{"id":271105,"date":"2025-11-08T13:20:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T13:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/271105\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T13:20:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T13:20:22","slug":"who-are-the-early-early-favourites-for-the-2026-afl-premiership-season-afl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/271105\/","title":{"rendered":"Who are the early, early favourites for the 2026 AFL premiership season? – AFL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Brisbane has stormed out to clear favouritism to secure a third consecutive premiership, replicating the impressive feat they achieved two decades ago.<\/p>\n

The Lions are deemed the standouts in the AFL<\/a>, and will be buoyed by the inclusions of free agent pair Sam Draper<\/a> and Oscar Allen<\/a>, as well as highly-touted draftee Dan Annable<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2025 grand finalist Geelong aren’t tipped to be too far away after the devastating loss in the decider, while preliminary finalist Hawthorn is seen as the biggest flag rivals.<\/p>\n

But a surging Gold Coast has jumped into premiership calculations following their first finals appearance, and subsequent win. Their 2025 campaign ended at the hands of eventual premiers Brisbane in the semi-final, but they have improved their list with the inclusion of Christian Petracca<\/a>, Jamarra Ugle-Hagan<\/a>, as well as the incoming litany of top-end Academy prospects.<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

Sydney is predicted to return to finals after they acquired Charlie Curnow<\/a>, while Adelaide is forecasted to take their place inside the top eight come September next year.<\/p>\n

St Kilda also poses as the biggest improver after their aggressive off-season, and ranks unanimously 11th across all platforms, but has begun nearing the top-eight fancies.<\/p>\n

Compared to last year’s odds, Essendon, Melbourne, and Port Adelaide have ballooned out to triple figures in some instances.<\/p>\n

Here are the odds for the 2026 premiership from four (PointsBet, TAB, Sportsbet and\u00a0Ladbrokes)\u00a0of the major betting companies…<\/p>\n

2026 AFL Premiership odds<\/p>\n

Pointsbet
\nTAB
\nSportsbet
\nLadbrokes<\/p>\n

Brisbane ($5.50)
\nBrisbane ($5)
\nBrisbane ($5)
\nBrisbane ($5)<\/p>\n

Geelong ($7)
\nHawthorn ($8)
\nGeelong ($8)
\nGeelong ($8)<\/p>\n

Hawthorn ($7.50)
\nGeelong ($8)
\nHawthorn ($8)
\nGold Coast ($8)<\/p>\n

Collingwood ($10)
\nGold Coast ($9)
\nGold Coast ($9)
\nHawthorn ($9)<\/p>\n

Gold Coast ($10)
\nSydney ($10)
\nSydney ($10)
\nAdelaide ($10)<\/p>\n

Adelaide ($11)
\nAdelaide ($11)
\nAdelaide ($11)<\/p>\n

Sydney ($11)
\nFremantle ($15)
\nGWS ($13)
\nGWS ($13)<\/p>\n

Fremantle ($13)
\nCollingwood ($15)
\nCollingwood ($14)<\/p>\n

Western Bulldogs<\/a> ($15)
\nGWS ($15)
\nFremantle ($15)
\nWestern Bulldogs<\/a> ($17)<\/p>\n

GWS ($15)
\nWestern Bulldogs<\/a> ($17)
\nWestern Bulldogs<\/a> ($18)<\/p>\n

St Kilda ($21)
\nSt Kilda ($18)
\nSt Kilda ($21)
\nSt Kilda ($17)<\/p>\n

Carlton ($51)
\nCarlton ($67)
\nCarlton ($41)
\nCarlton ($67)<\/p>\n

Port Adelaide ($67)
\nPort Adelaide ($81)
\nMelbourne ($67)<\/p>\n

Melbourne ($101)
\nMelbourne ($81)
\nPort Adelaide ($67)
\nMelbourne ($81)<\/p>\n

Essendon ($101)
\nNorth Melbourne ($151)
\nNorth Melbourne ($101)
\nNorth Melbourne ($151)<\/p>\n

North Melbourne ($101)
\nEssendon ($151)
\nEssendon ($151)<\/p>\n

Richmond ($151)
\nWest Coast ($251)
\nRichmond ($251)<\/p>\n

West Coast ($251)
\nRichmond ($251)
\nWest Coast ($251)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brisbane has stormed out to clear favouritism to secure a third consecutive premiership, replicating the impressive feat they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-271105","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}