KICK Rating
One number, 0–100, for every player in every game. Transparent formula, public-stats data, reproducible by anyone. The signature metric of The Kicker.
What KICK Rating is
KICK Rating is a single per-game score between 0 and 100 derived from the box-score stats of an individual player's match. It answers a blunt question: how well did this player play, in this game, compared to a typical professional performance?
It is the headline figure used on every player profile, every match recap, and the leaderboard on this site. The headline number you see next to a player's name is their rolling 40-game KICK Rating — the average of their KICK Rating across their last 40 games where they played 50% or more of the match. We chose 40 games rather than a calendar window so a player on a hot run doesn't drop overnight in the off-season, but also can't rest on ancient form.
How to read a KICK Rating
Rough bands to ground the number:
- 85+ — All-Australian level. A handful of players at a time.
- 70–84 — Elite. Top 10% of the competition in form.
- 60–69 — Clear best-22 performers.
- 50–59 — Solid senior contributor.
- 40–49 — In-out fringe player.
- Under 40 — Struggling for games or form.
These bands are calibration, not gospel. Position and role matter — a shutdown defender and a midfield ball-winner with the same KICK Rating are doing very different jobs.
The formula
A per-game KICK Game Score is the weighted sum of a player's on-field actions, divided by a flat normaliser so that a typical professional performance sits around 50 and a once-a-season game ceilings around 100.
Per-stat weights (v1)
| Stat | Weight | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Kicks | +2.5 | Every kick a player registers. |
| Handballs | +1.5 | |
| Marks | +2.5 | Every mark, contested or otherwise. |
| Contested marks | +2.0 | Bonus on top of the mark. |
| Marks inside 50 | +1.5 | Bonus on top of the mark. |
| Tackles | +4.0 | Tackles are undervalued in the box score; we weight them high. |
| Contested possessions | +1.5 | Bonus on top of the kick/handball. |
| Clearances | +2.5 | |
| Inside 50s | +1.5 | |
| Rebound 50s | +1.5 | |
| Goals | +8.0 | Goals move the score. Heavily weighted. |
| Behinds | +1.0 | Some credit for shot creation without over-rewarding misses. |
| Goal assists | +4.0 | |
| Hit-outs | +1.0 | Soft weight pending hit-out-to-advantage data in v2. |
| One-percenters | +1.0 | Spoils, smothers, shepherds. |
| Frees for | +2.0 | |
| Frees against | −2.0 | |
| Clangers | −1.0 | Scaled by clanger rate (v1.1). 5 clangers on 15 disposals hurts more than 5 on 40. Capped at −10.0 per game. |
Normalisation
The weighted sum is divided by 1.9. That constant was derived so that a typical AFL men's game — roughly 95 raw-score points on these weights — produces a KICK Game Score of 50. It is not a magic number; it is a deliberate calibration so the numbers mean something intuitive.
Eligibility filter & time-on-ground weighting
A player's KICK Rating only counts games where they were on the ground for 50% or more of game time. This prevents sub-ordinary injury-substitution cameos from dragging a rating up or down on noise.
From v1.1 we also weight by time-on-ground, because sustaining elite output for a full game is harder than peaking in a cameo:
- 90%+ TOG — ×1.06 (played the game out at elite level)
- 80–89% TOG — ×1.03
- 65–79% TOG — ×1.00 (baseline)
- 50–64% TOG — ×0.95 (qualifying, but modestly rebated)
Rolling 40 vs career
Every profile shows both. Rolling 40 is form. Career is legacy. The leaderboard uses rolling 40 and a 30-game minimum — we're not interested in small-sample top-tens driven by three good games.
What's not in v1
Honest limits, because transparency matters more than flattering the rating:
- No efficiency data. We don't yet have disposal efficiency, kick-to-handball ratios, or effective kicks. These are proprietary Champion Data. If they land in a public feed we add them.
- No positional adjustment. A key-defender's job is to lower the opposition score; their KICK Rating will always trail midfielders for that reason. We're working on a positional overlay for v2.
- No era adjustment. A 1985 rover's KICK Rating lives on 1985 weights; a 2025 rover's lives on 2025 weights. That's fine for within-era comparisons, wrong for cross-era debates.
- No hit-out-to-advantage. Ruckmen are undervalued by v1. Noted and public.
- AFLW uses the same weights as AFL men's. Pending a separate AFLW normaliser in v2.
Why this is open
Rating players is a market with walled gardens. Champion Data runs the AFL's official numbers. Fantasy stats use their own weightings. Neither publishes a formula.
KICK Rating is reproducible from public stats. Everything on this page is the full spec: weights, normaliser, eligibility, window. Anyone with an AFL Tables match scrape and 50 lines of Python gets the same numbers. That's the point.
We'd rather you argue with the formula than trust it blindly.
Version history
v1.1 — 2026-04-19 — Clangers scaled by clanger-to-disposal rate (floor −10). Time-on-ground weighting added (0.95–1.06× banded by TOG). All historical games re-scored under the new formula.
v1.0 — 2026-04-19 — Initial release. Men's + AFLW on identical weights. 13,279 rated players across 1897–2026.
Got an issue with the formula, found a stat we're double-counting, or want to propose a v2 weighting? Get in touch.