Three players hit the KICK ceiling in Round 16 — the equal-most of any round this season — and one of them used it to take the season-average lead.
Zak Butters topped the round with a raw 113.5 (capped at the display ceiling of 100): 37 disposals, 13 clearances and seven tackles as Port Adelaide beat Adelaide by 26 in the Showdown. Harry Sheezel joined him off a round-high 43 disposals in North Melbourne’s 14-point win over Essendon, and Nick Daicos hit the ceiling for the second week running (37 disposals, three goals against Richmond) — and that back-to-back, with both Bailey Smith and Max Gawn resting on byes, was enough to lift Daicos to the outright season-average lead. Only Round 10 has matched three ceiling games in a single round this season, and Round 16 pushes the 100 Club to 19 games from 13 different players.
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.
Round 16 — 25 to 28 Jun 2026
The fourth four-team bye round of the mid-season block — Geelong, Melbourne, St Kilda and Western Bulldogs rested — and the seven games that went ahead were mostly one-sided. Carlton put 117 on West Coast (a 53-point win), Fremantle held Gold Coast to 29 in an 51-point rout at Perth Stadium, Brisbane beat Sydney by 43 at the Gabba behind Will Ashcroft and Chad Warner, and Collingwood handled Richmond by 34 with Daicos’s ceiling game. The two tight results were both 14-pointers: Hawthorn over GWS at the MCG (the match of the round on combined score) and North Melbourne over Essendon at Docklands. That North win — built on Sheezel’s 43-disposal 100 and Luke Davies-Uniacke’s 11-tackle midfield game — was the Roos’ third straight victory, completing a remarkable turnaround from the Round 13 124-point loss to Fremantle: since then they’ve won by 1, 25 and 14. The Showdown was the marquee: Port Adelaide 97, Adelaide 71, with Butters best afield.
- 100
Zak Butters 37 disposals · 7 tackles · 13 clearances · 4 marks
- 100
Harry Sheezel 43 disposals · 8 tackles · 4 clearances · 12 marks
- 100
Nick Daicos 37 disposals · 3 goals · 3 tackles · 7 clearances
- 93
Chad Warner 28 disposals · 4 goals · 7 tackles · 8 clearances
- 91
Will Ashcroft 30 disposals · 7 tackles · 8 clearances · 7 marks
The season tally — 17 weeks in
The 100 Club leapt to 19 games from 13 players — Butters and Sheezel joined for the first time, Daicos for the second. And at the top of the season averages there’s a new leader: Nick Daicos, by five-hundredths of a point.
The 100 Club (perfect KICK 100 games, 2026 season)
Bars show raw KICK Game Score; every game here displayed as a perfect 100. The dashed line marks the raw ceiling of 100 — bars reaching it cleared 100 outright, the shortest rounded up to it.
- R10
- R12
- R2
- R8
- R5
- R16
- R14
- R15
- R10
- R7
- R6
- R3
- R16
- R1
- R11
- R10
- R8
- R15
- R16
Most top-five appearances across the 17 weeks
Max Gawn and Bailey Smith tied on 6 each. Four players are next on 4: Lachie Neale, Marcus Bontempelli, Luke Jackson and Nick Daicos.
Most 90+ KICK games
Bailey Smith has 5. Nick Daicos is next on 4, then Marcus Bontempelli, Max Gawn and Tristan Xerri on 3.
Top season averages, three games minimum
| # | Player | Team | Season avg | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nick Daicos | Collingwood | 14 | |
| 2 | Bailey Smith | Geelong | 14 | |
| 3 | Max Gawn | Melbourne | 15 | |
| 4 | Isaac Heeney | Sydney | 13 | |
| 5 | Marcus Bontempelli | Western Bulldogs | 15 | |
| 6 | Tristan Xerri | North Melbourne | 11 | |
| 7 | Jordan Dawson | Adelaide | 12 |
Nick Daicos is the new season-average leader — 81.8 over 14 games — but only just: Bailey Smith (81.7) and Max Gawn (81.5) sit within 0.3 of him, and both were on byes this round, so neither lost ground. Daicos took the lead the hard way: two perfect 100s in a row while the men above him rested. It’s the tightest top three the season has produced — three players inside three-tenths of a point with seven rounds to play, and the first change at the top since Smith took the lead back in the first half of the year. Isaac Heeney (79.0) is the only other player above 79; everyone else in the top seven is below 77. Whoever leads after Round 17 — when Geelong and Melbourne return — will have earned it against a field that’s bunching, not spreading.
Another round-up next Tuesday after Round 17. 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.
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 in the methodology page), and the AFLCA-aligned view lives as its own lens — Coaches’ Eye ranks players by coach votes scaled within position. If you think the rating is wrong, tell us or check Positional KICK for the within-position view.
See you after Round 17.