2026 AFL season


The 2026 AFL season is the upcoming 130th season of the Australian Football League, the highest-level senior men's Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season will feature 18 clubs and run from 5 March to 26 September, comprising a 23-match home-and-away season over 25 rounds, with a five-week finals series featuring the top ten clubs to occur for the first time.

Background

In October 2025, the AFL announced two major changes to be brought into the competition for the 2026 season:
  • The ball would no longer be bounced in the centre of the ground by a field umpire at the start of quarters and after goals, and would be thrown up instead.
  • The substitute rule was removed in favour of a five-player interchange.
The removal of the centre bounce ended a tradition dating back to 1887, with AFL executive general manager of football performance Greg Swann explaining that the skill of bouncing the ball was hindering the development of umpires and that the change would allow umpires to focus more on decision-making, reduce the likelihood of players making accidental contact and reduce game length. Later that month, the AFL announced seven rule changes designed to further reduce game length:
  • The 6–6–6 rule would no longer require at least one player from each team to be in the goalsquare for centre ball-ups.
  • A 'last disposal' free kick would be awarded if the ball crossed the boundary line from a disposal between the 50-metre arcs.
  • Ruckmen would no longer be allowed to cross the centre line during centre ball-ups.
  • Players taking kick-ins would only be given eight seconds to advance the ball forward, down from approximately twelve seconds.
  • Ruck nominations were no longer required for a field umpire to restart play at ball-ups.
  • Players inside the five-metre 'protected area' after marks or free kicks will be required to stand rather than move out of the area.
The AFL introduced a wildcard finals round, adding an extra week to the existing finals series and increasing the number of finalists from eight to ten; at the end of the home-and-away season, the seventh-placed team would host the tenth-placed team and eighth would host ninth in wildcard finals, before the remainder of the finals series would continue as per the previous final eight system. The change was the first change to the AFL finals system since 2000. The change was negatively received by the AFL Fans Association; however, sports rights analyst Colin Smith explained that the league was protecting the value of the current $4.5 billion broadcast right deal by implementing the new system, with more finalists meaning fewer dead rubber matches later in the home-and-away season.
A State of Origin match will also take place for the first time since 1999, with Western Australia playing Victoria at Optus Stadium on 14 February 2026.

Pre-season

Practice matches

All starting times are local time. Source:

Home-and-away season

All starting times are local time. Source:

Round 7

Round 15

Round 23

Ladder



Progression by round

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