Accompanying Article: List analysis: Where your club ranks for age and experience

Average age: 24.7 (eighth oldest)
Average games: 72.6 (10th most experienced)
Most games: Taylor Walker (301)
Players with 100-plus games: 11
Players with less than 50 games: 18

Average age: 25.3 (equal third oldest)
Average games: 88.6 (third most experienced)
Most games: Dayne Zorko (304)
Players with 100-plus games: 15
Players with less than 50 games: 19

Average age: 24.9 (sixth oldest)
Average games: 79.3 (fifth most experienced)
Most games: Nick Haynes (234)
Players with 100-plus games: 15
Players with less than 50 games: 22

Average age: 25.6 (oldest)
Average games: 94.7 (most experienced)
Most games: Scott Pendlebury (425)
Players with 100-plus games: 18
Players with less than 50 games: 22

Average age: 23.6 (17th oldest)
Average games: 57.7 (17th most experienced)
Most games: Zach Merrett (251)
Players with 100-plus games: 13
Players with less than 50 games: 25

Average age: 24.3 (equal 10th oldest)
Average games: 67.2 (13th most experienced)
Most games: Jaeger O'Meara (200)
Players with 100-plus games: 14
Players with less than 50 games: 19

Average age: 25.3 (equal third oldest)
Average games: 89.3 (second most experienced)
Most games: Patrick Dangerfield (360)
Players with 100-plus games: 19
Players with less than 50 games: 21

Average age: 24.1 (equal 14th oldest)
Average games: 63.9 (15th most experienced)
Most games: Touk Miller (214)
Players with 100-plus games: 14
Players with less than 50 games: 25

Average age: 24.3 (equal 10th oldest)
Average games: 77 (seventh most experienced)
Most games: Toby Greene (261)
Players with 100-plus games: 14
Players with less than 50 games: 22

Average age: 24.3 (equal 10th oldest)
Average games: 71.4 (12th most experienced)
Most games: Jack Gunston (283)
Players with 100-plus games: 13
Players with less than 50 games: 20

Average age: 25.4 (second oldest)
Average games: 79 (sixth most experienced)
Most games: Steven May (251)
Players with 100-plus games: 15
Players with less than 50 games: 23

Average age: 24.1 (equal 14th oldest)
Average games: 72 (11th most experienced)
Most games: Jack Darling (320)
Players with 100-plus games: 12
Players with less than 50 games: 24

Average age: 24.4 (ninth oldest)
Average games: 64.9 (14th most experienced)
Most games: Ollie Wines (273)
Players with 100-plus games: 12
Players with less than 50 games: 21

Average age: 23.8 (16th oldest)
Average games: 58.7 (16th most experienced)
Most games: Nick Vlastuin (255) 
Players with 100-plus games: 9
Players with less than 50 games: 29

Average age: 24.2 (13th oldest)
Average games: 74.4 (eighth most experienced)
Most games: Brad Hill (277)
Players with 100-plus games: 13
Players with less than 50 games: 19

Average age: 25 (fifth oldest)
Average games: 84.9 (fourth most experienced)
Most games: Dane Rampe (272)
Players with 100-plus games: 18
Players with less than 50 games: 20

Average age: 23.5 (18th oldest)
Average games: 54.1 (18th most experienced)
Most games: Jamie Cripps (272)
Players with 100-plus games: 9
Players with less than 50 games: 29

Average age: 24.8 (seventh oldest)
Average games: 73.4 (ninth most experienced)
Most games: Adam Treloar and Marcus Bontempelli (258)
Players with 100-plus games: 11
Players with less than 50 games: 23

		Average age of list at Opening Round, 2026	Ranking at OR, 2025
1	Collingwood	25.6	Oldest
2	Melbourne	25.4	Equal fifth oldest
=3	Brisbane	25.3	Second oldest
=3	Geelong	25.3	Fourth oldest
5	Sydney	25	Equal fifth oldest
6	Carlton	24.9	Eighth oldest
7	Western Bulldogs	24.8	Third oldest
8	Adelaide	24.7	Seventh oldest
9	Port Adelaide	24.4	12th oldest
=10	Fremantle	24.3	11th oldest
=10	Greater Western Sydney	24.3	13th oldest
=10	Hawthorn	24.3	10th oldest
13	St Kilda	24.2	Equal 14th oldest
=14	Gold Coast	24.1	Ninth oldest
=14	North Melbourne	24.1	18th oldest
16	Richmond	23.8	16th oldest
17	Essendon	23.6	Equal 14th oldest
18	West Coast	23.5	17th oldest

 

		Average number of games played on list, 2026	Ranking at OR, 2025
1	Collingwood	94.7	Most experienced
2	Geelong	89.3	Third most experienced
3	Brisbane	88.6	Second most experienced
4	Sydney	84.9	Fourth most experienced
5	Carlton	79.3	Eighth most experienced
6	Melbourne	79	Sixth most experienced
7	Greater Western Sydney	77	12th most experienced
8	St Kilda	74.4	14th most experienced
9	Western Bulldogs	73.4	Fifth most experienced
10	Adelaide	72.6	13th most experienced
11	North Melbourne	72	16th most experienced
12	Hawthorn	71.4	Seventh most experienced
13	Fremantle	67.2	15th most experienced
14	Port Adelaide	64.9	10th most experienced
15	Gold Coast	63.9	Ninth most experienced
16	Richmond	58.7	18th most experienced
17	Essendon	57.7	11th most experienced
18	West Coast	54.1	17th most experienced

So you're saying we're in the window?

So time for a rebuild………..oh wait

Max and Melksham have put us high yp on that list. Both have still got a lot to offer

We have a great bunch of kids and Coaches coming through…

Means nothing, the back to back premiers are high on the list

More crude stats. I guess the footy media needs to discuss something in the silly season. Weren't all the guys who got to 400 still playing pretty well? If a team had them all , on paper you might write it off. But not in reality. BTW losing an eight-time All-Australian will damage any team. But I'm not convinced Gawn is about to drop away, nor that the club are unaware we have some older players needing replacing in the next year or two.

15 minutes ago, 3KZ is Football said:

Max and Melksham have put us high yp on that list. Both have still got a lot to offer

We have a great bunch of kids and Coaches coming through…

Add Tmac and May who likely wont play much AFL next year.

We have a decent number of players between 18 and 23 but a bit skinny on the 24-28 bracket.

Given we are likely to lose Melksham (34), Campbell (34), May (33), T-mac (33) at the end of next year, our age demographic will start shifting significantly towards being youthful. I can see us taking a few more high end kids again given our draft hand and the impending tassie team. However we probably should target players in that 24-28 range for list balance and to supplement our list build in the coming years.

3 minutes ago, chookrat said:

Add Tmac and May who likely wont play much AFL next year.

Yes you are right. I forgot that has been retained. Good idea to have some Quality Backup pushing hard for selection.

Both those players will want to finish their careers in the Senior Team

I must add this.... One of the tricks of sensationalism / propaganda is to not start the horizontal axis at 0 on a graph . Tiny changes on the line on such a graph would look huge, even though a value has only gone up from 24 to 25 in 4 years or whatever.

Nearly every team's average age is 24.1 or higher. In other words, our average is only 5.4% higher than the fourth youngest team. It's time to panic! 🙄

Have they released each club's Spotify listening age average yet?

Yeh, one is Max Gawn who’s the best in the game. Who cares about age. Give me 10 of him and I’d be stoked.

1 hour ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

Have they released each club's Spotify listening age average yet?

You got yours today too, Rab?

14 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

You got yours today too, Rab?

Mine was 86…

Only 54 years off.

I’m old at heart.

These average age profiles are to superficial, what’s probably more important is the age of your best 22 and even more importantly your best 4 or 5, even those can be skewed by a couple of older players. Going over my own best 22 for next year 11 of the players were under 25, 8 30 and over and 3 25-29 which is when players are in there prime and that’s probably the more concerning thing about our our list and why expecting a bounce back next year is unrealistic. If you did similar analysis of other best 22 for each team I'm willing to bet we have more than most in that under 25 age bracket.

Edited 21 hours ago21 hr by Garbo

It's all a bit silly.

Campbell, McAdam, Johnson, Henderson all drop out of the numbers without affecting our starting team. But pick out best 4 veterans and toss them out, we are completely knotted.

Do that with Collingwood and ... as I noted the other day, they have more people in their top-10 best and fairest aged 33 and over than 23 and under. That's a struggle.

On the other hand, with Brisbane if you tighten it to best 22 and they still go alright, with Ashcroft, Ashcroft, Marhsall, Morris, Fletcher, Wilmot and Lohman all 22 and under. Thanks to an epic run of father-sons Brisbane were able to get the proverbial sit and push up another level. Their Ashcroft bounty was a bit like the timely injection of Selwood or Rioli, or indeed our Jackson-Pickett-Rivers draft which lifted us.

Brisbane also provide the highlight of how silly an age profile is for predicting the future; if you can bring in a steady stream of good draftees and elite 26 year old players and leaders from other clubs, who cares?

Buys stocks on the Gold Coast Suns.

Their list is scary good if there is one man that can bring them their first maiden cup its Dimma.

It shows how we have been the last few years. The players we delisted at the end of 2025 were either

1. Late picks/rookies who didnt develop into players.

2. Top up role players who contributed very little.

Our recruiting has great success in the first two rounds of the draft but has had little luck unearthing late gems.

Heading into 2026 we have retained a few senior players that would have been moved on if our list was in better shape.

I would feel better if we had our training facilities built and in a position to attract free agents in the next year or two.

10 hours ago, Ghostwriter said:

You got yours today too, Rab?

Yeah, 78 LOL. Don't know where it got that from but it's true I probably haven't listened to anything from this century.

12 hours ago, 3KZ is Football said:

Max and Melksham have put us high yp on that list. Both have still got a lot to offer

We have a great bunch of kids and Coaches coming through…

And TMac?

There was a follow up post on the socials outlying the break down in different age groups. I think we had 20 players under 22. I probably got that slightly wrong but it was something like that. I actually think we’ve got a great balance of youth and experience and along with the other off field changes can get back to being competitive on a regular basis.

14 hours ago, GawnOfTheDead said:

Yeh, one is Max Gawn who’s the best in the game. Who cares about age. Give me 10 of him and I’d be stoked.

Let’s not get carried away! Just one more of him would suffice otherwise we become far too top heavy

Accompanying Article: List analysis: Where your club ranks for age and experience

Average age: 24.7 (eighth oldest)
Average games: 72.6 (10th most experienced)
Most games: Taylor Walker (301)
Players with 100-plus games: 11
Players with less than 50 games: 18

Average age: 25.3 (equal third oldest)
Average games: 88.6 (third most experienced)
Most games: Dayne Zorko (304)
Players with 100-plus games: 15
Players with less than 50 games: 19

Average age: 24.9 (sixth oldest)
Average games: 79.3 (fifth most experienced)
Most games: Nick Haynes (234)
Players with 100-plus games: 15
Players with less than 50 games: 22

Average age: 25.6 (oldest)
Average games: 94.7 (most experienced)
Most games: Scott Pendlebury (425)
Players with 100-plus games: 18
Players with less than 50 games: 22

Average age: 23.6 (17th oldest)
Average games: 57.7 (17th most experienced)
Most games: Zach Merrett (251)
Players with 100-plus games: 13
Players with less than 50 games: 25

Average age: 24.3 (equal 10th oldest)
Average games: 67.2 (13th most experienced)
Most games: Jaeger O'Meara (200)
Players with 100-plus games: 14
Players with less than 50 games: 19

Average age: 25.3 (equal third oldest)
Average games: 89.3 (second most experienced)
Most games: Patrick Dangerfield (360)
Players with 100-plus games: 19
Players with less than 50 games: 21

Average age: 24.1 (equal 14th oldest)
Average games: 63.9 (15th most experienced)
Most games: Touk Miller (214)
Players with 100-plus games: 14
Players with less than 50 games: 25

Average age: 24.3 (equal 10th oldest)
Average games: 77 (seventh most experienced)
Most games: Toby Greene (261)
Players with 100-plus games: 14
Players with less than 50 games: 22

Average age: 24.3 (equal 10th oldest)
Average games: 71.4 (12th most experienced)
Most games: Jack Gunston (283)
Players with 100-plus games: 13
Players with less than 50 games: 20

Average age: 25.4 (second oldest)
Average games: 79 (sixth most experienced)
Most games: Steven May (251)
Players with 100-plus games: 15
Players with less than 50 games: 23

Average age: 24.1 (equal 14th oldest)
Average games: 72 (11th most experienced)
Most games: Jack Darling (320)
Players with 100-plus games: 12
Players with less than 50 games: 24

Average age: 24.4 (ninth oldest)
Average games: 64.9 (14th most experienced)
Most games: Ollie Wines (273)
Players with 100-plus games: 12
Players with less than 50 games: 21

Average age: 23.8 (16th oldest)
Average games: 58.7 (16th most experienced)
Most games: Nick Vlastuin (255) 
Players with 100-plus games: 9
Players with less than 50 games: 29

Average age: 24.2 (13th oldest)
Average games: 74.4 (eighth most experienced)
Most games: Brad Hill (277)
Players with 100-plus games: 13
Players with less than 50 games: 19

Average age: 25 (fifth oldest)
Average games: 84.9 (fourth most experienced)
Most games: Dane Rampe (272)
Players with 100-plus games: 18
Players with less than 50 games: 20

Average age: 23.5 (18th oldest)
Average games: 54.1 (18th most experienced)
Most games: Jamie Cripps (272)
Players with 100-plus games: 9
Players with less than 50 games: 29

Average age: 24.8 (seventh oldest)
Average games: 73.4 (ninth most experienced)
Most games: Adam Treloar and Marcus Bontempelli (258)
Players with 100-plus games: 11
Players with less than 50 games: 23

		Average age of list at Opening Round, 2026	Ranking at OR, 2025
1	Collingwood	25.6	Oldest
2	Melbourne	25.4	Equal fifth oldest
=3	Brisbane	25.3	Second oldest
=3	Geelong	25.3	Fourth oldest
5	Sydney	25	Equal fifth oldest
6	Carlton	24.9	Eighth oldest
7	Western Bulldogs	24.8	Third oldest
8	Adelaide	24.7	Seventh oldest
9	Port Adelaide	24.4	12th oldest
=10	Fremantle	24.3	11th oldest
=10	Greater Western Sydney	24.3	13th oldest
=10	Hawthorn	24.3	10th oldest
13	St Kilda	24.2	Equal 14th oldest
=14	Gold Coast	24.1	Ninth oldest
=14	North Melbourne	24.1	18th oldest
16	Richmond	23.8	16th oldest
17	Essendon	23.6	Equal 14th oldest
18	West Coast	23.5	17th oldest

 

		Average number of games played on list, 2026	Ranking at OR, 2025
1	Collingwood	94.7	Most experienced
2	Geelong	89.3	Third most experienced
3	Brisbane	88.6	Second most experienced
4	Sydney	84.9	Fourth most experienced
5	Carlton	79.3	Eighth most experienced
6	Melbourne	79	Sixth most experienced
7	Greater Western Sydney	77	12th most experienced
8	St Kilda	74.4	14th most experienced
9	Western Bulldogs	73.4	Fifth most experienced
10	Adelaide	72.6	13th most experienced
11	North Melbourne	72	16th most experienced
12	Hawthorn	71.4	Seventh most experienced
13	Fremantle	67.2	15th most experienced
14	Port Adelaide	64.9	10th most experienced
15	Gold Coast	63.9	Ninth most experienced
16	Richmond	58.7	18th most experienced
17	Essendon	57.7	11th most experienced
18	West Coast	54.1	17th most experienced

12 hours ago, Little Goffy said:

It's all a bit silly.

Campbell, McAdam, Johnson, Henderson all drop out of the numbers without affecting our starting team. But pick out best 4 veterans and toss them out, we are completely knotted.

Do that with Collingwood and ... as I noted the other day, they have more people in their top-10 best and fairest aged 33 and over than 23 and under. That's a struggle.

On the other hand, with Brisbane if you tighten it to best 22 and they still go alright, with Ashcroft, Ashcroft, Marhsall, Morris, Fletcher, Wilmot and Lohman all 22 and under. Thanks to an epic run of father-sons Brisbane were able to get the proverbial sit and push up another level. Their Ashcroft bounty was a bit like the timely injection of Selwood or Rioli, or indeed our Jackson-Pickett-Rivers draft which lifted us.

Brisbane also provide the highlight of how silly an age profile is for predicting the future; if you can bring in a steady stream of good draftees and elite 26 year old players and leaders from other clubs, who cares?

Don’t forget Kiddy Coleman he almost single handily won them the premiership in 2023 where he was clearly best on ground in the prelim and would have won the norm smith if the shot he took from 60m out in last quarter went through. It went through the behinds post height but just missed. He is only 25 will be 26 next year.

They are going to be hard to beat for years unless they have a Melbourne like implosion.

An interesting but irrelevant table in itself.

As others have said it's all about the age of your best group of five (1-5, 5-10 10-15 etc)

Collingwood have Pendlebury, Sidebottom and the former MFC fellow in their top ten and they had Mihochek. That's why they're exposed.

We have Gawn and now Mihochek in our top ten. Viney and Salem are in the 10-15 group. I see Melksham, May and TMac as depth this year and would put them in the 20-25 group.

BTW who are top 5 these days. Gawn, Pickett ???