The team that was best all year had its worst day. Fremantle finished the home-and-away season on top of the ladder — 19 wins from 23 games and the competition’s best percentage at 137.2 — and then kicked 5.10 (40) in its qualifying final, the lowest score it managed in any of its 24 games this year. Hawthorn won by 32. A qualifying final is not an elimination, and it is not treated as one here: in all eleven seasons of finals this dataset holds, from 2015 to 2025, both qualifying-final losers played again.
Nobody rated 100 in the first week of the finals, and exactly one player cleared 90: Izak Rankine’s raw KICK Game Score of 94.1 in Adelaide’s elimination final. That makes this the seventh of 2026’s 27 weeks to pass without a century, so the 100 Club closes the week exactly where it opened — 38 games from 23 players, 28 in wins and ten in defeats.
A quick refresher: KICK Rating is our open, reproducible player rating — one score out of 100 for every player in every game, computed from the public box score, formula published, code public. A game score of 70 means a quality senior contribution. 85+ puts a player in All-Australian territory. A perfect 100 is the ceiling — once-a-season form. The full methodology is on the site, including where v1 falls short.
Finals Week 1 — 3 to 5 Sep 2026
AFL Tables labels these four games as two qualifying finals and two elimination finals; they were played across three nights, 3 to 5 September, and are covered here as one week.
Thursday went to Hawthorn by 32 at Perth Stadium, 10.12 (72) to 5.10 (40), in front of 59,446. Fremantle kicked 1.3 in the first quarter and 0.1 in the second. Ten points at half time is the third-lowest half-time score of 2026, behind St Kilda’s five against Hawthorn in Round 12 and Hawthorn’s own nine against Melbourne in Round 17.
Friday went to Geelong by 33 at the MCG, 14.23 (107) to 11.8 (74), in front of 96,680 — the biggest crowd of the season, ahead of the 92,231 at the Anzac Day game. Carlton led by 16 at quarter time and by three at the main break; Geelong kicked 6.3 to 2.1 in the third and did not trail again. Thirty-seven scoring shots to nineteen, and 23 behinds — the second-most by a team in 2026, behind Fremantle’s 25 against Richmond in Round 3. The 49-point turnaround from quarter time is real but not a record: it is the ninth-biggest of the season, and Sydney’s 99 in Round 22 leads.
Saturday afternoon went to Sydney by 53 at the SCG, 21.15 (141) to 13.10 (88), leading at every change. Logan McDonald kicked six, Charlie Curnow five and Tom Papley five — the only game of the 213 played in 2026 in which three players from one team kicked five or more.
Saturday night went to Adelaide by 22 at Adelaide Oval, 14.6 (90) to 9.14 (68), in front of 51,370, ahead by six at quarter time, six at half time and 19 at the last change. Both Wild Card winners went out in week one: Carlton beaten by Geelong, Western Bulldogs by Adelaide.
Rankine’s 94.1 was the only game above 90 all week — 34 disposals, seven clearances, six marks, four tackles and two goals at 85% game time. It is his sixth top-five appearance of 2026 and his sixth 90+ game, behind only Bailey Smith’s eight, and it is still only his sixth-best game of the year; the 110.9 he rated in Round 23 leads him.
Two career bests were set, and both were checked against every game those players have on record rather than against this season alone. Josh Worrell rated 78.2 on 34 disposals, ten marks and 16 contested possessions in Adelaide’s win, past the 65.6 he set in Round 11 this year, in a career now 78 games long. It is also his first top-five appearance of 2026 — the only new name on that list this week. Logan McDonald rated 71.4 on six goals, seven marks and 15 disposals at 95% game time, past the 67.5 he set in 2024.
Jordan Clark had the round’s most disposals with 38, plus 11 marks, and his 77.9 is his best game of 2026 — though short of the 92.3 he rated in 2025. Marcus Bontempelli’s 81.3 was the best game by anyone on a losing side and his seventh top-five appearance of the year, behind Max Gawn and Bailey Smith on eight. George Hewett laid 11 tackles, the most of the week, in Carlton’s loss.
Two of the week’s statistical leaders did not convert. Patrick Cripps won 11 clearances, more than anyone else in the round, and rated 56 on 24 disposals and a goal. Brodie Grundy had 34 hit-outs, also the most of the week, and rated 56 on 14 disposals. KICK weighs the whole line rather than one column, which is the trade-off, not a defence of it — the methodology page sets out where v1 is weakest.
- 94
Izak Rankine 34 disposals · 2 goals · 4 tackles · 7 clearances
- 87
Errol Gulden 34 disposals · 1 goal · 4 tackles · 8 clearances
- 81
Marcus Bontempelli 27 disposals · 3 tackles · 10 clearances · 2 marks
- 79
Luke Jackson 22 disposals · 1 goal · 1 tackle · 6 clearances
- 78
Josh Worrell 34 disposals · 1 clearance · 10 marks
The season tally — 27 weeks in
Twenty-seven weeks in. The home-and-away season is closed, eight teams played this week and six of them are still alive, so only those six can move any of this.
The 100 Club (perfect KICK 100 games, 2026 season)
Bars show raw KICK Game Score, which is not capped. Every game here displays as a perfect 100 because the display score is capped at 100. The dashed line marks raw 100: bars reaching it cleared 100 outright, the shortest rounded up to it.
- R22
- R10
- R19
- R12
- R20
- R2
- R8
- R5
- R24
- R16
- R14
- R23
- R15
- R10
- R23
- R7
- R21
- R6
- R24
- R22
- R24
- R3
- R16
- R22
- R24
- R24
- R22
- R1
- R11
- R10
- R17
- R24
- R8
- R23
- R22
- R15
- R21
- R16
Most top-five appearances across the 27 weeks
Max Gawn and Bailey Smith are still tied on 8. Gawn cannot add to it — Melbourne went out in the Wild Card round — while Smith played Geelong’s elimination final and did not make the five. Marcus Bontempelli is third on 7, having topped the Bulldogs’ losing side. Then Lachie Neale and Izak Rankine on 6, Luke Jackson and Nick Daicos on 5, and Harry Sheezel and Tristan Xerri on 4. All five of this week’s top five added an appearance — Rankine, Errol Gulden, Bontempelli, Jackson, and Josh Worrell for the first time.
Most 90+ KICK games
Bailey Smith leads on 8. Izak Rankine is second on 6 — the only player to add one this week. Then Lachie Neale, Max Gawn and Nick Daicos on 5, and Harry Sheezel, Marcus Bontempelli, Matt Rowell, Max Hall and Tristan Xerri on 4.
Top season averages, three games minimum
| # | Player | Team | Season avg | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bailey Smith | Geelong | 23 | |
| 2 | Max Gawn | Melbourne | 24 | |
| 3 | Nick Daicos | Collingwood | 23 | |
| 4 | Isaac Heeney | Sydney | 20 | |
| 5 | Harry Sheezel | North Melbourne | 21 | |
| 6 | Marcus Bontempelli | Western Bulldogs | 24 | |
| 7 | Errol Gulden | Sydney | 12 |
Four of those seven are now fixed for the season. Max Gawn, Nick Daicos and Harry Sheezel are already out — Melbourne and Collingwood both beaten in the Wild Card round, North Melbourne 14th — and Marcus Bontempelli’s Western Bulldogs lost an elimination final, which in all eleven seasons of finals this dataset holds from 2015 to 2025 has ended a team’s year without exception. Bailey Smith played Geelong’s elimination final and rated 67.1, which cut his average from 81.46 to 80.83 and his lead over Gawn from 0.88 to 0.25. Isaac Heeney did not play in Sydney’s qualifying final, so his 76.93 over 20 games is unchanged. The one change in the order is at the bottom: Errol Gulden’s 86.7 lifted him from 73.21 to 74.33 and into seventh, displacing Jordan Dawson, who rated 58.4 and slipped from 74.72 to 73.94.
Where this is going
The next round-up lands once the semi finals are in the dataset. One match of the round, one season tally refresh, same format. If you want the current form at any time, the live leaderboard re-ranks after every build.
On what comes next, the same rule as last week: we do not guess fixtures. What the data does say is that in every season this dataset holds from 2015 to 2025, week one’s qualifying and elimination finals are followed by two semi finals, then two preliminary finals, then the grand final. Who plays whom is not in the data, and is not stated here.
As always: formula here, failures published too, code open-source, no paywall. The current shipped version is v1.1; v1.2-1.4 were held after sweeps (results are on the methodology page). If you think the rating is wrong — especially if you think forwards are undervalued, which they measurably are — tell us, or check Positional KICK for the within-position view.
See you after the semi finals.