Tristan Xerri scored a perfect KICK 100 in Round 7. North Melbourne lost by seven points.

25 disposals, 12 tackles, 10 clearances and 25 hit-outs against Greater Western Sydney — a raw KICK Game Score of 107.5, his second 100 of the season, and the only one of the round. North fell short anyway: GWS edged them 105–98 in the closest finish of the weekend.

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 7 — 23 to 26 April 2026

The Anzac Round was a parade of margins. Eight of nine games were decided by 14 or more points, six by 49 or more. Sydney opened the weekend with a 66-point flogging of the Bulldogs at Marvel; St Kilda closed it with a 101-point hammering of West Coast on Sunday afternoon. The Anzac Day clash itself was the centrepiece — Collingwood 137, Essendon 60, a 77-point thumping at the MCG.

Scott Pendlebury carved out 43 disposals, ten marks and two goals for Collingwood on Anzac Day at age 38. Nick Daicos added 89 (42 disposals, 14 contested possessions, eight clearances) in the same midfield. Shai Bolton ran a 33-disposal, two-goal, eight-tackle line through Carlton in Fremantle’s narrow win, and Charlie Curnow booted seven for Sydney from 15 disposals — the round’s only five-plus goal haul. Xerri’s hundred was the only ruckman performance in the top ten, anchored by 25 hit-outs alongside the disposals and tackles.

  1. 100
    Tristan Xerri North Melbourne · lost to Greater Western Sydney by 7 25 disposals · 12 tackles · 10 clearances · 5 marks
  2. 98
    Scott Pendlebury Collingwood · beat Essendon by 77 43 disposals · 2 goals · 1 tackle · 4 clearances
  3. 97
    Lachie Neale Brisbane Lions · beat Adelaide by 52 42 disposals · 2 tackles · 4 clearances · 13 marks
  4. 97
    Shai Bolton Fremantle · beat Carlton by 14 33 disposals · 2 goals · 8 tackles · 4 clearances
  5. 92
    Zac Bailey Brisbane Lions · beat Adelaide by 52 29 disposals · 3 goals · 2 tackles · 7 clearances
Match of the round
Greater Western Sydney 105 vs 98 North Melbourne
Full recap →

The season tally — 8 weeks in

A few patterns are already hardening.

The 100 Club (perfect KICK 100 games, 2026 season)

Bars show raw KICK Game Score; every game here exceeded the display ceiling of 100. The dashed line is the ceiling.

  1. R2
    Tristan Xerri North Melbourne · L vs West Coast 115.3
  2. R5
    Isaac Heeney Sydney · W vs Gold Coast 114.7
  3. R7
    Tristan Xerri North Melbourne · L vs Greater Western Sydney 107.5
  4. R6
    Bailey Smith Geelong · W vs Western Bulldogs 106.0
  5. R3
    Bailey Smith Geelong · W vs Adelaide 104.4
  6. R1
    Marcus Bontempelli Western Bulldogs · W vs Greater Western Sydney 101.7

Most top-five appearances across the 8 weeks

Max Gawn and Bailey Smith tied on 4 each. Next: Lachie Neale, Marcus Bontempelli, Tristan Xerri with 2.

Most 90+ KICK games

Max Gawn and Bailey Smith tied on 3 each.

Top season averages, three games minimum

#PlayerTeamSeason avgGames
1Nick DaicosCollingwood
85.1
6
2Tristan XerriNorth Melbourne
84.9
4
3Bailey SmithGeelong
84.8
7
4Max GawnMelbourne
84.4
7
5Marcus BontempelliWestern Bulldogs
75.4
7
6Isaac HeeneySydney
75.3
5
7Lachie NealeBrisbane Lions
74.7
7

Two things jump out. First: Bailey Smith topped this list after Round 6 by the biggest gap the leaderboard had seen since we started covering the 2026 season. One quiet game later, he’s third — behind a Daicos with six games on the board and a Xerri who’s played four times and rated 100 in two of them. The “best player in the AFL right now” gate is genuinely tight in a season where one game can rearrange the top three. Second: Xerri is a pure ruckman, and two of his four games this year have hit the KICK ceiling. The small sample makes the season average hard to read — North will manage his minutes, and the avg will move — but two perfect 100s from four games is the form line, not the average.

Where this is going

Another round-up next Tuesday after Round 8. 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. If you think the rating is wrong — especially if you think forwards are undervalued, which they measurably are — tell us. KICK v1.4 is the version that addresses positional fairness beyond what Positional KICK does, and every real suggestion gets read.

See you after Round 8.