2026-09-13The Bulldogs have reportedly put nine years and up to $2 million a season in front of Zak Butters. Set that money against what he produced across 2025 and 2026 and you can see exactly what they are paying for — the ball out of the stoppage, at a price the rest of the market can't match.
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He is, in practical terms, untaggable on the ball: nobody has kept him away from it. But the ball he wins isn't always the ball that hurts you — and five teams have found the difference.
Not voted by umpires — measured in every game. Ranked by contribution across all 175 matches so far, three points to the best player on the ground each week. Nick Daicos leads it, two clear; the round-by-round and club tables tell the rest.
The best game in this week's crop of newest players wasn't a forward's bag or a midfielder's ball-count — it was a half-back's number that would have held its own against the 300-gamers.
The single best game of the round belongs to a man who didn't make the eighteen — and the reason he's out is a better story than any name that's in.
After Round 20 the medicare ladder has two clubs beyond 200 estimated games for the first time — Port Adelaide on 240 and Essendon on 200 — while Richmond had three seasons end in a single week and the competition's bill grew by roughly 150 games, to an estimated 2,296. Fifty seasons have now ended league-wide. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
Two new games, four more clubs, eleven finals where there were nine. It is a genuinely new door — and the record of every league that has ever cut one, the AFL's own included, is remarkably consistent about what sits on the other side of it. Only the 2016 Western Bulldogs have ever come through this deep and finished the year holding the cup.
Isaac Heeney is the highest-rated player in the competition this season. Chad Warner leads the AFL for goal assists. Nick Blakey has moved more of the ball than all but four players in the game. They are five of twenty-three — and close to three of every ten disposals Sydney have had all year. What makes this unusual is not the size of the hole. It is the shape of it.
After Round 23 the season-ending register climbs from 74 to 80: eleven players ruled out for the rest of the home-and-away season this week, five earlier cases returned to a timeline. Conor Nash's neck is Hawthorn's first lost season of 2026; Toby Conway comes off the register and restores Geelong's. Port Adelaide still lead the medicare ladder on an estimated 275 games of a league bill near 2,906 — up 287 in a single week. And a first for the desk: the whole casualty list joined to the Boot Room, brand by brand and boot by boot. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
Nine seasons of ratings, 1,767 qualified player-seasons, two completely different ways to get better — and football only has a word for one of them. The leap is the biggest single-season rise ever measured here. The climb is bigger, rarer, and nobody announces it.
After Round 22 the season-ending ledger jumps from 64 to 74: five players ruled out for the rest of the home-and-away season this week — Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera and Mason Wood at St Kilda, Will Edwards and James Rowbottom at Sydney, Tim English at the Bulldogs — and five earlier cases recovered by audit. Port Adelaide top the medicare ladder on an estimated 270 games of a league bill near 2,619. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
We scanned every pair of boots in the AFL — 741 players, 27 models, seven brands — and mapped them to how those players run, kick and score. Nike owns the room, adidas runs the ball hardest, and the numbers still can't tell you a boot made anyone better.
The round's youngest team of the week hides a plainer truth: several of these players aren't promising for later — they've already arrived, on numbers measured against the seniors.
The best eighteen games is the easy read — but this round the wall did more work than the ratings, and a top-five performance in the whole competition sat on the outside looking in.
The AFL's television money multiplied sixteen times in a quarter-century. Player wages didn't keep pace — they went from twice the size of the broadcast cheque to half of it. Here is the whole ledger, corrections included.
After Round 21 the medicare ladder has Port Adelaide on an estimated 262 games and GWS surging to third on a 46-game week — the biggest single jump of 2026 — while fourteen more seasons ended in one window, taking the league's count from 50 to 64. The competition's bill now stands at an estimated 2,439 games. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
The rising-player talk reaches for the youngest kid or the biggest name — but the best number this round belongs to a fifteen-game forward whose output wouldn't look out of place on the senior sheet.
Round 21 was a blowout, and blowouts don't spread talent evenly — they flood one line and starve another. Riley Thilthorpe and Harry McKay finished level on the biggest number in the competition; only one made the eighteen, and the reason is the whole story of how a Team of the Week gets picked.
Put every act in football next to what a club pays to produce it, and a hidden market appears — one that prices the rare, scoreboard moment at a fortune and the work in between at almost nothing.
We found the untaggable one. The inverse read finds the best at the tag — and it isn't the player who racks up the most tackles. It's the one who trades his whole game to shrink someone else's.
Every October the conversation is about who's coming in. It's the wrong half of the equation — and the half that decides seasons is the half nobody prices.
A reigning best-and-fairest, an All-Australian defence, one player prised from all 18 rivals — and the whole 40-man Tasmania Devils list still slides under the salary cap, with the $5m signing bonus untouched. So could you build a better one?
Talor Byrne's number is one we should all be talking about — and there's even more to find, because Round 20's biggest young performances are a story in themselves.
The goalkickers got the headlines, but the round's four elite defenders are the reason there was anything to finish.
Noah Mraz, Jagga Smith and Hugo Garcia — the engine's three risers, one per career stage, picked by the numbers alone. All three built their case in the same place: at the contested ball, in a different part of the game to where their team's result actually lived.
The Rising team's standout has played three games of AFL football and just produced the best key-defender round of anyone — senior team included. Around him: three career bests, a debutant, and two names playing their final week under fifty games.
After Round 19 the medicare ladder has Port Adelaide's estimated toll at 233 games — still the deepest in the league by 55 — while three clubs each added nine games in a single week and two players had injuries upgraded to season-ending. The competition's bill now stands at an estimated 2,146 games. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
The best game of Jarman Impey's thirteen seasons headlines a team forged in a single game — five of the round's biggest performances came out of Hawthorn and Richmond, and the Hawks' back six claimed the whole podium.
Ken Hinkley is Tasmania's founding coach — picked for the trait the job demanded, not the biggest CV in the room. His beaten rivals now swell Essendon's and Carlton's field. More names; same split — those two are still solving different problems.
Carlton had the best player afield, the extra territory and the busier midfield — and lost by 21. Read the funnel top to bottom and the whole game sits on one rung: the goals.
Sydney went inside 50 more often and got more shots from every entry — and lost by 16. The 50 Funnel shows exactly where a game like this is decided: the last link.
The whole trade circus is asking where these two land. Wrong question — if Collingwood could sign just one, the answer isn't about who's better, it's about who fits the clock.
Everyone agrees the Bombers have fallen the furthest. The football says two premiers fell further — and that Essendon never climbed at all.
At 30 and 195 games in, he moved to the middle — and by the game's own reckoning he is now playing the best football of his life. Nine seasons, one clear peak.
At the first bounce of Round 18 the numbers still wanted a three-man argument. By the last, there was one man and a formality — Round 18 was decided by Charlie Curnow, not by Jeremy Cameron's injury.
After Round 18 the medicare ladder keeps Port Adelaide top of the casualty count on an estimated 224 games and a league-high seven season-enders, while Fremantle sit almost untouched. The competition has now tipped past 2,000 estimated games lost. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
Adelaide sit 16th of 18 on the medicare ladder after Round 18 — an estimated 60 games lost and 0 season-enders, unmoved on last week. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
Brisbane sit 8th of 18 on the medicare ladder after Round 18 — an estimated 125 games lost and 1 season-ender, unmoved on last week. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
Carlton sit 9th of 18 on the medicare ladder after Round 18 — an estimated 107.5 games lost and 3 season-enders, up 2 rungs on last week. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
Collingwood sit 11th of 18 on the medicare ladder after Round 18 — an estimated 100.5 games lost and 4 season-enders, up 1 rung on last week. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
Essendon sit 2nd of 18 on the medicare ladder after Round 18 — an estimated 178.5 games lost and 4 season-enders, unmoved on last week. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
Fremantle sit 18th of 18 on the medicare ladder after Round 18 — an estimated 36.5 games lost and 0 season-enders, unmoved on last week. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
Geelong sit 15th of 18 on the medicare ladder after Round 18 — an estimated 72 games lost and 0 season-enders, unmoved on last week. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
Gold Coast sit 12th of 18 on the medicare ladder after Round 18 — an estimated 99 games lost and 1 season-ender, up 2 rungs on last week. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
GWS Giants sit 6th of 18 on the medicare ladder after Round 18 — an estimated 144.5 games lost and 3 season-enders, unmoved on last week. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
Hawthorn sit 17th of 18 on the medicare ladder after Round 18 — an estimated 54 games lost and 0 season-enders, unmoved on last week. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
Melbourne sit 7th of 18 on the medicare ladder after Round 18 — an estimated 138 games lost and 3 season-enders, unmoved on last week. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
North Melbourne sit 10th of 18 on the medicare ladder after Round 18 — an estimated 104 games lost and 3 season-enders, unmoved on last week. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
Port Adelaide sit 1st of 18 on the medicare ladder after Round 18 — an estimated 224 games lost and 7 season-enders, unmoved on last week. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
Richmond sit 3rd of 18 on the medicare ladder after Round 18 — an estimated 159 games lost and 2 season-enders, unmoved on last week. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
St Kilda sit 13th of 18 on the medicare ladder after Round 18 — an estimated 96 games lost and 2 season-enders, unmoved on last week. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
Sydney sit 5th of 18 on the medicare ladder after Round 18 — an estimated 147.5 games lost and 2 season-enders, unmoved on last week. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
West Coast sit 4th of 18 on the medicare ladder after Round 18 — an estimated 157 games lost and 4 season-enders, unmoved on last week. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
Western Bulldogs sit 14th of 18 on the medicare ladder after Round 18 — an estimated 89.5 games lost and 1 season-ender, down 5 rungs on last week. Every figure is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
The mainstream files Essendon, Carlton and Richmond under one heading. The football files Carlton somewhere else entirely.
Adelaide sit 11-6 and the story writes itself: hard-nosed footy, won at the coalface. The evidence tells a quieter, stranger story about where this season actually comes from.
Adelaide put 79 points on Gold Coast at home — but a scoreline that big always begs the question the eye can't answer alone.
A 90-point margin at the Gabba looks like a rout. The room pulls it apart — earned, yes, but the story sits in what Essendon's whole season keeps repeating.
Five straight wins and a climb into the top four is the kind of run that writes its own headline. But a streak is a result, not an explanation — so the room pulls it apart to find what's really driving it, and where the honest gaps sit.
The easy story says Brisbane's rise is built on brute contested-ball work. The 2026 evidence tells a subtler tale — and the two don't quite line up.
Western Bulldogs beat West Coast by 16 points and the engine still stamps it earned — but the football underneath had this as a coin-flip the Dogs simply made count. A win that looks comfortable — and wasn't.
The Blues are winning the hard ball again in 2026 — 3rd in the league at it. But the ladder says 8-9, and the room isn't convinced the two things are the same story.
They sit 17th of 18 at the contest and still hold a winning half-year. The question is whether the Pies' success runs through the coalface — or somewhere else entirely.
Collingwood walked off Round 18 with the win and the write-up. The underlying game had North Melbourne a whisker in front — so what actually happened out there?
Everyone knows you win footy by winning the contested ball. The nine seasons since 2017 quietly disagree — and the teams doing it right now are proof.
Has the Bombers' best football ever really been built at the coalface? 2026 makes the question sharper, not simpler.
Fremantle sit 15-2 and rank second in the league for contested ball. But a decade of their own history says the two things don't always travel together. The room reads the whole thing.
Fremantle beat Sydney by 38 and the football had them by about 39. So this one's simple, right? The room isn't so sure — because the way Freo win still hides the one thing that could undo them.
For a decade Geelong's fortunes and their contested-ball count have moved together. In 2026 they sit mid-table at the coalface and mid-table on the ladder — so the question is whether the contest is still doing the work, or just keeping them company.
Gold Coast sit 7-10 and 12th for contested ball. If the story is 'built on the contest', the numbers are telling a different one. The evidence is in; the call is yours.
The Giants beat Geelong by 13 in Round 18. The football says the gap was closer to 33 — and the way each side used the ball tells the real tale.
The Giants have owned the contested ball for the best part of a decade, and their good years keep arriving alongside it. But 2026 and 2025 both muddy the neat story — so we put the room on it.
One round, seven ways of looking at it. Hawthorn's win at Round 18 wasn't a mirage — but what it says about two seasons is a different question.
The Hawks are winning the hard ball again in 2026 — but a decade of their own history says that's rarely what carries them up the ladder. Is the contest the engine, or just the platform?
The Demons have owned the coalface for a decade — so if the contested ball were the whole answer, we'd already know it. The evidence points somewhere quieter.
Forty-six points on the board, about fifty-five in the football. A room of seven pulls apart a Melbourne win that was more comfortable than it looked — and asks what Richmond's night actually tells us.
North Melbourne sit 8-9 and barely break even at the coalface. So if the contested ball isn't driving them, what is? Where this side actually does its damage.
The idea that Port live or die at the coalface is a tidy story. Ten years of their own numbers tell a messier one. Is the contest really the engine?
For a decade the Tigers built winning footy while getting beaten at the contest. So why do we keep telling the contested-ball story?
The Saints win the contested ball better than anyone in the competition this year — first of 18. Yet they sit mid-table. THE ACTUAL STORY on whether the contest is really where their season lives.
Fourteen points on the board, closer to twenty-four in the contest. Seven angles on a St Kilda win that was more comfortable than the margin let on.
Sydney sit 13-4 and the easy line is that they're winning the grind. The evidence says the grind is the one place they've never dominated.
Will Ashcroft led every player in the competition this round, but it was the Giants who owned the graphic with five names. Here's the story behind the selection.
Round 18's Team of the Week for players under 50 games has a St Kilda kid on top and a Fremantle cluster underneath. This is the future, judged on one weekend.
The idea that the Eagles rise and fall on the contested ball is neat, popular — and mostly not what a decade of their own numbers shows.
Western Bulldogs built a reputation at the coalface across ten seasons. But the 2026 side sits 15th of 18 for contested ball and is still 10-7 — so what is this year's success actually built on?
The line is that Walsh drags Carlton's midfield along by himself. The engine holds a big season from him, but it does not hold the evidence to call him a one-man show.
Nine earned wins is a serious number. Whether those wins came against genuine resistance is the part the ledger can't tell us — so the room takes both sides and hands the call back.
Luke Jackson, Max Gawn and Brodie Grundy all own a version of 2026's ruck crown. The room works out why the answer keeps moving.
The competition has anointed the Magpies flag favourite off another gritty win. The football holds a tidier, plainer story: a middling ledger with three wins they got away with.
The room has buried Sydney on the strength of a single loss. The season ledger tells a slower, more stubborn story that nobody wants to read out loud.
The 2026 free-kick ledger ranks all 18 clubs on net frees a game. It describes how sides play — not who the umpires like.
Everyone has handed the Dockers the flag on a 15-2 record. The evidence says they've earned almost all of it — and that's exactly why the 'theirs to lose' talk skips the one hole nobody wants to name.
A proud side sits mid-table with the panic climbing. The room pulls apart what the football has actually shown from what the mood is telling everyone.
The room has decided Hardwick's project is a failure and the Suns are a joke. Read the season's own scoring of the games and a colder, less comfortable picture appears.
'Pathetic' is a heavy word for a side sitting 7-10. We put Gold Coast's 2026 in front of the room — the football, the numbers, the standard — and let seven seats argue it out.
The Hawks sit 11-5-1 and the noise says contender. But the way those 11 wins were actually won tells a more honest story about how far this side really is.
After Round 17, the medicare ladder puts Port Adelaide top of the casualty count and Fremantle almost untouched. Every figure here is a modelled estimate, not an official club count.
The Dogs walked off with the four points, but Round 13's football tells a different story — Hawthorn were the better side by about 39 and got zero for it. Geelong got done by a point they'd earned.
The scoreboard says Geelong by 45 and Sydney by 3. The football says the Suns were robbed and the Cats were flattered — and Port Adelaide lost a game they had earned.
The scoreboard says Collingwood by four. The football says North Melbourne were the better side and walked off with nothing. Round 18, read honestly.
The ladder says Collingwood by 33 and West Coast by two. The football tells a different story underneath — and the Giants are the ones who paid for it.
A 90-point win over Essendon, and the football says the Lions earned every point of it. Will Ashcroft ran the show.