Articles

Written analysis

One signature piece a week in-season. KICK Rating trends, tactical shifts, players whose rolling 40 is doing something interesting. Not tipping, not hot takes.

Isaac Heeney's perfect KICK 100 headlines Sydney's 114-point rout — Round 12

Isaac Heeney scored a perfect KICK 100 — 32 disposals and 5 goals — in Sydney's 170-56 demolition of Richmond, the highest team score of the 2026 season. Charlie Curnow kicked 8 in the same game. A four-team bye round produced two four-point thrillers.

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Matt Rowell's perfect KICK 100 in a Gold Coast loss — Round 11

Matt Rowell hit the KICK ceiling in Round 11 from 31 disposals, 14 clearances and 7 tackles — his first perfect 100 of 2026 — but Gold Coast still lost to North Melbourne by 6. Ed Richards' 98 was the Bulldogs' difference in the round's 3-point thriller, and the season's marquee names all had quiet weeks.

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Three perfect KICK 100s in Round 10 — 2026 AFL season

Round 10 produced three perfect KICK 100s — Brodie Grundy's 119.9 against his old Collingwood teammates (highest raw KICK of the season), Bailey Smith's third of the year, and Harley Reid's first. Plus Bailey Smith now leads every consistency metric on the board.

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The KICK Blind Spots — 15 defenders the coaches rate higher than the stats

KICK Rating is a box-score metric. The AFL Coaches Association's Champion-Player votes aren't. We loaded 23 seasons of AFLCA voting (2003–2025) alongside KICK and found 15 active defenders the coaches respect well above where KICK reads them — most by 35+ scaled points. Today we shipped them as the Coaches' eye leaderboard.

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No perfect KICK 100s in Round 9 — 2026 AFL season

Round 9 of the 2026 AFL season produced no perfect KICK 100s — first time since Round 4. Luke Jackson's 96 in the Thursday-night opener led; Tristan Xerri broke a three-of-five run with a 69. Bonta's 94 in a 2-point Bulldogs win, Bailey Smith's 40-disposal game, season tally re-shuffled.

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Two perfect KICK 100s in Round 8 — 2026 AFL season

Round 8 of the 2026 AFL season produced two perfect KICK Ratings — Tristan Xerri's third in five games, and Sam Berry's tackle-driven masterclass in the 1-point Showdown. Plus a Pies-Hawks draw, the season averages rearranged.

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The best KICK Rating of Round 7 — 2026 AFL season

Tristan Xerri's perfect KICK 100 in a North Melbourne loss headlined Round 7 of the 2026 AFL season. Pendlebury 98 on Anzac Day, Bailey Smith dropped to third, full top-five and season tally.

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When was the peak? Every top-20 player's best 40-game window

Gary Ablett was the best player in VFL/AFL history on Peak 40 — but when exactly did the window run? We've surfaced the end-year for every player on the Peak-form leaderboard. Here's the full top 20, plus what was happening in each player's career at the time.

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The best KICK Rating of every round — 2026 AFL season so far

Through Opening Round and the first six rounds of the 2026 AFL season, five players have scored a perfect KICK 100. Bailey Smith has two of them. Here's every week ranked, match-of-the-round, and the season tally to date.

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Introducing Positional KICK — leaderboards that stop punishing defenders

KICK Rating is midfielder-heavy because the awards it agrees with are midfielder-heavy. Positional KICK strips that bias out. Here's how, why, and what the real top defenders, forwards and ruckmen look like.

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Introducing KICK Rating — an open, reproducible stat for the people who watch the game

678,319 player-game performances. One formula. Seventeen box-score fields, open weights, published methodology, re-computable from source. Here's what KICK Rating is, how to read it, and where v1 falls short.

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