Darcy Fogarty celebrates a goal during Adelaide's clash against Sydney in round 12, 2025. Picture: Getty Images

THE NUMBERS match the eye test – Melbourne has a goalkicking problem.

It will come as no surprise to Demons supporters, but Simon Goodwin's side has been the most wayward in front of the big sticks in 2025, kicking goals from just 41.4 per cent of its 367 shots so far this season.

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The Demons are one of just five clubs with an accuracy rate of less than 45 per cent and it is perhaps not a coincidence that those five clubs – Melbourne, West Coast, Sydney, Richmond and Port Adelaide – sit in the bottom half of the ladder. As the saying goes, bad kicking equals bad football.

When it comes to set shots, only the Tigers (42.4 per cent) have been worse than the Demons (43.3). The only other clubs with a set shot accuracy of less than 50 per cent this season are Port (46.9), St Kilda (47.5), Hawthorn (48.5) and Collingwood (49.2).

At the other end of the scale, Geelong has an accuracy rate of 53.9 per cent overall and 59.8 with set shots to lead the competition in both metrics, while Adelaide and North Melbourne also feature high on both lists.

The big surprise is the Swans, who are ranked No.2 for accuracy from set shots (58.8 per cent) but 16th for overall accuracy (44.1 per cent).

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Much like Melbourne's inaccuracy, there are no major surprises in the list of the most accurate individuals of 2025 so far, with Darcy Fogarty (73.7 per cent accuracy) and Jesse Hogan (71.7 per cent) leading the way.

The eye-catching member of that list is the Bulldogs' Matthew Kennedy, who sits third overall (70.8 per cent) and is the only midfielder in the top 15.

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The overall goalkicking accuracy this year of 48 per cent is steady on recent seasons but remains low compared to the start of this century.

In the eight seasons between 2002 and 2009, the AFL average through 14 rounds did not drop below 50 per cent and reached as high as 54 per cent in 2002. In 16 seasons since then, the AFL average has gone above 50 per cent just twice and dropped to a low of 46.2 per cent in 2019.

Every club's goalkicking accuracy in 2025 (all shots)

  Goals Behinds Missed shots  Total shots Accuracy %
Geelong 212 117 64 393 53.9
Western Bulldogs 196 131 49 376 52.1
Adelaide 202 121 68 391 51.7
North Melbourne 149 85 54 288 51.7
Gold Coast 162 112 41 315 51.4
Greater Western Sydney 174 110 62 346 50.3
St Kilda 154 107 46 307 50.2
Fremantle 157 109 57 323 48.6
Essendon 138 93 54 285 48.4
Collingwood 173 126 62 361 47.9
Hawthorn 174 124 67 365 47.7
Carlton 151 118 55 324 46.6
Brisbane 176 136 75 387 45.5
Port Adelaide 142 119 57 318 44.7
Richmond 120 105 45 270 44.4
Sydney 143 124 57 324 44.1
West Coast 133 126 54 313 42.5
Melbourne 152 150 65 367 41.4

Every club's goalkicking accuracy in 2025 (set shots)

  Goals Behinds Missed shots  Total shots Accuracy %
Geelong 128 62 24 214 59.8
Sydney 90 48 15 153 58.8
Adelaide 108 57 21 186 58.1
North Melbourne 94 47 24 165 57.0
Western Bulldogs 95 60 16 171 55.6
Gold Coast 95 60 19 174 54.6
Essendon 72 45 17 134 53.7
Greater Western Sydney 95 54 29 178 53.4
Carlton 87 57 22 166 52.4
West Coast 82 59 22 163 50.3
Brisbane 102 72 30 204 50.0
Fremantle 79 55 24 158 50.0
Collingwood 95 70 28 193 49.2
Hawthorn 110 82 35 227 48.5
St Kilda 75 57 26 158 47.5
Port Adelaide 76 61 25 162 46.9
Melbourne 77 73 28 178 43.3
Richmond 59 59 21 139 42.4

Most accurate players (min. 20 shots)

  Club Goals Behinds Shots at goal Accuracy %
Darcy Fogarty Adelaide 28 6 38 73.7
Jesse Hogan GWS 38 8 53 71.7
Matthew Kennedy Western Bulldogs 17 4 24 70.8
Mabior Chol Hawthorn 25 9 37 67.6
Jed Walter Gold Coast 14 7 21 66.7
Jack Higgins St Kilda 30 10 46 65.2
Jake Riccardi GWS 13 2 20 65.0
Ben King Gold Coast 33 13 52 63.5
Jake Waterman West Coast 17 9 27 63.0
Paul Curtis North Melbourne 22 9 35 62.9
Ben Keays Adelaide 25 7 40 62.5
Josh Rachele Adelaide 23 12 37 62.2
Willie Rioli Port Adelaide 18 8 29 62.1
Jack Williams West Coast 13 6 21 61.9
Nick Larkey North Melbourne 27 11 44 61.4
Seth Campbell Richmond 19 11 31 61.3
Jeremy Cameron Geelong  44 16 72 61.1
Jamie Elliott Collingwood 34 16 56 60.7
Oliver Dempsey Geelong  22 13 37 59.5
Callum M. Brown GWS 13 5 22 59.1