SuperCoach AFL scoring system explained, keys to 2025 premium scorers

Lift the lid on how players score points in SuperCoach AFL – and how you can use that intel to pick a world-beating side in 2025.

You don’t need to be a stats nerd to be a good SuperCoach.

The unique scoring formula developed by Champion Data is based on a simple idea: actions that help teams win real AFL matches are rewarded in SuperCoach.

Winning your own footy, winning the ball back off the opposition, hitting targets with disposals (especially kicks) and impacting the scoreboard directly or via score assists are keys to a good SuperCoach score. Try to avoid turnovers and giving away free kicks (or, even worse, a 50m penalty), which cost negative points, while ineffective disposals don’t score at all.

Looking a bit closer at each position helps uncover the types of players to pick in your squad.

For example, there are seven key traits which make a great SuperCoach defender, such as their intercept ability, kick-to-handball ratio and disposal efficiency.

In the midfield, contested possessions and tackles are crucial.

And for ruckmen, hitouts to advantage stand out above all else as the most important stat for SuperCoach scoring.

Here are the key traits you should be looking out for when scouring the stats sheet to find a SuperCoach star – and some examples of players who turn the stats into scores.

DEFENDERS

Key stats: Intercepts, Marks, Disposal efficiency, Spoils, Metres gained, Kick-to-handball ratio, kick-ins.

Luke Ryan (2024 SuperCoach average 116.6): Ryan scores most of his points from kicking, with the Dockers looking to use him at any opportunity as their distributor out of defence. He averaged 20 kicks per game last season (No.2 in the AFL) and 17.8 effective kicks (No.1). Most of those were long kicks, which are worth more in SuperCoach than short kicks. He got a head start every week by taking 149 kick-ins from opposition behinds, playing on from 93 per cent of them. Ryan was also No.1 in the AFL for marks (average 8.6).

Kicks equal bulk points for Luke Ryan. Picture: Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Lachie Whitfield (SuperCoach average 111): Identifying a club’s preferred kick-in taker is a great way to find SuperCoach value. An effective kick-in from a behind taken from inside the goalsquare is worth one point, but if the defender plays on and runs outside the square any disposals are considered to be in general play. Whitfield took 159 kick-ins last season, ranked No.1 in the AFL (Ryan was No.2), and played on from 147 of them. He also ranked No.3 in the comp for effective kicks with an efficiency of 81 per cent – lower than some key backs (Jordan Ridley went at 88 per cent) but that is more than compensated for by his volume of touches – Whitfield was ranked top five in the AFL for disposals per game (30.2).

2025 PLAYER TO WATCH: Matt Roberts (Sydney) – One of the top rookies in SuperCoach last year, Roberts flew home with an average of 111 over the final seven home-and-away rounds. The Swans made the most of his long left boot and Roberts’ elite kicking efficiency of 85 per cent coming out of defence. He was also the main man on kick-ins in that time, taking 37 and playing on from every one, including nine from nine against the Magpies in round 22. He has been pencilled in for one half-back flank under Dean Cox.

MIDFIELDERS

Key stats: Contested possessions, Score involvements, Disposal efficiency, Ground Ball Gets, Tackles, Kick-to-handball ratio

Marcus Bontempelli (SuperCoach average 126.4): The Bont is a great example of a player who performs well across the stats sheet, which all add up to the best SuperCoach average in the game. He is ranked in the top 10 in the AFL for contested possessions, centre clearances and inside-50s, and is a clear No.1 in one of Champion Data’s favourite stats, the contested knock-on. He was one of only five midfielders to kick more than 30 goals last year and was No.1 in the competition for score involvements – evidence all his touches matter.

Marcus Bontempelli is good at just about everything. Picture: David Crosling

Tom Green (SuperCoach average 106.6): Green ticks some of the most important boxes for a topscoring SuperCoach midfielder. He is a contested possession beast, averaging 14.5 per game – second only to Patrick Cripps – and he also rates elite for clearances. Unfortunately, his scoring is hurt by his disposal. Green handballs more than he kicks, recorded 126 clangers last year – more than any other midfielder – and had an overall disposal efficiency of 64.7 per cent. If he hits more targets this year, he could be anything.

2025 PLAYER TO WATCH: Will Ashcroft – The young Lion took a few rounds to get going after returning mid-season from an ACL injury, but from round 22 to the grand final he averaged 26 disposals and more than four clearances a game. He also won 11 free kicks – which count as a contested possession – and gave away zero. But the stat that jumps off the page is his use of the footy. In that hot finish to the year Ashcroft didn’t drop below 70 per cent disposal efficiency in a game, going at 95 per cent against Carlton and 87 per cent in the grand final.

RUCKS

Key stats: Hitouts to advantage, clearances, contested possessions, marks

Tristan Xerri (SuperCoach average 119.9): Hitouts that don’t go to a teammate aren’t worth any points in SuperCoach, and hitouts sharked by the opposition cost points. But hitouts to advantage are gold – worth five points each. Xerri averaged almost nine a game last season, but what sends Xerri’s scoring through the roof is his follow-up work. He won 99 stoppage clearances last season, ranked No.5 in the AFL – more than Tom Green, Isaac Heeney or Josh Dunkley. And if he doesn’t win the footy, he’s often tackling whoever does – averaging 7.5 tackles per game, ranked No.3 in the AFL and two per game more than the next best ruckman.

Tristan Xerri took his game to a new level last season. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

2025 PLAYER TO WATCH: Matt Flynn – If we ignore his first year at the Eagles, when he managed just four games due to injuries, Flynn’s numbers at GWS in 2023 look very promising. He ranked seventh for hitout to advantage average with 9.7 a game, two more than Max Gawn. Flynn also averaged 3.7 clearances and 7.4 contested possessions, but was one of the lowest-ranked ruckmen for marks per game (1.7).

FORWARDS

Key stats:Contested marks, Goals, Score involvements, Ground ball gets.

Izak Rankine (SuperCoach average 96.8): Kicking a bag of goals will deliver a big SuperCoach return, but that’s hard to rely on, even from the best forwards, so the safest players to target in the forward line are those who spend some time further up the ground. Over a nine-week stretch last season when he averaged 110 points a game, Rankine was a regular in the centre square for the Crows, attending upwards of 40 per cent of centre bounces. That gave him chances to win more disposals and clearances while still spending enough time in attack to kick 21 goals. They often came at crucial times in close games, which are given extra weighting by Champion Data.

2024 PLAYER TO WATCH: Sam Darcy – the young Dogs tall was one of the biggest improvers in SuperCoach last year, and could jump into premium territory as early as 2025. As well as kicking 38 goals, including a bag of seven against the Kangaroos, he took 46 contested marks – more than any other Bulldogs – and showed he had another scoring avenue by attending 462 ruck contests. Hopefully this year he can improve his hitout to advantage rate of 25 per cent.

Originally published as SuperCoach AFL scoring system explained, keys to 2025 premium scorers