirds of the half-forward line. Luke Jackson and Murphy Reid round out the group from the interchange.

Bolton's selection is his first since 2022, when he earned a blazer as a Richmond player. Treacy, Jackson and Reid are all first-timers.

Brisbane were next best with three, spread neatly across the ground. Harris Andrews holds centre half-back for a second straight year, Logan Morris slots into the goal square and Zac Bailey shifts from a 2025 half-forward flank to the interchange.

Wilkie Completes the Comeback

There is no better story in this side.

Twelve months ago, Callum Wilkie was arguably the most surprising omission from the extended 44-man squad. He was not left out of the team, he was left out of the squad entirely, three years on from a 2023 blazer.

In 2026 he is back, and he is deservingly back at full-back.

Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera joins him, giving St Kilda two representatives as consolation for missing the finals in 26’.

Nine New Blazers

Almost half of this side has never been here before.

Wayne Milera and Jarman Impey flank Wilkie in defence, Lachie Ash earns a half-back flank, and Ollie Dempsey takes a wing alongside Bailey Smith and Bontempelli. Add Treacy, Nick Watson, Logan Morris, Luke Jackson and Murphy Reid, and that is nine players collecting a first blazer.

Charlie Curnow's inclusion is a different sort of milestone. The Sydney forward earned blazers in 2022 and 2023 while at Carlton, making this his third overall but his first in the Red and White.

Players Who Missed Out

Twelve players from the 2025 team have been dropped, headed by the man who captained it.

Jeremy Cameron led the All-Australians out last year and has not been retained, largely because of missing the majority of 2026 through injury. 

Hugh McCluggage, Isaac Heeney, Bailey Dale, Josh Battle, Sam Taylor, Jack Gunston, Riley Thilthorpe, Ed Richards, Caleb Serong, Noah Anderson and last year’s Brownlow winner Matt Rowell also miss out.

Six clubs have no representative at all. Carlton, Essendon, North Melbourne and West Coast were the four clubs shut out of the 2025 squad and have not broken through since. Richmond and Gold Coast now join them.