This season, I’ve engaged with the winners and losers of each round… for a while. And then, as we hit the finals, I decided to revisit the format to highlight the victories and losses within the games.
And as I wrote down the names of players – in some cases, week after week – it became apparent that season 2025 had given us plenty of overall winners and losers, and it might be a good idea to have a season-end column to capture those who best fit each category. It’ll probably get me cancelled… maybe I should call it ‘The Winners… and those who didn’t quite win”?
Anyway, here are the Winners and Losers of the 2025 AFL Season – feel free to add your own at the regular places.
THE WINNERS
HARRIS ANDREWS
If the league decided to change the way they award their best and fairest player and I somehow got a vote, this bloke would be my pick for the MVP of the league.
Nobody changes the way an opposition team attacks the 50 metre arc like Harris Andrews does, and with the way he commands his own troops in that back half, he has more impact on the game than 90% of the players who collect Brownlow votesin the midfield.
JACK GUNSTON
He looked cooked, didn’t he? As a member of the Brisbane Lions, Gunston was a shadow of his former self, and when he decided he’d like to head back to Hawthorn to have another crack at it, there were plenty of doubters.
With a career-high 73 goals, Gunston made the All-Australian team and proved that there is definitely a place in the game for a forward that knows how and when to lead at the ball carrier.
NASIAH WANGANEEN-MILERA
One of our readers mentioned that when you start referring to a player by their initials, they’ve absolutely made it. GAJ, SOS… NWM.
There is no doubt Nasiah made the step into stardom in 2025, with his heroics to pinch the game against the Dees definitely worth two votes.
LOL…
DAYNE ZORKO
Another pensioner in the group… far out, Zorko continues to play brilliant footy.
Remember when Keidean Coleman was the guy at half-back for the Lions? He was the one poised to take the reins from Daniel Rich and drive Brisbane’s run from defence. And then he went down with that ACL and people were asking where the Lions would turn?
They turned to Zorko, and he has not even looked like letting his team down, since.
If you get the chance, watch him in that third quarter of this season’s Grand Final. The way he starts the Brisbane attack is a thing of beauty.
PATRICK DANGERFIELD
Okay, so it didn’t end well, but there were moments in this season where Danger looked superhuman.
After the first seven-or-so rounds, I thought he was in All-Australian form, as he made the move forward and tore contests to shreds. Then there was his career-best Preliminary Final performance… just something to behold.
Of course, people will sink the boots in because they can, but it should not detract from what was an outstanding season (barring his time off with injury) from an all-time great player.
RILEY THILTHORPE
Made his statement in the later stages of 2024, and backed them up with a strong 2025.
With 60 goals to his name, he was the one Adeaide forward who could hold his head high following the finals, as he oscillated between that role and back-up ruck.
He also took the third-most contested grabs in the league, as his size and reach were too much for most to contend with.
I’ll tell you this – if he adds a bit of anger to his game and decides to crash the pack here and there, defenders will walk in fear when they play the Crows. Thilthorpe + additional mongrel = something special.
JOSH WORRELL
Another Crow who made 2025 his own, Josh Worrell is a name that any AFL fan should now be painfully aware of.
Despite his team’s poor September, Worrell played some exceptional footy, and looks set to become one of the more potent interceptors in the game. I reckon Crows fans are eyeing more more than one AA Blazer for this bloke.
BAILEY SMITH
A lightning rod for controversy, Smith had a ripping season that is being slightly overshadowed by an AFL Media obsessed with off-field stuff.
On the park, Smith has run himself into the ground for the Cats, and if I were part of that club, I’d allow the media department to earn their money and wrap my arms around him… kind of like Danger did, but also not quite like Danger did.
He’s been a huge win, in my book.
JAMIE ELLIOTT
The little man who plays tall.
Elliott, like Gunston, had a massive year, slotting a career-high 60 goals as he become the focal point of the Magpie attack.
With tall timber around him, he worked hard to become the most reliable threat in front of goal, and secured himself another couple of seasons in black and white.
WILL ASHCROFT
Cannot have a winners’ list without including him.
Three years in the game – one ACL injury amongst them, and has two flags, two Gary Ayres Medals, and two Norm Smiths… he could retire now and those accolades would have people discussing him in 50 years.
Not many who can say that after three seasons in the system.
PATRICK VOSS
When you talk the talk, you’ve gotta walk the walk.
Patrick Voss walked the walk in 2025, slotting 37 goals as the secondary marking target to Josh Treacy (who I reckon is brilliant). Puffed his chest out, celebrated wildly with the Freo faithful, and looked like he was loving his footy.
Great to see.
MITCH GEORGIADES
Needed to stand up and become THE focal point of the Port Adelaide forward line, and did just that.
58 goals with the best defender from each team hanging off you… that’s a fantastic return. Loved watching him play in 2025.
MATT ROWELL
Could not write this article without having him in here, or Mrs Mongrel may have murdered me. Really, he is the only player she actually cares about. I reckon she might start barracking for the Suns.
Controversy about his Brownlow win be damned – the bloke is a star, and I was just as rapt to hear he’d won the Suns B&F this week.
MAX GAWN
Another dominant season for the best ruck of his generation.
Was challenged for the mantle of best big man in the game this season, by both Tristan Xerri and Brodie Grundy, but at the end of the day, Big Max remains the standard by which all other rucks are assessed.
Hope he breaks the All-Australian record next season.
BEN LONG
A throwback footy player. Hard, tough, throws his body in at every opportunity.
He was one of the many reasons to watch the Gold Coast Suns in 2025, and his no-bullshit style made him one of my favourite players to watch.
JOEL FREIJAH
Everyone was talking about how great Sam Darcy was this season, but I was a little taken with another out of the kennel.
Joel Freijah moved into the midfield early in the season and made the statement that the young brigade at the Bulldogs in no way begins and ends with their tall forwards.
With Bont on the sidelines to start the season, Freijah filled in admirably at stoppages and gave every indication that the future is bright for the Dogs.
THE LOSERS
OLLIE HENRY
He is the Geelong area atlas salesman, this bloke. Has gone missing far too often in 2025, and paid for it by being left out of the Geelong team when it counted. Sadly, this is not the first time he has dropped his bundle, with Pies supporters well aware of how he can fall away.
It’s a damn shame, too, as his skill set reminds me of that of Jack Gunston.
THE AFL ADMINISTRATION
From screw up to screw up, in 2025, the AFL leadership has proven they couldn’t lead a horny frenchman to a brothel.
There is hope that the instatement of Geoff Walsh as director of footy will correct the trajectory a little, but there has been significant damage done this season, and there are plenty of long-term supports whose patience is starting to wear thin.
JAMARRA UGLE-HAGAN
Should be one of the best forwards in the game right now. Instead, he is scrambling to find a home for 2026, with vastly fewer teams than expected showing an interest.
You get the feeling he might be one of those players who gets into their late 20s and realises what he’s let slip away.
THE PORT ADELAIDE SUCCESSION
An unnecessary distraction, all season long. Public opinion ebbed and flowed on every win and loss, as Hinkley haters and supporters death-rode him one week, and jumped back on board the next.
Credit where it’s due – the Power stuck to their guns and saw the plan through to fruition, but it did make the entire back half of the season about one man, as opposed to being about the team.
CALEB DANIEL
I feel a bit self-conscious writing this section, as I genuinely thought he’d become a part of the North renaissance.
Instead, he averaged 25.6 touches per game and did bugger-all damage with them. Pretty disappointed in his inability to create – almost as disappointed as I am in my initial thoughts of him being a difference-maker.
Maybe after 12 months to find his feet, he’ll have a better idea of how to use his kicking to break down structures? I hope so, for North fans.
WILLIE RIOLI
A poor end to a career that could have been so much more.
Thinly veiled threats to opposition players, social media posts of hatred toward a club, and then tried to play the victim.
Nup, not buying it. Not a fan, at all.
THE ESSENDON FITNESS STAFF
Plenty of teams have had soft tissue crises over the years, and this year, it was the Bombers’ turn.
Week after week, players went down to dreaded strains, and with a healthy dose of more serious injuries, it left Essendon with a heap of kids who, if all things were taken into consideration, were not ready for footy at the top level.
What resulted was a losing streak that extended to 13 to end the year.
JY SIMPKIN
The greatest game he ever played wasn’t even for North – it was in the Indigenous All-Stars game in the 2025 pre-season. From there, it was all down hill for the captain of the team.
Then, when it appeared he realised that he’d been passed over in the midfield pecking order, decided to float the opportunity to relocate.
What a leader.
THE NORTH DRAFT GAMBLE
I liked what it said at the time. North believed they were ready to advance up the ladder, but the result… did not quite play out as they envisioned
North traded their future first (2025) for the rights to Matt Whitlock at Pick 27.
The price for him has ended up being Pick Three at this year’s draft. North are hoping that Whitlock ends up as an absolute gun, because trading down 24 spots in 12 months is not looking like the wisest move they’ve made.
BLAKE ACRES
Fell away drastically.
Put it all together in his last year at Freo, and his first two seasons at Carlton, but this was a departure from what we’ve come to expect. Dropped during the year, he was the Blues in a nutshell this season.
MITCH MCGOVERN
Dropped for the final game of the season.
Doesn’t mean much, does it?
How about if I tell you that one game would have triggered an automatic extension on his deal, and the Blues were not interested in that?
Gotta earn your dollars in 2026, Mitch.
NOAH BALTA
Off-field stuff aside, looked as though he’d completely forgotten how to play footy for his first month of footy after his return.
Worked his way into form, but if you’re ever wondering what starting behind the eight-ball looks like, have a look at the way Balta got completely lost in defence upon his return to footy.
DAN MCSTAY
Made the move from Brisbane to Collingwood.
Missed the Pies’ 2023 flag
Missed the Lions’ 2024 flag
Couldn’t get a game in the 2025 Prelim Final.
Ouch.
CHANNEL SEVEN
The quality of their product is balls.
I know people don’t like pumping money into Foxtel, but far out… such a difference. Now, here are 12 ads in the last quarter from AAMI. Ugh…
Okay… look, I am guessing there are a dozen more I could slot into either character. Buuuuuut, I have to leave some for you guys, as well, right?
The Lions could have five or six more into the winners’ list, given the way the season finished. I should have put Chris Fagan in there.
Anyway, over to you.
As always, massive thanks to those who support this work. You can see the amount of care that goes into it. I love footy, I love writing about it, and I hope you enjoy reading it. Without you, this whole thing falls over. Sincerely… thank you – HB
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