The Goulburn Valley has a rich and illustrious history within Australian rules football.
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It’s a connection its community is proud of — and rightly so.
Premiership winners, individual and team accolades aplenty: some of the game’s top current names were once ours.
Now, though, it’s time to pit the district products against one another and determine who sits at the top of the export pecking order as of now.
Rather than simply comparing achievements within the game, this list is out to compare power levels as of right now, with form in the more recent stages of one’s career carrying a fair degree of weight.
With that said, let’s unpack the list:
10. Lachie Schultz (Collingwood/Moama)
After a tricky and maligned first season in black and white, Lachie Schultz is starting to show Collingwood fans why the club sold a first-round pick for the half-forward.
Drafted out of VFL club Williamstown as a mature-ager to Fremantle in 2018, the Moama export emerged as a consistent and tough forward for the Dockers across his 90 games at the club, kicking 101 goals.
Schultz requested a trade to Collingwood to be closer to home at the end of the 2023 season and the Magpies gave up a big bounty (a first-round pick) to secure the then 26-year-old.
Last season, Schultz struggled to have the same impact at his new club, but in 2025 he is starting to get back to his best and has been an influential figure in the Magpies' two wins.
If the gritty forward can continue his form, he might find himself beginning to saunter up these highly regarded rankings.
9. Grace Egan (Richmond/Shepparton)
Going forward, Egan will be competing for the local spotlight with freshly drafted younger sister Holly, but she’s carved a formidable path in her own right.
The 24-year-old has matured well since being recruited by the Carlton directly into pandemic-era football, her three seasons at Richmond having well and truly statistically eclipsed her three campaigns at IKON Park.
Entering her seventh season in the top flight later this year, she’s developed into a bona fide contested ball winner, boasting a top-20 all-time average in the competition for handballs per game.
The Bears export has undoubtedly risen to the top of the food chain among Goulburn Valley flavours within AFLW — but for all money, it looks like her next great challenger will come from within her own bloodline.
8. Harley Reid (West Coast/Tongala)
In case he hasn’t been written about enough in the past 18 months, here is another piece on Harley Reid.
The young gun from Tongala has become the Prince of Perth out west, but his past year-and-a-half since being drafted as the number one pick seems to have understandably exhausted the midfielder-forward.
Reid had some phenomenal moments in his debut season at AFL level, but the level of scrutiny placed on him by pundits across the country has bordered on insanity.
Stop incessantly criticising him, let the kid play and see what a star he can become.
Would have likely been further up this list had he not been cruelled by a number of injuries during the off-season.
7.Jarman Impey (Hawthorn/Shepparton)
One of the more experienced — and, in particular, unsung — entrants on the list arrives in the form of this Shepparton product.
Impey has flown under the radar for much of his 200-game career and the struggles Hawthorn has endured on the ladder for most of his tenure there after being traded following four years at Alberton wouldn’t have helped.
Nonetheless, Impey has been a ‘glue guy’ throughout his stint in the big time, coming into arguably career-best form across the past season and a half as the brown and gold’s fortunes began to rapidly shift upwards.
Having been deployed virtually anywhere on the ground you can stick a 178cm player, Impey’s profile has at last started to rise as he continually pops up with meaningful contributions — his 2025 has kicked off with an easily career-best 3.5 one percenters a game.
6. Jy Simpkin (North Melbourne/Mooroopna)
Arguably stiff to be this far down on the list, but has fallen back in the pecking order due to the sheer weight of midfield talent at North Melbourne.
Mooroopna product and now-sole skipper of the Kangaroos Jy Simpkin has done the hard yards across his first nine years in the system.
Since being selected with pick 12 in the 2016 draft, Simpkin’s Kangaroos have finished 15th, ninth, 12th, 17th, 18th, 18th, 17th and 17th.
This season, the Roos appear to be on the rise and Simpkin will be hoping his first finals appearance is not too far away.
Has been influential for North Melbourne across its first two games registering 30 disposals, seven tackles and a goal against Western Bulldogs and 24 disposals, eight clearances and a goal against Melbourne.
5. Ollie Wines (Port Adelaide/Echuca)
This border boy has often served as the beating heart of Port Adelaide’s engine room across a dozen mostly fruitful seasons, with 2025 marking his 13th go-around.
The 2021 Brownlow medallist, who earned All-Australian and Port best-and-fairest nods that year as well, did more than enough to earn his stripes over the journey, undeniably underscoring his credentials as one of our region’s most decorated campaigners.
It’s far from all about the past and what’s already on the former junior Murray Bomber’s resume, though, having started this season off like a house on fire in a Power side desperate to find that elusive September breakthrough.
Averaging more than 25 touches a week across his usually dazzling 255-game journey, Wines appears to remain at the peak of his powers on the field despite a publicised heart condition first unearthed several years ago, winning ball as he always has.
4. Josh Rachele (Adelaide/Shepparton Swans)
Rachele’s AFL career has been a series of ups and downs.
Having been selected out of Princess Park with the number six pick in the 2021 draft by Adelaide, Rachele started his career with a bang as he registered five goals on debut in round one 2022.
The gun small forward kicked 12 goals in his first five matches and quickly emerged as one to watch.
However, the odd form slump, exuberant celebration or mocking of Port Adelaide fans' inability to eat solids (said they had no teeth) has led to criticism from pundits across his first three seasons and he was dropped for the last game of 2024.
From all reports, the 21-year-old took the omission in his stride and he has been a key part of the Crows' stellar rise to premiership fancies in 2025.
Rachele has averaged 18.5 disposals and three goals a game to start the season and has the potential to become a bona fide star of the competition.
3. Lachie Ash (GWS/Invergordon)
The man hailing from our district’s north-eastern reaches has more than come into his own with five seasons in the orange and charcoal under his belt.
The dashing defender has become an invaluable asset within GWS’s backline in a regularly finals-bound outfit.
True breakout football in the 2023 campaign, supplemented by another prominent season last year, has rapidly pushed his average disposals up towards 20 a game having played his 100th in the back end of the Giants’ eventual crash out of the 2024 finals.
His run-and-gun brand is far from all he’s offered, making a few crucial contests on the aerial ball as the Invergordon man fast proves himself indispensable to Adam Kingsley.
2. Josh Treacy (Fremantle/Cohuna)
“Cyclone” Treacy has arguably become Fremantle’s most important player and one of the best young key forwards in the league.
Having been drafted out of Cohuna during the COVID-19 impacted 2020 season, Treacy was never given the opportunity to demonstrate his worth in his top-age Coates Talent League year.
The bustling key forward slipped through to pick seven in the rookie draft and has become one of the biggest steals in recent times.
A dead-eye shot for goal, Treacy booted 45.15 in his breakout season last year for the Dockers, with his injury late in 2024 a factor in why the club nose-dived out of finals.
Has been a shining light for Fremantle in 2025 despite the club’s poor start and was elevated to the leadership group during the pre-season.
1. Clayton Oliver (Melbourne/Mooroopna)
For all the external discussions around life at Melbourne Football Club, particularly Oliver’s, one indisputable fact has persevered through it all.
He’s pretty damn good at football.
Four Demons best-and-fairest awards, three All-Australian jackets and an integral role in the red and blue’s drought-breaking 2021 flag don’t lie.
Again, though, this isn’t a resume contest. The 27-year-old is only truly in his footballing prime now, as high a bar as he’s set throughout his career to date.
The often-incorrigible midfield bull has led the league in handballs across three different seasons, and his productive output hasn’t come close to dropping off despite the noise surrounding what goes on within the club’s four walls.
Twenty-two clearances across his first three weeks of action for the year sets a pace to go a long way towards focusing the conversation on his footballing exploits and there’s no question he sets the pace among our locals in the big time.
Honourable mentions
Given the Goulburn Valley’s litany of star footballers, it is only fair that The News also names the players that are perched just outside the top 10.
In no particular order, Steele Sidebottom (Collingwood/Tallygaroopna), Jamie Elliott (Collingwood/Euroa), Tom Brown (Richmond/Mooroopna) and Bonnie Toogood (Essendon/Mansfield).