{"id":98046,"date":"2025-08-26T21:15:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T21:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/98046\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T21:15:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T21:15:13","slug":"afl-2025-breakevens-pass-or-fail-how-each-club-fared-in-season-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/98046\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL 2025 Breakevens pass or fail – how each club fared in season 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Make finals? Avoid the wooden spoon? Win the premiership? At the start of the 2025 season, ESPN’s footy writers came up with a pass mark for all 18 teams. So, for those teams whose seasons are over, did they pass or fail?<\/p>\n

Note: This will be updated throughout the finals as each club’s season comes to a close.<\/p>\n

Adelaide<\/p>\n

2025 pass mark: Play finals<\/p>\n

Result: TBD<\/p>\n

Brisbane<\/p>\n

2025 pass mark: Return to the Grand Final<\/p>\n

Result: TBD<\/p>\n

Carlton<\/p>\n

2025 pass mark: Play in a preliminary final<\/p>\n

Result: FAIL<\/p>\n

We’re not sure there’s a bigger fail than this one. Yes, even including West Coast!<\/p>\n

The Blues entered season 2025 as one of the early flag favourites and ended it as unquestionably the most embarrassing campaign of the Michael Voss era, going backwards in just about every metric. Carlton won nine games and ultimately missed out on a spot in finals by a staggering 24 premiership points … plus percentage.<\/p>\n

But things might be about to get worse for Carlton. Talented defender Jack Silvagni just informed the club he won’t be there next year, star ruck Tom De Koning looks set to join St Kilda on a mammoth eight-year deal, and two-time Coleman Medal winner Charlie Curnow has been linked with a blockbuster move to the Swans. Concerning times, indeed.<\/p>\n

There has been serious tension between Steven May and Max Gawn in 2025.\u00a0Josh Chadwick\/Getty ImagesCollingwood<\/p>\n

2025 pass mark: Make the most of the ageing list<\/p>\n

Result: TBD<\/p>\n

Essendon<\/p>\n

2025 pass mark: Have a winning record post the mid-year bye<\/p>\n

Result: FAIL<\/p>\n

The Bombers began the year somewhat brightly, winning six of their first 10 games to give fans hope that perhaps they had finally turned the corner and could be competitive throughout the year. Unfortunately, from that point on, the Dons went winless, falling from the top eight to the bottom four.<\/p>\n

Those are the facts, but it would be unfair to ignore the near laughably long injury list Essendon was forced to deal with throughout the year. No club played more players throughout the year than the Bombers, who seemingly lost a player — at least one player — every week of the year.<\/p>\n

Fremantle<\/p>\n

2025 pass mark: Win a final<\/p>\n

Result: TBD<\/p>\n

Geelong<\/p>\n

2025 pass mark: Avoid signs of slowing down<\/p>\n

Result: TBD<\/p>\n

Gold Coast<\/p>\n

2025 pass mark: Snap the finals drought<\/p>\n

Result: TBD<\/p>\n

GWS<\/p>\n

2025 pass mark: Contend, and make amends<\/p>\n

Result: TBD<\/p>\n

Hawthorn<\/p>\n

2025 pass mark: Prove their rise in 2024 was not a fluke<\/p>\n

Result: TBD<\/p>\n

Melbourne<\/p>\n

2025 pass mark: Give their stars a reason to stay<\/p>\n

Result: FAIL<\/p>\n

Few teams had a more disappointing and dysfunctional campaign than the Demons. The club won just seven games, finished 14th, sacked premiership-winning coach Simon Goodwin, and dealt with ongoing tension among senior players … Max Gawn, Steven May, we’re looking at you. In fact, aside from the first years of Harvey Langford and Xavier Lindsay, we’re not sure there were any positive of Melbourne’s season.<\/p>\n

So why would any star player want to stay? Gawn will be 34 years of age the next time he steps onto a footy field. Christian Petracca will be 30 and Clayton Oliver 29. Who knows what their futures look like?<\/p>\n

Top draft selection Sam Lalor impressed in his first season at the Tigers.\u00a0Morgan Hancock\/Getty ImagesNorth Melbourne<\/p>\n

2025 pass mark: Be in finals contention for most of the season<\/p>\n

Result: FAIL<\/p>\n

Considering the Kangaroos finished the season in the bottom three, and only two premiership points clear of a Richmond side many expected to go winless in 2025, this one simply has to be a fail.<\/p>\n

Have the Roos improved under Alastair Clarkson? Yes … slowly. This year, they scored more and conceded fewer points per game, though still not enough to trouble any of the league’s top sides, outside of their draw against the Lions, of course.<\/p>\n

But North Melbourne should take great comfort in what the Crows have just been able to achieve. Adelaide finished last season in 15th position, then launched up the ladder to take out the minor premiership the following year. If you get it right, things can happen very quickly.<\/p>\n

Port Adelaide<\/p>\n

2025 pass mark: Send Ken Hinkley off in style<\/p>\n

Result: PASS<\/p>\n

Okay, okay, finishing the season with just nine wins and in the bottom six is far from a fairytale send off for long-time coach Ken Hinkley, but hear us out. The club’s final game of the season, against Gold Coast at Adelaide Oval, was every bit a fitting finale for Hinkley, with his undermanned, widely written off side upsetting a club looking to lock up a top four spot. The Power won by four points in Hinkley’s — and Travis Boak’s — final game, an emotional end to this chapter of Port history.<\/p>\n

Now to the bad. Port really did fall off the cliff this year. Don’t forget, this side played in a preliminary final just 12 months ago. Injuries to key personnel, including Todd Marshall, Zak Butters, Jason Horne-Francis, and Jack Lukosius certainly didn’t help the cause.<\/p>\n

Richmond<\/p>\n

2025 pass mark: The kids prove last year’s draft haul was a success<\/p>\n

Result: PASS<\/p>\n

It’s probably not yet a pass with flying colours, but we’re happy to call it a borderline pass for now.<\/p>\n

The Tigers ripped it back to studs in the offseason, offloaded senior talent, and welcomed a host of new faces into the club. This year, Richmond blooded nine debutants, including last year’s top selection Sam Lalor. Many of them showed encouraging signs to suggest they have long-term futures at the club, including Luke Tranor, Jonty Faull, and Thomas Sims, while we’re yet to get a look at highly-touted mid Josh Smillie and only saw glimpses of Taj Hotton.<\/p>\n

Despite the inexperience, the Tigers still managed to win five games — five more than many predicted earlier in the year — and avoided the wooden spoon. They also achieved the remarkable feat of not losing a single game this season by a triple figure margin.<\/p>\n

West Coast won just one game in season 2025.\u00a0Michael Willson\/AFL Photos via Getty ImagesSt Kilda<\/p>\n

2025 pass mark: Somehow, overachieve<\/p>\n

Result: FAIL<\/p>\n

This is a tough one. The Saints hit the jackpot a few weeks back by getting star defender turned midfielder Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera to re-sign for two years<\/a>, there’s also strong reports they could be set to welcome Blues ruck Tom De Koning in the offseason, but the on field performance didn’t exactly scream overachievement.<\/p>\n

Ross Lyon’s side won nine games for the year. On the surface that doesn’t sound too bad, but it was actually the club’s equal-worst season in terms of wins since 2018. Not only that but if we put those nine wins under the microscope you’ll notice a worrying trend. Five of them were by a single figure margin and only two of them came against top 12 teams.<\/p>\n

The other worry for the Saints is that they managed to kick 100 points just once this season, the same amount as league cellar dwellers West Coast and Richmond.<\/p>\n

Sydney<\/p>\n

2025 pass mark: Another Grand Final appearance<\/p>\n

Result: FAIL<\/p>\n

Wow, the Swans didn’t really come close to hitting their pass mark this season. Dean Cox’s squad disappointingly missed finals, becoming the latest team to suffer from the Grand Final curse of losing by 40+ points and failing to make the eight the next year.<\/p>\n

Having said that, Sydney did manage to save face in the back half of the year. They ended the season 8-3, playing a far more dynamic and competitive brand of football. The Swans are also the frontrunners to land two-time Coleman Medal winner Charlie Curnow, who appears as if he’s played his final game for the Blues.<\/p>\n

West Coast<\/p>\n

2025 pass mark: Build the type of nest Harley Reid won’t want to leave<\/p>\n

Result: PASS<\/p>\n

Initially, this only looked like it could be a pass if Harley Reid confessed to enjoy losing games of football and coming under severe media scrutiny week after week. But given the star midfielder just put pen to paper on a new contract, we can’t view it as a fail.<\/p>\n

The Eagles failed to demonstrate any sort of improvement in 2025 and may have actually just had their most disappointing year in club history. One win and 22 losses, a woeful percentage of 60.1%, and the worst season-long contested possession differential ever recorded by Champion Data.<\/p>\n

We’ve said for 24 months things will take time for West Coast to turn things around, but re-signing Reid will go a long way to building confidence and a strong culture at the club as they look to rebound up the ladder.<\/p>\n

Western Bulldogs<\/p>\n

2025 pass mark: Don’t let a tough start ruin the season<\/p>\n

Result: TBD<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Make finals? Avoid the wooden spoon? Win the premiership? At the start of the 2025 season, ESPN’s footy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-98046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98046","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=98046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}