RICHO’S TOP 10: Kysaiah Pickett is hot on the heels of Marcus Bontempelli for crown of AFL’s best player

1. As I’ve said many times in this column over the last few years The Bont is the number one player in footy and has been for years.

But I tell you what Kozzy Pickett is closing the gap. This guy is the prototype for a footballer in 2026. His coach said as much on Channel Seven post game last Friday. Having been a coach at five clubs now he said he had not seen a player with the complete skill set that Pickett, above left, has. Blistering pace, elite agility, ground ball gets, sublime vision and kicking skills, goal sense and the ability to take a hanger of a mark. If he continues at this rate he may well dethrone The Bont, above right . While I am on the Dees, there has been a shift in coaching and the strict structures they played with as they now exhibit a freewheeling style. They have scored 100 points in all five games at the MCG this season. It’s a joy to watch. We have asked Melbourne players Jake Melksham and Kade Chandler what the difference has been in the last few weeks and they have said there are less rules and structure in their tactics and that Steven King tells them to just go and play. Amen to that. Hopefully it becomes a competition wide trend.

2. The draft was introduced to make our national competition more equal.

Out with the cheque books where the richer clubs could splash the cash to recruit star players. Pretty basic stuff back in the early days. Finish last and you get first pick. Finish first and you get the last pick. Repeat that five or six times and 100 young players start their careers. But over the years it has become so compromised with father-son and academy picks that by last year you had a situation where a team finishing 17th ended up with pick 7. And a team that won the premiership ended up with a star youngster before the 17th team. That’s ridiculous. So now, technical changes have been made which I won’t bore you with. Put simply it will now be harder to obtain those father-son and academy picks and the bottom five clubs will get an extra pick in the second round if they bid on an academy or father-son. It’s far from perfect and still heavily compromised. I’d love to see it get to a point where the entire first round of the draft is protected.

3. The stand rule is diabolical. I didn’t like it from the start and I’m not the only one judging by the talk I heard on the airways last weekend.

It renders the game to 17 v 18 and that’s not Aussie rules to me. Once you implement new rules coaches always find ways to counter these rules. So, the AFL then adds layers to the original change of rule, making it even harder for the umpires to officiate and confusing for the players. Ridiculous 50m penalties are then given like the one the Suns suffered against the Hawks on Saturday, which sucks the life out of games. It has to go. It’s ok to admit something doesn’t work, the AFL have done that before.

4. While I’m on my soapbox the other umpiring interpretation that has gone way too far is the crackdown on late hits on a player that is about to kick or handball the ball.

At the moment they are paying this free kick when the contact is almost simultaneous. We are asking way too much of a player to stop their momentum on a dime. Clearly, we don’t want players being ironed out, but it’s way too harsh at the moment. Players are coached to pressure the player with the ball all week and it’s imperative you’re able to apply this pressure in a game.

5. Scott Pendlebury’s performance last Saturday to win his fourth Anzac Day medal was simply incredible.

A career best 43 disposals in game 431, including 19 score involvements. He is a legend of our game as his coach Craig McRae said after the game. At age 38 it says a lot about his professionalism and if you’re following his Insta account you can see the work he puts in to stay at his peak. He often posts about his routine to get up each week. He reminds me of another GOAT, Tom Brady of NFL fame who won his last of seven Super Bowls aged 43. It will be Pendlebury’s call at the end of this year whether he goes on. I’d love him to do a Brady and play on. Could he play AFL as a 40-year-old? I am going to really enjoy him breaking the all-time games record later next month at a packed MCG.

6. There have been reports that the AFL is looking to play games overseas, which would be a disastrous move.

The game is simply not going to take off internationally. Soccer is the global game and always will be. It’s a religion in South America and Europe. In America NFL will always be the number one sport. In India it’s cricket. I just don’t see the value in it. Surely the funds that would go into this venture would be better spent at grass roots level to continue to make Aussie rules the number one sport, here, in Australia.

7. With a third of the season under our belt these are the teams I think can win the flag from here.

In no particular order Sydney, Hawthorn and Fremantle are the standouts followed by Brisbane, who know how to get it done after a slow start, and my dark horse is Melbourne. What they all have in common except the Swans is two genuine ruckmen. Lloyd Meek and Ned Reeves at the Hawks, Mason Cox, Sean Darcy and Luke Jackson at Freo, Darcy Fort and Sam Draper at the Lions and Max Gawn and Max Heath at the Dees. Brodie Grundy is the lone ranger at the Swans but is in career best form and has Peter Ladhams below him dominating at VFL level. Having big, skilful ruckman looks like being a key factor in this year’s flag race.

8. Who’s the most improved player in the comp right now.

I’m going with Tom McCartin from the Sydney Swans. He’s been a good defender for years now but at the age of 26 he’s coming into his peak years. He has clearly gone to another level and is a major reason the Swans are premiership favourites. Firstly, he’s doing what a key defender has to do and win his defensive one on ones, but after that he is becoming an elite interceptor. Last week against the Dogs he had 11 intercept possessions. Dean Cox must really trust putting his magnet against the opposition’s best key forwards each week.

9. You’re never too old to get better in this game.

Christian Petracca, right, has been one of the best in the caper for a long time. But he still strives to be his best. One thing you could say before this year was that he could occasionally fluff some kicks. He knew this and over the summer sourced the services of a kicking coach Ben Stanley, the founder and owner of Enhanced Football. Ben is an expert in the mechanics of kicking. Over the course of several sessions Ben worked to change the way Petracca held the ball when kicking. The result is he is now rated by Champion Data as the best kick in the competition over the first seven rounds.

10. Game of the round this week for me is the Showdown in Adelaide on Friday night.

What a fierce rivalry this game has been from day one. Regardless of ladder position over the years it’s mostly been a close contest. Of the 58 games 20 have been decided by two goals or less. Port are in good form having beaten the Cats last week and they nearly beat the red hot Hawks the week before. The ace for Port is the form of Jason Horne-Francis, I feel that he is starting to be the complete player every footy scout thought he was going to be. If he performs like he has the last few weeks Port can win this game and give last year’s minor premiers a 3-5 record. The Crows will have had a brutal review this week. They simply must bring their best contested possession game. Brisbane smacked them on the inside last week. Impact players Izak Rankine and Josh Rachele need to have a big impact for Adelaide at centre bounce and on the scoreboard. For the Crows it would be getting extremely tough to make it back into the top 4 if they lose. This is a huge Showdown.