2024 AFL Predictions for all 18 teams

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The AFL season is just around the corner and the anticipation is starting to creep in with the teams amping up the training. The questions now are what to expect from each team this season?

Let's take a look at the expectations from each team for the upcoming 2024 AFL season. For the latest odds you can check out the new betting sites as they will be offering the best deals.

Top Tier - Premiership Contenders

Brisbane Lions

If the ball bounced the other way, we could be talking about Brisbane as the 2023 Premiership winners, but it didn't.

Looking to 2024, the Lions will definitely be thereabouts again. Their small and middle forwards are unmatched in the AFL and have good rotation within the group with the likes of Charlie Cameron and Lincoln McCarthy.

The crew all well equipped to do lots of work and kick goals. Expect Brisbane to be fighting it out in the top four and continue their unbeaten run at The Gabba.

Carlton Blues

The Blues have been trending up over the past few seasons and they finally cracked their nine-year finals drought in 2023.

With a good mix of young and experienced players in their squad, Carlton will be looking to maximise their opportunities in 2024.

They scored the second least amount of points out of any of the top 8 teams last year but were ruthless on the defensive end, and we all know - defence wins games! They will be in the discussion for a top 4 finish.

Collingwood Magpies

Collingwood went from 17th to a flag in two years and are now firmly entrenched in their premiership timeline. They made little noise during the trade period, but why change a winning line up?

Winning the comp automatically makes you a target and everyone will be out to beat Collingwood (more than usual) in 2024.

They will have no problems though disposing of teams with their stifling defence and dynamic attack. Expect to see the Magpies feature heavily in September once again.

Melbourne Demons

The 2023 season was another missed opportunity for the Demons, finishing in the top four and then going out in straight sets after losing to Collingwood and Carlton in the finals.

Melbourne's defence has been top five in points allowed for three years straight and nothing has changed at the back, which has me locking them into the top eight again this season.

They did lose Brodie Grundy in the offseason, so quality in the ruck can be a problem throughout the season.

Port Adelaide

Port have finished top three in three of their last four seasons. There has been some significant turnover of players through these years but the club has been able to manage their playing squad with finesse.

With some more big men coming into the team this year expectations will be high for the Power to match it with the likes of Collingwood, Brisbane and Melbourne.

Keep an eye, though, on their defensive structure. They let in the most points last year out of any team in the top 10.

Greater Western Sydney Giants

If Toby Greene is on the field then GWS are in with a shot. Especially when he can run so freely off their star-studded backline that can not only shut down the best in the game but move the ball forward from inside their own 50 finding their midfielders who are often flawless in transition.

The Giants can mix it with the big boys, just as they showed in the 2023 finals, so expect them to be around come September.

Middle tier - Possible finalists

Gold Coast Suns

Let there be light. Is Damien Hardwick the creator and orchestrator that the Suns have been missing for the last 13 seasons? Possibly, no, I mean yes. That is how certain I am that the Gold Coast is going to make a finals appearance for the first time in 2024.

Hardwick was a cult hero at Richmond for many years, winning them three premierships at the Tigers and the Suns hope he can do the same on the Gold Coast, but it can take time.

Miracles don't happen overnight and with a lack of real goal kicking options the dawn of the Suns just might have to wait one more year.

Geelong Cats

Prior to the draft, Geelong were the oldest team in the AFL, but also the most experienced. Both of these characteristics were shown through the 2023 season as they dropped to 12th following their 2022 premiership.

The Cats had six picks in the AFL draft to go together with two rookie pick-ups in their only off-season additions.

They have the team to continue to compete, but over the length of a full season father time will make himself known and inevitable injuries will mean Geelong will drop games they would otherwise be expected to win.

Fremantle Dockers

Freo have been promising for years now to make a deep finals run. It just never eventuated.

Some squad resets over the past few seasons has seen the timeline somewhat adjusted but we can't help but feel there is still something missing to take the Dockers that extra step to be labelled contenders.

They are one of the better defensive teams in the AFL but have struggled to find targets up front which means they have trouble catching other higher scoring teams.

For Fremantle fans you would hope that the younger generation coming through take their opportunities by the horns and learn as much as they can to be a relevant team in the next 2-3 years.

St Kilda Saints

St Kilda welcomed back Ross Lyon as coach for the second time, instantly turning them into a defensive powerhouse.

But as we have seen across all Lyon tenured teams the brilliant defensive schemes takes too much power from the attack.

St Kilda had problems putting the ball through the posts in 2023 and we believe that will continue this year.

It is not so much that St Kilda are getting any worse, we just believe there are teams around them that are getting better and the Saints will get caught out one too many times. Expect them to be hovering around mid-table come September.

Sydney Swans

The Swans scraped into the eight last season despite a number of more experienced players retiring from the club.

Sydney though are a club that set the bar high and have made some strategic choices bolstering their squad heading into the 2024 season.

They were ranked second in the league for pressure acts in 2023 and will continue to pressure teams to make mistakes in 2024.

Their hope is that they will have better opportunities to capitalise on these mistakes this year pushing their title hopes further into September. The Swans are a team that could easily finish anywhere between 6th and 12th.

Adelaide Crows

Many will say that the Crows were robbed of a finals spot last season with the goal umpire fiasco. If they were or not doesn't matter, but they were...

Adelaide will come with vengeance in 2024 and it will be their forward line that will power them into the top eight this season.

The Crows averaged 95 points last year, the most of any team in the AFL and if they can iron out some of their defensive lapses during tougher matches they can be a real finals threat.

Western Bulldogs

The Doggies have a real talented group and it was a shock to most that they missed the eight last season.

Their midfield is all class with Marcus Bontempelli, Tim English and Tom Liberatore all on the ball and can move things around quickly and efficiently in transition.

The question marks will be around their backline again and if they have the depth to go the distance and sneak into the finals.

Bottom tier - Wooden spooners

Hawthorn Hawks

The Hawks are in the upper half of average squad age but numbers can sometimes be deceiving.

Hawthorn are in rebuild mode and their younger more inexperienced players are getting games under their belts in key positions, giving hope for a surge over the next five years.

As it happens though young players, whether or not flanked by older teammates, still make mistakes and this team has been as inconsistent as they come. Winning against the eventual premiers but losing to lower ranked counterparts.

Expect the Hawks to be lingering near the bottom of the ladder for the next few seasons.

Essendon Bombers

Essendon had all but booked a spot in the 2023 finals. They were almost a top four team but their immense drop off in the last quarter of the season saw them fall completely out of contention.

So depending on which half of last season you believe is the real Essendon will tell you how they will finish this year.

We are siding with the second half and believe that the Bombers will have problems being consistently good against top opponents meaning they will struggle to make any dent in the ladder this year.

North Melbourne Kangaroos

It was no surprise that the Kangaroos were at the tailend of the AFL last season and survived getting the Wooden Spoon by a whisker.

This year will be a similar story with the Roos in the early stage of their rebuild, however, I do expect a little improvement from this young group.

They have the right coach in Alastair Clarkson to work wonders with an inexperienced core developing young prospect like Luke Davies-Uniacke, Harry Sheezel and George Wardlaw in fine footy players.

Richmond Tigers

The Tigers' golden era seems to be all but over. After seven finals appearances in eight years between 2013 and 2020 including three flags, Richmond have now missed finals in two of the past three seasons.

The playing group has gotten older and their coaching staff has been pulled apart, Tigerland will now need to go into semi-rebuild mode to find some tall forwards to be able to deliver on what their established backline and up-and-coming midfield can produce.

It will be a hard slog without Cotchin and Riewoldt to fall back on, expect the Tigers to be in the bottom echelon for some time.

West Coast Eagles

The 2023 Wooden Spooners are building, and it is one of those job sites that you drive past and look at and it seems like it is taking for ages. A 17th finish in 2022 and an 18th finish in 2023 will be added by another bottom-three finish in 2024.

Number one draft pick Harley Reid will make an instant impact and will fit in nicely with the more experienced players, but the Eagles squad is just too thin and with injuries creeping in as they do West Coast will once again struggle to get wins, just as they did last season.

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