The AFL ladder ranks all 18 clubs across the home-and-away season based on competition points, with percentage used as the tiebreaker when teams are level. Understanding the ladder is essential to following finals race storylines, which dominate the back half of every AFL season.

Points System

Each team plays a set number of matches across the home-and-away season (currently 23 rounds plus a bye structure). The team with the most competition points at the end of the season finishes top of the ladder, known as the minor premiers — a title distinct from the premiership itself, which is decided in the Grand Final.

The Percentage Tiebreaker

When two or more teams finish the season level on points, percentage determines their relative ladder position. Percentage is calculated using total points scored versus total points conceded across the season:

A team that has scored 2,200 points and conceded 1,800 across the season has a percentage of approximately 122.2%. A higher percentage indicates stronger overall scoring performance relative to opponents, and is used to separate teams level on points — the team with the higher percentage finishes above the other.

Why the Ladder Position Matters Beyond Just Making Finals

Ladder position determines finals seeding under the Final Eight system — finishing in the top four provides a genuine safety net (a loss in the first week of finals doesn’t mean elimination), while finishing 5th–8th means a single loss in the first final ends the season entirely. The difference between finishing 4th and 5th on the ladder, even by a single point or percentage fraction, can therefore represent a substantial difference in a team’s path through the finals series.

The Wooden Spoon

The team finishing last on the ladder at the end of the home-and-away season receives the unofficial wooden spoon — not an actual trophy, but a recognised and discussed outcome that carries its own history and cultural weight within AFL discourse, distinct from but related to the formal ladder rankings.