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Sport Nation
“Top five player in the comp”: King’s huge praise for star Lion
Lachlan Geleit • May 30th, 2025 11:14 am
David King has hailed Brisbane’s Hugh McCluggage as a top-five player in the AFL after his starring performance in Thursday’s win over Essendon at the Gabba.
McCluggage finished with 41 disposals, 13 inside 50s, seven clearances, 11 marks and 12 score involvements in the 18-point win and King loves that his touches turn into ‘maximum damage’ for the Lions.
“I think we've got a new top-five player in the comp in Hugh McCluggage,” King said on SEN Breakfast.
“If you really closely look at his numbers, he's there, he's been thereabouts for probably five of the last six years and doesn't get the credit that he deserves.
“He's always in the All-Australian squad and always overlooked.
“I think you've got to assess this game. The game that this guy plays, he's maximum damage.
“Last night he had an equal personal-best 12 score involvements. He's played almost 200 games of footy, and he's only done that five times.
“13 inside 50s, over 40 possessions, right now, he's Brisbane's best player.”
Given how much McCluggage’s touches hurt the opposition with eventual scores, King urged rival teams to begin tagging the outside midfielder instead of sending their best stopper to two-time Brownlow winner Lachie Neale who does his best work on the inside.
“We showed some vision in the pre-game last night of the danger that Hugh possesses,” King said.
“He’ll look around when he's reversing and he's backing back out of traffic into little pockets, that’s when he's at his most dangerous.
“They just snoozed on him a few times. There was a bad one with Caldwell in the third quarter, but he just let him get goal side by 10 or 12 metres and couldn’t recover.
“This guy has to be treated as one of the top liners in the comp, he's never tagged.
“I think that every team now has to say, ‘Look, we can't really stop Lachie Neale is doing what he does at clearance’, they have to now put time into Hugh McCluggage.”
McCluggage will hope to keep up his good form when the Lions head to Adelaide to face the Crows next Friday.
