Fixture rankings: Numbers reveal 2025’s winners and losers of the AFL draw

We are past the halfway point of this home-and-away season, so the power of the 2025 fixture can be fully revealed. And it’s grim reading for some footy fans.

As this season has gone on, Essendon has moved from unlucky to dead stiff.

Now we are past the halfway point of this home-and-away season, the power of the fixture can be fully revealed.

And through an analysis on travel distance, opponent injury luck and draw difficulty, the Bombers have emerged as a big loser.

Hit by injuries as hard as any side, Essendon has had no luck going the other way.

The fixture hasn’t been kind to the Bombers this year. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

So far this year, opponents have entered games against the Bombers with an average of 6.1 players out injured, the lowest number in the league.

Basically, that means the Bombers have been playing against sides closer to full strength than any other team.

In tallying up travel time, only Hawthorn will spend more time in the air than Essendon among Victorian sides, as they fly for over 9500km this year.

And a fixture that includes only one double-up meeting with a side among the bottom eight on the ladder means Essendon has the third-hardest fixture this season, as the ladder stands now.

Of course, the Bombers aren’t the only big loser this year.

Brisbane has the hardest draw of all and West Coast travels the furthest.

Among the winners are Geelong, GWS and Collingwood.

With 14 rounds of hindsight, this is who was really screwed by the fixture, and who has had it best.

Originally published as Fixture rankings: Numbers reveal 2025’s winners and losers of the AFL draw