Two matches in Round 23 finished level. Hawthorn and Collingwood drew 92-92 in front of 76,186 at the MCG on Saturday night, and Western Bulldogs and Carlton drew 82-82 at Docklands on Sunday afternoon.
Scanning all 17,036 matches in our dataset, that has happened five times before: in 1911, 1914, 1921, 1944 and 1977. The last round to produce two draws was on 14 May 1977, when Essendon and Richmond finished 99-99 and St Kilda and South Melbourne finished 98-98 on the same afternoon. Draws are rare enough alone — 176 in 17,036 matches, about one in every 97 — and two in the same round is a once-in-decades event.
There is a second thing about the Hawthorn-Collingwood result that is rarer still. They also drew their first meeting of the season, 93-93 at the MCG on 30 April. Before this season, no pair of clubs in our dataset had ever drawn both of their meetings in the same season. Hawthorn and Collingwood have now played two matches in front of a combined 152,818 people and cannot be separated by a point.
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 23 — 14 to 16 Aug 2026
Nine games, no byes, and the two level results were the only close finishes in the round. Geelong beat North Melbourne by 15 at Docklands for the tightest decided margin, and Fremantle beat Adelaide by 24 in the Friday twilight at Perth Stadium. The rest were comfortable: Melbourne put 132 on Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval to win by 76 — the biggest margin of the round, though only the fourteenth-biggest of the season — Greater Western Sydney beat West Coast by 54 at Sydney Showground, St Kilda beat Richmond by 49 in the Saturday-lunchtime slot at the MCG, Brisbane Lions beat Gold Coast by 42 at the Gabba, and Sydney beat Essendon by 36 to close the round.
The top of the KICK table belonged to two players who did their best work in very different circumstances. Izak Rankine had 39 disposals, ten clearances, nine marks, six tackles and a goal in Adelaide’s 24-point loss — a raw KICK Game Score of 110.9, the eleventh-biggest single game of 2026, and across his 122 games the best he has ever rated. It is also the second week running he has set a career best: the 103.7 he posted against Richmond in Round 22 was the previous mark, and it stood for seven days. Isaac Heeney was next on a raw 108.3 — 29 disposals, three goals, seven tackles and seven clearances against Essendon — his third perfect 100 of the season, which puts him level with Bailey Smith and Tristan Xerri on the most by any player in 2026.
The third century was the one nobody would have forecast. Max Hall had 40 disposals and ten marks in St Kilda’s 49-point win over Richmond for a raw 100.3 — the first perfect 100 of his career, in his 45th game, and comfortably the best he has rated anywhere (his previous best was 92.2). Behind the three hundreds, Jack Macrae rated 94 on 32 disposals, 12 clearances and ten tackles — his best game of 2026 by more than 23 points, though a long way short of the 123.9 he posted in 2018 — and Errol Gulden rated 94 on 47 disposals, the most anyone has had in a game this season, one clear of the 46 Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera reached twice.
The two draws produced their own quieter standouts. Tom Liberatore (86) and Patrick Cripps (83) each had 12 clearances at Docklands, and Nick Daicos had 36 disposals in the MCG stalemate. Elsewhere Jordon Sweet rated 87 with 25 hit-outs in a 76-point defeat, Caleb Serong had 12 clearances in Fremantle’s win, Tristan Xerri posted 28 hit-outs, 11 tackles and 11 clearances against Geelong, and three players kicked five goals — Jye Amiss, Mitch Owens and Nick Larkey.
- 100
Izak Rankine 39 disposals · 1 goal · 6 tackles · 10 clearances
- 100
Isaac Heeney 29 disposals · 3 goals · 7 tackles · 7 clearances
- 100
Max Hall 40 disposals · 1 goal · 6 tackles · 3 clearances
- 94
Jack Macrae 32 disposals · 10 tackles · 12 clearances · 3 marks
- 94
Errol Gulden 47 disposals · 4 tackles · 8 clearances · 3 marks
The season tally — 24 weeks in
Three more centuries takes the 100 Club to 32 games from 22 different players — 24 of those in wins, eight in defeats. With one home-and-away round to play, the season-average race is inside a point.
The 100 Club (perfect KICK 100 games, 2026 season)
Bars show raw KICK Game Score, which is not capped — the biggest of 2026 is 136.6. 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
- R16
- R14
- R23
- R15
- R10
- R23
- R7
- R21
- R6
- R22
- R3
- R16
- R22
- R22
- R1
- R11
- R10
- R17
- R8
- R23
- R22
- R15
- R21
- R16
Most top-five appearances across the 24 weeks
Bailey Smith and Max Gawn are still tied on 7, neither having added to the tally this week. Lachie Neale is next on 6, then Marcus Bontempelli on 5, and Harry Sheezel, Izak Rankine, Luke Jackson, Nick Daicos and Tristan Xerri on 4 — Rankine joining that group with his 100.
Most 90+ KICK games
Bailey Smith still leads with 7 and Nick Daicos is second on 5, neither adding one this week. Harry Sheezel, Izak Rankine, Lachie Neale, Marcus Bontempelli, Max Gawn and Tristan Xerri are next on 4.
Top season averages, three games minimum
| # | Player | Team | Season avg | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bailey Smith | Geelong | 21 | |
| 2 | Nick Daicos | Collingwood | 21 | |
| 3 | Max Gawn | Melbourne | 22 | |
| 4 | Isaac Heeney | Sydney | 20 | |
| 5 | Harry Sheezel | North Melbourne | 21 | |
| 6 | Jordan Dawson | Adelaide | 19 | |
| 7 | Marcus Bontempelli | Western Bulldogs | 21 |
Round 23 tightened it. Bailey Smith rated 67 and finished 44th in the round, Nick Daicos rated 68 and finished 40th, and both slipped — Smith from 81.0 to 80.4, Daicos from 80.8 to 80.2. Max Gawn was the only one of the three to have a good week, rating 80 for 16th in the round on 25 disposals and 22 hit-outs, and he edged up from 79.40 to 79.44. Smith still leads, but by 0.17 of a point from Daicos, with Gawn 0.92 back in third. One home-and-away round remains.
One note on that table, because it will not match a hand count of games played. The season average is built only from games at 50% time-on-ground or more — the same filter the leaderboard and every player page use, so a short cameo cannot move a season figure. Harry Sheezel played Round 23 at 40% and rated 41; that game is excluded, which is why his games column still reads 21.
Where this is going
Another round-up next Tuesday after Round 24 — the last home-and-away round of the season. 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 24.