Is this the worst AFL season ever?

I’m declaring 2025 as on track to being the worst AFL season ever. Only a great finals series can save us.

Dramatic? Perhaps. But the statistics allow for a good case to be made.

In round 20, three matches were decided by 90 points or more. In round 21, there were four matches decided by a margin greater than 80 points.

It is just the third time in the game’s history, stretching back to 1897, that four matches have been decided by such a big margin within a single round. The other two occasions were in round two, 2012, and round 19, 2016.

In 2012, the Giants were playing their second game and the Suns were in their second season. Both teams were among the four teams thrashed that round. In 2016, Essendon had lost most of their list due to suspension and were thrashed by Adelaide with the Brisbane Lions, Fremantle and Richmond also copping hidings.

In 2025, Thursday night has become a millstone around the AFL’s neck in the back half of the season.

Since the Bulldogs thrashed St Kilda in round 14 by 72 points, the average margin in the eight games played in the timeslot has been 50 points.

Even allowing for the fact we were spoiled for close finishes in recent seasons, the drama has been missing this season so far.

In the 21 rounds so far, there have been 21 matches decided by a goal or less. Four of those matches came in a 24-hour period in round nine leading us to declare it the greatest round ever.

Too soon? Yep, too soon.

The number of goals per team, per game on average has stuck fast at 12.2, about the same as it’s been for the past decade.

Essendon have been brave, but they have also had a goalless quarter in each of their past seven matches, something @sirswampthing pointed out has not occurred since 1907. At least they won two of those games that year on the way, wait for it, to being runners-up to Carlton in 1908.

Richmond and Essendon played in a universally derided match in round 18 when their combined score of 83 points was the lowest recorded at the MCG since 1989.

At least Tigers fans have been relatively satisfied, as their expectations were so low they were exceeded after beating Carlton in round one.

But the rest of the also-rans?

West Coast’s leading goalkicker Jamie Cripps has just 21 goals for the season. The Eagles have one win. North Melbourne are on track to finish in the bottom three for the sixth season in a row.

Carlton lost their first-round draft pick Jagga Smith to a knee injury in pre-season and never recovered. This is not their worst season this century, but they found a few new ways to drop out of contention in 2025.

Even the very average tipsters I’m surrounded by daily are regularly reeling off seven or eight correct tips a round.

The Brisbane Lions might get two free agents from bottom teams, the Kangaroos don’t have a first-round draft pick and Jack Silvagni could join Collingwood.

And we already know which club half the top 30 draft picks are heading to in November.

Hope?

Since round five, when the Saints dropped out of the eight, only nine teams have held a top eight spot after a completed round. That’s not as bad as in 2016, when teams in the top eight did not change at all. But it’s not ideal either, in a world of decreasing attention spans.

It’s created a two-tier system as hope disappears for half the competition’s supporters before June. That’s a long time for fans of clubs who have now experienced tough winter after tough winter.

The Suns will enter their first finals series this year, and Adelaide fans are entitled to crow. This season has been one to remember. Only once so far in 2025 have the umpires robbed them of victory.

For many Victorians, it’s a bitter pill to swallow seeing Collingwood and Geelong again in the fight for a top-four spot given they have finished with the double chance 50 times between them in the 25 seasons completed since 2000.

Geelong deserve their finals spot, but their lead-in to September is as soft as a Nerf ball. The Cats will be the first team in the game’s history with the final six matches against teams ranked 10th or below on the ladder.

Of course, there have been highlights, and there will be more to come if Cats superstar Jeremy Cameron cashes in during the last three rounds and a final or two.

The greatest comeback from a three-quarter-time deficit inspired by the Saints’ brilliant Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera was one for the record books but curmudgeons among us did note it was a dead rubber. And St Kilda fans are also living with the worry he might leave.

Thankfully at least, the “Nasiahenic” effort was on free-to-air television in a year when Saturday games have been exclusively shown on pay TV (free-to-air has taken the Thursday slots instead).

Seth Campbell’s somersault, Nate Caddy’s over-the-head goal and Hawthorn dynamo Calsher Dear’s speccy were memorable.

“Thursday night has become a millstone around the AFL’s neck in the back half of the season. Since the Bulldogs thrashed St Kilda in round 14 by 72 points, the average margin in the eight games played in the timeslot has been 50 points.”

But such moments have been few and far between.

To the fans’ credit, they keep turning up. Whatever tosh is being thrown at us, it’s still better than football during COVID-19. But that existential crisis was a different matter altogether when it comes to assessing footy seasons. To be fair, the footy wasn’t half bad in one of our most difficult winters ever.

And the players are doing their best despite being fined more than $550,000 by the AFL this season for doing their job.

Despite all this, average crowds have remained relatively constant, giving the AFL the chance to point to metrics.

But no one cares about metrics except, of course, the league honchos.

We will go anyway because we still love football.

I’m not angry at anyone; I’m just disappointed. But my patience is being tested.

Let’s hope for a brilliant September. Fremantle v Gold Coast grand final, anyone?

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