The AFL Commission has approved changes to the criteria for awarding of the McClelland Trophy ahead of the 2025 Premiership Seasons.

The McClelland Trophy will continue to be awarded to the champion club across the Toyota AFL Premiership and the NAB AFLW Competition, recognising the achievement of driving high performance football programs but will now also include finals in addition to the home and away season.

The adjusted criteria are as follows: 

• At the conclusion of finals for each competition, each club will be assigned a ranking from 1 to 18 in reverse order with the team finishing first receiving 18 points down to the team finishing 18^th receiving 1 point. The highest combined ranking score will win the trophy.
• Where two teams are knocked out in the same week of finals, the club that finished higher on the ladder at the end of the home and away season will be given a higher ranking (consistent with methodology used for the draft order and weighted rule).
• In the event that two or more clubs have the equal highest combined ranking score the current methodology will be used as a tiebreaker – i.e. number of trophy points and then combined percentage.

The prize money for the champion club will remain at one million dollars with the split to be $500,000 to AFL and AFLW players and $500,000 to the club.