Australian rules football’s premier competition began in 1897 as the Victorian Football League and was renamed the Australian Football League in 1990. Across 129 seasons it has crowned 16 different premiers, decided in the modern era by the AFL Grand Final at the MCG on the last Saturday in September.
The honour roll is topped by three clubs that cannot be separated, and shaped by decades of equalisation that turned a Victorian contest into a genuinely national, open competition. This is the full premiership record, the most successful clubs, the recent winners and the trends behind them.
Which AFL Club Has Won the Most Premierships?
Three foundation clubs share the record at the top, each with 16 flags, and none of them has won since the 1990s.
| Club | Premierships | Premiership Seasons |
|---|---|---|
| Collingwood | 16 | 1902, 1903, 1910, 1917, 1919, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1935, 1936, 1953, 1958, 1990, 2010, 2023 |
| Carlton | 16 | 1906, 1907, 1908, 1914, 1915, 1938, 1945, 1947, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1987, 1995 |
| Essendon | 16 | 1897, 1901, 1911, 1912, 1923, 1924, 1942, 1946, 1949, 1950, 1962, 1965, 1984, 1985, 1993, 2000 |
| Richmond | 13 | 1920, 1921, 1932, 1934, 1943, 1967, 1969, 1973, 1974, 1980, 2017, 2019, 2020 |
| Hawthorn | 13 | 1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008, 2013, 2014, 2015 |
| Melbourne | 13 | 1900, 1926, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1948, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1960, 1964, 2021 |
| Geelong | 10 | 1925, 1931, 1937, 1951, 1952, 1963, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2022 |
| Fitzroy | 8 | 1898, 1899, 1904, 1905, 1913, 1916, 1922, 1944 |
| South Melbourne / Sydney | 5 | 1909, 1918, 1933, 2005, 2012 |
| Brisbane Lions | 5 | 2001, 2002, 2003, 2024, 2025 |
| North Melbourne | 4 | 1975, 1977, 1996, 1999 |
| West Coast | 4 | 1992, 1994, 2006, 2018 |
| Western Bulldogs | 2 | 1954, 2016 |
| Adelaide | 2 | 1997, 1998 |
| St Kilda | 1 | 1966 |
| Port Adelaide | 1 | 2004 |
(Source: AFL, VFL/AFL records)
A League Built for Parity
The spread of premierships changed sharply once the competition went national. Between 1967 and 1989, just five clubs won the flag. Since 1990, thirteen different clubs have, a direct result of the salary cap introduced in 1985 and the national draft a year later. The arrival of interstate clubs from 1987 widened the field further, and the premiership has rarely stayed in one place for long.
Recent AFL Premiers
Brisbane Lions are the reigning champions, having gone back-to-back in 2024 and 2025. Here are the last 16 premiers and the clubs they beat in the Grand Final.
| Year | Premier | Runner-Up |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Brisbane Lions | Geelong |
| 2024 | Brisbane Lions | Sydney Swans |
| 2023 | Collingwood | Brisbane Lions |
| 2022 | Geelong | Sydney Swans |
| 2021 | Melbourne | Western Bulldogs |
| 2020 | Richmond | Geelong |
| 2019 | Richmond | Greater Western Sydney |
| 2018 | West Coast | Collingwood |
| 2017 | Richmond | Adelaide |
| 2016 | Western Bulldogs | Sydney Swans |
| 2015 | Hawthorn | West Coast |
| 2014 | Hawthorn | Sydney Swans |
| 2013 | Hawthorn | Fremantle |
| 2012 | Sydney Swans | Hawthorn |
| 2011 | Geelong | Collingwood |
| 2010 | Collingwood | St Kilda |
Records and Moments That Stand Out
A handful of feats sit above the rest in premiership history.
- Collingwood’s four straight premierships from 1927 to 1930 remain the league record for consecutive flags.
- Collingwood have also finished runners-up 27 times, the most of any club, along with a record number of Grand Final appearances.
- Essendon were the inaugural premiers in 1897 but have not won since 2000, while fellow record-holders Carlton last saluted in 1995.
- Brisbane Lions won three in a row from 2001 to 2003 and have now added back-to-back titles in 2024 and 2025.
- Hawthorn’s run of three straight from 2013 to 2015 was the last great dynasty before Brisbane’s resurgence.
- Gold Coast, founded for the 2011 season, are the only current club never to have played in a Grand Final.
- Tasmania will become the league’s 19th club in 2028, the first expansion since Greater Western Sydney in 2012.
Related Reads
Collingwood, Carlton and Essendon share the AFL record with 16 premierships each.
Given AFL’s 129 seasons, I built this around the most-successful-clubs table and a recent-winners table rather than listing every year, which keeps it to a tight 5 to 6 minute read instead of a 129-row wall that would lose the reader.
A couple of options if you want to extend it. I can add the full chronological 1897 to 2025 premiers list as a separate reference table at the bottom (or as its own companion piece), and I can save this as a file with matching SEO titles and a meta description. Want either of those?
