IN a new exciting collaborative countdown, Rookie Me Central has teamed up with other independent media organisations to bring a 2022 AFL Women’s Top 50 Countdown. Every weekday from now until December 17, a new player will be named starting from 50th down to 1st, stemming from a combined eight Top 50 submissions. Among those who submitted Top 50s include Siren Sport‘s Gemma Bastiani, Women’s Australian Rules Football (WARF) Radio‘s Peter Holden, and a combined Outer Sanctum team’s Top 50.

Today we continue our countdown with number 27, Melbourne Women’s Kate Hore.

Kate Hore

Melbourne

League/s: AFLW, Vflw

Season/s: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, S7, 2023

• Games [tot]: 74

• Goals [tot]: 81

• Disposals [avg]: 13.6

• Marks [avg]: 3.2

• Tackles [avg]: 3.4

• Cont. Poss: 6.3

• Uncont. Poss: 6

• Clearances: 1.4

• Inside 50s: 1.7

• Rebound 50s: 0.6

Melbourne’s Hore has become valuable as a dangerous goalsneak, but has also added extra strings to her bow in recent seasons, and the development has been incredibly noticeable. Hore has played four of a possible five seasons, starting as a rookie and booting almost a goal a game in her inaugural season, to a drop off in 2019, before regaining her form, culminating in an outstandingly dominant 2021 year. Her rollercoaster first few seasons still resulted in 11 goals from 14 games either side of her one-goal 2019 season, but after getting back to her best and then-some in 2020, she really blew people away in 2021.

Her 2020 season was the first sign that she was ready to explode, booting five goals in seven games, but crucially more than doubled her inside 50 count, and averaged a career-high 12.7 disposals, 3.3 marks and 3.9 tackles. Then came 2021, where he work up the ground continued even further, but she was able to hit the scoreboard more consistently, slotting 12 goals in 10 games. She averaged additional career-highs in disposals (14.4) and goals (1.2), as well as 2.5 inside 50s. She also won more than half of her disposals in a contest, not afraid to match it with bigger bodies than her 170cm. She might not have earned All-Australian honours in 2021 like she did the year before, but she played an arguably crucial role to the Demons.

Hore turned 26-years-old in 2021, and is hitting the peak of her form as that hybrid midfielder-forward. She does her best work in front of goal, but as she has shown, can also provide teammates with plenty of opportunities too. As one who could play that high half-forward position then drop deep to turn a game, Hore has earned her place at number 27 on the list. A two-time leading goalkicker and one-time All-Australian, Hore’s best still appears to be in front of her. Unlike a lot of others at this stage of the countdown, Hore only made it onto five of the eight lists, but all came between the 20-30 region, making her a valuable player to some, but still potentially underrated to others.

ROOKIE ME CENTRAL’S 2022 AFL WOMEN’S TOP 50

#50 Ash Brazill(Collingwood) | ARTICLE
#49 Tayla Harris (Melbourne) | ARTICLE
#48 Courtney Hodder (Brisbane) | ARTICLE
#47 Eden Zanker (Melbourne) | ARTICLE
#46 Kirsty Lamb (Western Bulldogs) | ARTICLE
#45 Tyanna Smith (St Kilda) | ARTICLE
#44 Breanna Koenen (Brisbane) | ARTICLE
#43 Dana Hooker (West Coast) | ARTICLE
#42 Georgie Prespakis (Geelong) | ARTICLE
#41 Breann Moody (Carlton) | ARTICLE
#40 Hayley Miller (Fremantle) | ARTICLE
#39 Emma King (North Melbourne) | ARTICLE
#38 Dakota Davidson (Brisbane) | ARTICLE
#37 Meghan McDonald (Geelong) | ARTICLE
#36 Stacey Livingstone (Collingwood) | ARTICLE
#35 Daisy Pearce (Melbourne) | ARTICLE
#34 Rebecca Beeson (GWS) | ARTICLE
#33 Sarah Allan (Adelaide) | ARTICLE
#32 Kerryn Harrington (Carlton) | ARTICLE
#31 Janelle Cuthbertson (Fremantle) | ARTICLE
#30 Emily Bates (Brisbane) | ARTICLE
#29 Katie Brennan (Richmond) | ARTICLE
#28 Gemma Houghton (Fremantle) | ARTICLE
#27 Kate Hore (Melbourne)

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