There’s an elite group of players in the AFL we’ll call the “2% Club”, comprising the 20 players among about 800 players across 18 clubs who have finished top three in their club best and fairest in each of the last two years.
In the eyes of the people who know best, the coaching staff at each club, they are the best of the best when it comes to performance, consistency, durability and team value.
Can you name them?
As the list below shows, many are among the biggest names in the game. Like Lachie Neale and Christian Petracca. The superstars who are household names across the country.
But there is one player in the “2% Club” at the opposite end of the scale.
He is arguably the most under-rated player in the competition. Definitely not at the SCG, and definitely not among the pure football analysts, but elsewhere he’s just another name.
So under-rated is he that, despite being the No.1 tackler in the competition, he’s the only player in the “2% Club” not to poll in the Brownlow Medal in 2022-23.
He’s the guy with the headband who looks like he’s just stepped out of the surf and pulled on jumper #8 to run out with the Swans.
But make no mistake ... James Rowbottom is a star. And on Sunday afternoon, when the Swans play Hawthorn at the MCG, he’ll be a 100-game star.
Rowbottom will be the 142nd Swans 100-gamer and just the third to play 100 games in #8 behind Daryn Cresswell (197) and Bill Gunn (104).
Drafted by the Swans with pick #25 in the 2018 draft after Nick Blakey at #10 and before Justin McInerney at #44, Rowbottom will be the ninth member of the Class of 2018 to triple figures.
Ahead of him are St Kilda rookie pick #3 Callum Wilkie (115), Port Adelaide pick #5 Connor Rozee (112), Geelong rookie pick #11 Tom Atkins (110), Western Bulldogs pick #7 Bailey Smith (103), Carlton pick #1 Sam Walsh (101) and Gold Coast pick #2 Jack Lukosius (101).
Port’s Zak Butters, taken at pick #12, will pip Rowbottom to 100 games, doing so on Friday night.
Described at the time by the AFL website’s Riley Beveridge as “one of the draft crop’s big bolters”, Rowbottom was one of 12 AFL players to come out of the Oakleigh Chargers after they were beaten in what at the time was the TAC Cup grand final.
In 2018, Isaac Quaynor went to Collingwood at #13 and was followed by Riley Collier-Dawkins at #20 to Richmond, Will Kelly to Collingwood at #29, new Swan James Jordon to Melbourne at #33, Jack Ross to Richmond at #45, Noah Answerth to Brisbane at #55, and rookies Ben Silvagni (Carlton), Atu Bosenavulagi and Will Golds. And 12 months later Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson were #1-2 to Gold Coast.
Rowbottom was rewarded at the draft for a season in which he averaged 21.9 disposals and 6.5 tackles per game in the TAC Cup, and made four appearances for Vic Metro at the National Under-18 Championships.
He was part of a historic night for the AFL in which live trading was used for the first time. And used brilliantly by Swans list manager Kinnear Beatson.
The first ‘live’ trade engineered by Beatson with West Coast enabled the club to match a GWS bid for QBE Sydney Swans Academy athlete Blakey at pick #10, before another trade with West Coast returned pick #22, which slid to #25 and delivered Rowbottom.
Described by Beatson at the time as “a bigger sized midfielder who is very explosive around stoppages”, Rowbottom’s path to the AFL had started at an Auskick clinic at Glenferrie in Hawthorn. He played junior football at Prahran before stints at the Camberwell Sharks, St Kevin’s College and the Chargers.
The nephew of former AFL star turned Channel 7 commentator Brian Taylor and brother of AFLW #1 pick Charlie Rowbottom, now playing at the Gold Coast, he debuted in Kieren Jack’s 250th game against Richmond at Marvel Stadium in Round 5, 2019, and played 12 games in his first season while being an emergency eight times.
He’s rarely been out of the side since, playing 16 of 17 games in 2020, 17 of 23 in 2021 after a knee injury cost him four games, and 24 of 25 in the grand final year of 2022, when his only miss was due to suspension.
Since that suspension in Round 10, 2022 he’s played 45 games in a row.
He was the #2 tackler in the AFL in 2022 behind only Adelaide’s Sam Berry, and #2 in 2023 behind former Charges teammate Rowell. He leads the League six games into 2024, and overall since Round 1, 2022 he is equal #1 with Rowell.
His 176 tackles in the 2023 season is a Swans record, having bettered Brett Kirk’s 170 in 2009 and Luke Parker’s 170 in 2016.
And the “2% Club”? Members, with their B&F placings in 2022-23, are:
Anderson, Noah (GC) – 2-1
Brayshaw, Andrew (Frem) – 1-2
Coniglio, Stephen (GWS) – 2-T2
Dawson, Jordan (Adel) – 2-1
Green, Tom (GWS) – 3-T2
Houston, Dan (Port) – 3-3
Kelly, Tim (WC) – 3-1
Laird, Rory (Adel) – 1-2
Liberatore, Tom (WBulldogs)– 2-2
McCluggage, Hugh (Bris) – 2-3
Merrett, Zach (Ess) – 2-1
Neale, Lachie (Bris) – 1-2
Newcombe, Jai (Haw) – 2-2
Petracca, Christian (Melb) – 2-1
Rowbottom, James (Syd) – 3-3
Rozee, Connor (Port) – 1-2
Scott, Bailey (North Melb) – 3-3
Serong, Caleb (Frem) – T3-1
Sinclair, Jack (StK) – 1-1
Wilkie, Callum (StK) – 2-2
