Six players rated a perfect KICK 100 in Round 24. No other round of 2026 produced more than five.
That is the headline of the last home-and-away round, and it is a genuinely unusual number rather than a rounding artefact. Scanning all 17,045 matches in our dataset — 3,043 distinct rounds — only 14 rounds have ever produced six or more centuries, and the record is 10, set in Round 19 of 2011. Six puts this round level with eight others and clear of everything else 2026 managed.
The best of them belonged to a ruck in a beaten side. Max Gawn had 59 hit-outs, 28 disposals and ten clearances in Melbourne’s 21-point loss to Western Bulldogs, for a raw KICK Game Score of 113.5 — the ninth-biggest single game of 2026 and his first perfect 100 of the season. It is not a career best; the 127.4 he posted in 2019 still stands, in a career now 270 games long. The 59 hit-outs are the third-most in any 2026 game, behind two 60s.
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 24 — 20 to 23 Aug 2026
Nine games, no byes, and very few of them close. Round 24 averaged a 42.4-point margin against a season average of 32.2 — the third-most lopsided round of 2026 — and only one match finished inside two goals. That was the last of them: Port Adelaide beat Essendon by 10 at Docklands on Sunday lunchtime. Brisbane Lions put 159 on Collingwood at the MCG on Friday night to win by 63, the biggest margin of the round though only the 29th-biggest of the season. Hawthorn won by 62 at Perth Stadium, Geelong by 57 at Kardinia Park, Adelaide by 56 at Adelaide Oval in a 258-point shootout, Sydney by 53 at the SCG, and Carlton by 37 at Docklands. Gold Coast beat St Kilda by 23 in the Thursday-night opener in front of 14,429, the smallest crowd of the round, and Western Bulldogs beat Melbourne by 21 at the MCG.
The six centuries were spread across five of those nine games, and two of them came from players whose sides lost. Beyond Gawn, Izak Rankine had 35 disposals, four goals and 12 clearances in Adelaide’s win for a raw 105.5 — his third perfect 100 of 2026, though short of the career-best 110.9 he set only seven days earlier. Bailey Smith had 40 disposals and three goals in Geelong’s win over Richmond for a raw 104.6, his fourth century of the season, the most by any player in 2026. The man opposite him got one too: Tim Taranto had 36 disposals and ten clearances in Richmond’s 57-point defeat for a raw 103.3, making Geelong-Richmond the only match of the round to produce two.
The last two were quieter and, in one case, a first. Jase Burgoyne had 30 disposals, eight tackles and seven clearances in Port Adelaide’s ten-point win for a raw 102.4 — a career best in his 79th game, and his second century of the year. Lachie Neale had 35 disposals and 16 clearances against Collingwood, the second-most clearances in any 2026 game behind Matt Rowell’s 17 in Round 22; his raw 100.6 is a long way under the 118.5 he managed in 2022, in a career that now runs to 317 games.
Two more players went close without getting there. Max Hall rated 97 on 37 disposals and eight clearances in St Kilda’s loss, a week after the first century of his career, and Will Setterfield rated 96 on 32 disposals and ten tackles in Essendon’s ten-point defeat — a career best, and the best game any Essendon player managed in the round. Shaun Mannagh also set a career best, rating 92 on 33 disposals and three goals for Geelong. Elsewhere Errol Gulden had 41 disposals for Sydney, Bradley Hill and John Noble both had 42, and Logan Morris kicked eight goals for Brisbane — equal second-biggest haul of 2026, level with Charlie Curnow and behind only Jeremy Cameron’s ten in Round 6.
- 100
Max Gawn 28 disposals · 1 tackle · 10 clearances · 5 marks
- 100
Izak Rankine 35 disposals · 4 goals · 2 tackles · 12 clearances
- 100
Bailey Smith 40 disposals · 3 goals · 6 tackles · 4 clearances
- 100
Tim Taranto 36 disposals · 1 goal · 7 tackles · 10 clearances
- 100
Jase Burgoyne 30 disposals · 2 goals · 8 tackles · 7 clearances
- 100
Lachie Neale 35 disposals · 2 tackles · 16 clearances · 2 marks
Six entries, because six players cleared it. The list normally runs to five; Round 24 needed the extra row.
The season tally — the full 25 weeks
That is the home-and-away season complete: Opening Round plus Rounds 1 to 24, 207 matches. Six more centuries takes the 2026 100 Club to 38 games from 23 different players — 28 in wins, ten in defeats, none in the three drawn games. And the season-average race, which came into the final round with 0.17 of a point between first and second, did not finish the way it started.
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 25 weeks
Bailey Smith and Max Gawn finish tied on 8 — Gawn drew level by topping Round 24. Lachie Neale is next on 6, then Izak Rankine and Marcus Bontempelli on 5, and Nick Daicos, Harry Sheezel, Luke Jackson and Tristan Xerri on 4.
Most 90+ KICK games
Bailey Smith finishes clear on 8. Max Gawn, Izak Rankine, Lachie Neale and Nick Daicos share second on 5, then Matt Rowell, Tristan Xerri, Harry Sheezel, Marcus Bontempelli and Max Hall on 4.
Top season averages, three games minimum
| # | Player | Team | Season avg | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bailey Smith | Geelong | 22 | |
| 2 | Max Gawn | Melbourne | 23 | |
| 3 | Nick Daicos | Collingwood | 22 | |
| 4 | Isaac Heeney | Sydney | 20 | |
| 5 | Harry Sheezel | North Melbourne | 21 | |
| 6 | Jordan Dawson | Adelaide | 20 | |
| 7 | Marcus Bontempelli | Western Bulldogs | 22 |
The lead held. The two places behind it swapped.
Bailey Smith went into Round 24 in front on 80.36 and came out of it on 81.46 across 22 games — he won the 2026 season average, and extended his lead rather than defended it, with a perfect 100 in his last home-and-away game of the year. Behind him the order reversed. Max Gawn started the round third on 79.44 and finished second on 80.93 across 23 games, the only player in the top seven to have played and rated in every week of the season. Nick Daicos started second on 80.19, 0.17 off the lead; he rated 45 against Brisbane at 62% time-on-ground, and finished third on 78.59. Two of the three had one of the six best games of the round, and the one who did not is the one who moved backwards.
One note on that table, because it will not match a hand count of games played. The season average counts only 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. It is also why Harry Sheezel and Isaac Heeney are unchanged from last week: neither added a qualifying game in Round 24.
Where the ladder finished
For completeness, the home-and-away ladder our 207 parsed matches produce — four points a win, two a draw, percentage as points for over points against:
Fremantle are minor premiers at 19-4 and 137.2%, from Sydney 18-5, Brisbane Lions 16-7 and Hawthorn 15-6-2. Brisbane and Hawthorn both finish on 64 points and are separated only by percentage, 121.7% to 120.1%. Then Geelong, Adelaide and Melbourne, all 15-8 on 60 points and split by percentage in that order, and Western Bulldogs eighth at 13-9-1. Collingwood miss the eight by two points on 52, with Carlton tenth on 50. At the other end, Essendon take the wooden spoon at 2-21, below Richmond 3-20 and West Coast 4-19.
Where this is going
That is the home-and-away season done — no rounds left, finals next. The weekly round-up returns when the finals matches land in the dataset, in the same format: match of the round, top raters, and a tally that now stops moving for 2026.
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 in the finals.