The 2025 AFL season was the 129th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest-level senior men's Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season featured 18 clubs and ran from 7 March to 27 September, comprising a 23-match home-and-away season over 25 rounds, followed by a four-week finals series featuring the top eight clubs.
The won the premiership, defeating by 47 points in the 2025 AFL Grand Final; it was their second consecutive premiership and fifth AFL premiership overall. won the minor premiership by finishing atop the home-and-away ladder with an 18–5 win–loss record, but lost both of its finals. 's Matt Rowell won the Brownlow Medal as the league's best and fairest player, and Geelong's Jeremy Cameron won his second Coleman Medal as the league's leading goalkicker.
Background In September 2022, the AFL announced a seven-year, $4.5 billion broadcast rights deal with the Seven Network, Foxtel and Telstra, the biggest sports broadcast rights deal in Australian history, effective from the 2025 season. Key points of the deal included:
Seven and its streaming service 7plus would broadcast Thursday night, Friday night, Sunday afternoon and all marquee matches, with the first 16 rounds of the home-and-away season featuring Thursday night matches. Foxtel and its streaming service Kayo would broadcast every match of the season outside of the grand final, and would utilise its own commentary teams and graphics for all matches for the first time; another Foxtel streaming service, Binge, would also simulcast some matches and include other Foxtel football programs. All Saturday matches outside of marquee matches would be exclusive to Foxtel and Kayo for the first eight rounds of the season, while all Saturday night matches in the last eight rounds of the season would be exclusive to Seven. Seven would broadcast matches involving non-Victorian clubs live into their local markets, outside of select matches on delay.
Ahead of the season's fixture release in November, the AFL further elaborated that the home-and-away season would feature Thursday night matches in 23 of the 25 rounds, with each of the first 16 rounds plus seven other rounds – as part of a floating fixture to be determined later in the season – having matches scheduled on Thursday nights. The following day, the AFL announced the addition on Sunday night matches as a semi-regular fixture in 2025, with nine of the first 16 rounds featuring a Sunday night match. In the same month, and unveiled new club logos, while unveiled a new logo and playing guernseys as part of a rebrand of the club. A match between the Indigenous All-Stars and took place at Optus Stadium in February 2025, marking the first Indigenous All-Stars match since 2015.
Coach appointments New coach Club Date of appointment Previous coach Andrew McQualter 30 September 2024 Adam Simpson Dean Cox 26 November 2024 John Longmire
Club leadership Club Coach Leadership group Captain(s) Vice-captain(s) Other leader(s) Matthew Nicks Jordan Dawson Darcy Fogarty, Ben Keays, Alex Neal-Bullen, Reilly O'Brien Chris Fagan Harris Andrews, Lachie Neale Josh Dunkley, Hugh McCluggage Jarrod Berry, Charlie Cameron, Oscar McInerney, Cameron Rayner, Brandon Starcevich Michael Voss Patrick Cripps Charlie Curnow, Sam Walsh, Jacob Weitering Craig McRae Darcy Moore Nick Daicos, Brayden Maynard Darcy Cameron, Jamie Elliott, Daniel McStay, Isaac Quaynor Brad Scott Zach Merrett Andrew McGrath Kyle Langford, Nic Martin, Mason Redman Justin Longmuir Alex Pearce Andrew Brayshaw, Caleb Serong Jaeger O'Meara, Sam Switkowski, Josh Treacy, Hayden Young Chris Scott Patrick Dangerfield Tom Stewart Damien Hardwick Noah Anderson Sam Collins, Touk Miller Ben King, Wil Powell, Matt Rowell Adam Kingsley Toby Greene Stephen Coniglio, Josh Kelly Jack Buckley, Brent Daniels, Tom Green, Connor Idun, Sam Taylor Sam Mitchell James Sicily Dylan Moore Simon Goodwin Max Gawn Jack Viney Alastair Clarkson Jy Simpkin Nick Larkey, Harry Sheezel Ken Hinkley Connor Rozee Zak Butters Willem Drew, Sam Powell-Pepper Adem Yze Toby Nankervis Nathan Broad, Tom Lynch, Jayden Short, Tim Taranto Ross Lyon Jack Steele Jack Sinclair, Callum Wilkie Dan Butler, Mason Wood Dean Cox Callum Mills Andrew McQualter Oscar Allen, Liam Duggan Jeremy McGovern Liam Baker, Jack Graham, Jake Waterman Luke Beveridge Marcus Bontempelli Tom Liberatore (), Aaron Naughton () Bailey Dale, Taylor Duryea, Liam Jones, Ed Richards, Cody Weightman
Pre-season
Indigenous All-Stars match Starting time is local time. Source: afl.com.au
Practice matches All starting times are local time. Sources: afl.com.au (results); Austadiums (crowds)
Overview
The season began with Opening Round, an initiative introduced in 2024, in which the New South Wales and Queensland clubs (, Gold Coast, and ) contest matches against four Victorian clubs (, , and , respectively, in 2025) to open the season; the eight clubs involved would then have a bye before round 5 so that all clubs would have played the same number of matches leading into Gather Round. In the two Queensland matches, the Brisbane Lions were to host Geelong and unfurl their 2024 premiership flag on 6 March to open the season, and Gold Coast was to host Essendon on 8 March; however, on 4 March the decision was made to postpone both matches due to the projected impact of Cyclone Alfred, which was forecast to make landfall in Brisbane later that week. The matches were rescheduled for rounds 3 and 24, respectively.
The hosted a match against Collingwood at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in round 2, their first home match at the venue since 2009, to celebrate the centenary of their entry into the VFL/AFL; to celebrate the occasion, the club reverted to its former name, Footscray, for the round. In round 5, Gather Round, which was played in South Australia for the third consecutive year, featured matches in the Barossa Valley region for the first time, with two matches played at Barossa Park, a new $40 million recreational facility in Lyndoch, along with two matches at Norwood Oval and the other five at Adelaide Oval, including two separately ticketed matches on the Saturday. Hawthorn also hosted a match to celebrate its 100-year anniversary in the VFL/AFL, against in round 8.
In round 11, during Sir Doug Nicholls Round, the Dreamtime at the 'G match between Essendon and Richmond was moved to the Friday night primetime slot for the first time, having traditionally been held on a Saturday night during the round; two separately ticketed matches were held back-to-back the following day at Marvel Stadium, featuring several Sir Doug Nicholls Round activities in the Docklands precinct throughout the day. commenced a new arrangement to play two of its home matches each season in Western Australia from 2025 to 2027 – each against one of the two Western Australian clubs, Fremantle and , with one match played at Hands Oval, Bunbury, and the other at Optus Stadium – as part of a deal with the AFL, Tourism Western Australia and the Western Australian government to provide financial security to the club, and as part of its strategy to exit its existing deal to play home matches in Hobart, where it had played at least two per season since 2012; in 2025, the club played its Western Australian home matches consecutively, in rounds 13 and 14, and two matches in Hobart as part of the final year of the club's deal with the state.
From round 16 onwards, the start times for Sunday afternoon matches televised by the Seven Network were moved forward by five minutes to avoid prolonged matches stretching past 6:00 pm AEST and delaying the network's flagship Melbourne news bulletin which follows immediately after.
Home-and-away season All starting times are local time. Source: afl.com.au
Opening Round
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
Round 8
Round 9
Round 10
Round 11
Round 12
Round 13
Round 14
Round 15
Round 16
Round 17
Round 18
Round 19
Round 20
Round 21
Round 22
Round 23
Round 24
Ladder
Progression by round
Team O 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 607 2415 4
Source: AFL Tables
Home matches and membership The following table includes all home match attendance figures from the home-and-away season, excluding neutral matches (Gather Round).
Team Home match attendance Membership Hosted Total Highest Lowest Average 2024 2025 Change 2024 2025 Change 11 496,317 54,283 39,271 40,821 45,120 75,477 81,067 11 336,583 34,802 26,441 30,864 30,598 63,268 75,115 11 541,005 75,827 24,120 58,311 49,182 106,345 100,743 11 757,601 92,044 38,126 66,880 68,873 110,628 112,491 11 440,377 76,051 20,347 50,478 40,034 83,664 85,568 11 503,341 54,384 37,570 46,891 45,758 62,237 66,179 11 389,830 88,746 25,372 36,291 35,439 90,798 92,379 11 172,469 22,831 9,816 15,584 15,679 26,157 30,107 11 132,285 19,248 8,092 12,275 12,026 36,629 37,705 11 456,326 80,735 13,287 36,037 41,484 83,823 87,204 11 404,855 77,761 6,721 34,929 36,805 65,479 58,563 11 277,921 46,373 7,395 21,954 25,266 50,628 56,283 11 391,113 53,117 30,390 36,922 35,556 66,015 72,656 11 488,375 80,009 18,423 47,582 44,398 98,489 92,531 11 348,079 65,680 13,486 29,257 31,644 60,467 65,509 11 377,046 40,310 20,805 38,202 34,277 73,757 76,674 11 468,334 53,289 32,845 46,234 42,576 103,498 107,079 11 404,401 78,027 4,814 28,523 36,764 62,328 65,584 Total/overall 198 7,386,584 92,044 4,814 37,815 37,306 509 1,319,687 1,363,437 43,750
Source: AFL Tables
Finals series
All starting times are local time. Source: afl.com.au
Finals week 1
Finals week 2
Finals week 3
Grand final
Win–loss table The following table can be sorted from biggest winning margin to biggest losing margin for each round. If multiple matches in a round are decided by the same margin, these margins are sorted by percentage (i.e. the lowest-scoring winning team is ranked highest and the lowest-scoring losing team is ranked lowest). Home matches are in bold, neutral matches (Gather Round) are underlined, postponed matches are italicised and opponents are listed above the margins.
Team Home-and-away season Finals series O 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 F1 F2 F3 GF X X NM+13 1(18–5–0) GEE X HAW+10 3(16–6–1) X X ESS+34 11(9–14–0) X X MEL+6 4(16–7–0) GC X X CAR−34 GC−95 15(6–17–0) X X WB+15 6(16–7–0) BL X RIC+39 2(17–6–0) ESS X X PA−4 ESS+95 7(15–8–0) X X STK+11 5(16–7–0) X X BL−10 8(15–8–0) X X COL−6 14(7–16–0) X X ADE−13 16(5–17–1) X X GC+4 13(9–14–0) X X GEE−39 17(5–18–0) X X GWS−11 12(9–14–0) X X WC+67 10(12–11–0) X X SYD−67 18(1–22–0) X X FRE−15 9(14–9–0)
Source: AFL Tables
Season notes The Brisbane Lions recorded their longest unbeaten start to a season, winning their first five matches. Gold Coast recorded its longest unbeaten start to a season, winning its first four matches. West Coast recorded its longest winless start to a season, losing its first nine matches, and only won one match for the season, the fewest in a season in the club's history and the fewest in a season by any club since Greater Western Sydney won one match in 2013. Essendon fielded 15 debutants during the season, breaking the AFL era record (excluding expansion teams) of 13 set by in 1991. Adelaide won 18 matches during the home-and-away season, the most in the club's history, to win the minor premiership; however, the club lost both of its finals, becoming the first minor premier in the AFL era to do so, and the first since North Melbourne in 1983. Gold Coast won 15 matches during the home-and-away season, the most in the club's history, to finish seventh and qualify for finals for the first time, having never previously finished higher than twelfth since its first AFL season in 2011.
Milestones