To call Saturday’s AFL Grand Final one of the greatest ever played would be stating the obvious – but that’s not going to stop us. It goes without saying that congrats must go out to Collingwood and its massive army for winning the club’s 16th VFL/AFL premiership. As always, we’ve put together a five-leg multi of hindsight in the final 5 Lessons Learned for AFL season 2023. (1) Best Grand Final of your lifetime Let the debate begin! Just how will the 2023 Grand Final rate in your list of the best ever played? For this 34-year-old writer, I’d have it at number one. Granted there’s recency bia ..read more

Picking your AFL club’s best year isn’t like picking your favorite child. There is definitely a standout when it comes to your Footy club! Every Football season is unique, every era has good and bad but each club has that one year where they were simply at their best. Avid readers of the Ladbrokes Blog know that we love a good list, so in the leadup to the AFL Grand FInal, we’ve bunkered down on our history books to make a call as to what year was your clubs best. Adelaide – 1998  The Crows went back to back in ‘98 but sometimes it’s easy to forget how hard they did it to achieve that mil ..read more

Last week, the Ladbrokes Blog highlighted those who were robbed of the Brownlow Medal resulting in much passionate and heated discussion on our Facebook page. Now it’s time to focus our attention on the Norm Smith Medal – the award for the player judged best on ground in the AFL Grand Final. Since it was first awarded to Carlton’s Wayne Harmes in 1979, the Norm Smith Medal is truly one of the great honors bestowed on any footballer. There’s no denying that Norm Smith Medal honor board is an absolute who’s-who of champions who gave their all in the biggest game of the year. However, there are m ..read more

For a neutral fan, picking a side in this year’s AFL Grand Final is a hard task but after some consideration, it’s as easy as ABC – Anyone But Collingwood. We’ve come up with eight reasons why it’s okay to support the Brisbane Lions. (1) Collingwood It’s pretty simple. The Lions are playing Collingwood. Even the thought of supporting the Pies should make you cringe. (2) Collingwood Do you have any idea what Melbourne, let alone Australia and the world will be like should Collingwood win the Grand Final?  Feral. Absolutely feral. The summer of 2010-11 was bloody hard work full of Magp ..read more

And then there were two. Just like in 2002 and 2003, Collingwood and Brisbane will play in the AFL Grand Final. Along with that, it was upset in a memorable Brownlow Medal count with Lachie Neale taking the honours becoming the 16th dual winner to take Charlie home. As always, a five-leg multi of hindsight is good to go in the little blog that can 5 Lessons Learned. (1) Remember who dishes out the votes. Not even Lachie Neale expected to win his second Brownlow medal, it was a thrilling count with an upset result. Congrats, Lachie #Brownlow pic.twitter.com/FC2cRliHBm — AFL (@AFL) September 2 ..read more

Tonight is Australian Football’s night of nights will crown a new champion who will forever be etched into the history books.  It’s a highly competitive field heading into this year’s count, with the likes of Marcus Bontempelli, Nick Daicos, Zak Butters and Christian Petracca all heavily backed by the Punters.  Who wins tonight is anyone’s guess!  While anyone who has had the honour of taking Charlie home will forever be in Football immortality, we’re acknowledging those who really should have won the medal in this blog. With this we award the coulda, shoulda, woulda Brownlow M ..read more

The AFL’s night of nights gets underway on Monday with several of the league’s top stars descending upon the red carpet for the Brownlow. As has been the case for most of the season, it’s shaping as a race in two between Nick Daicos and Marcus Bontempelli, but just like last year, we could be in for some late drama with Zak Butters and Christian Petracca in the mix. Who will come away with the Charlie on the AFL’s most prestigious night? Read our entire 2023 Brownlow Medal Preview here! Outright Betting This should be a rollercoaster most of the way, and I’d be surprised if there’s anything mo ..read more

Two teams out in straight sets and two sides with miracle runs keep on keeping on. There’s a lot to like about this finals series and as always we’ve put together a terrific five-leg multi of hindsight that we like to call 5 Lessons Learned. (1) Lloyd Christmas was right …there was still a chance. During the bye rounds, after Round 12 of this season, both Carlton and GWS were 14th and 15th respectively. One only needs to go back to June 6th when the Blues fans were calling talkback radio and flooding the comments sections demanding Michael Voss’s head, the Blues were a solid $6 to make the t ..read more

ROUND 23 of the AFL had it all! Finals defining matches, controversial calls and massive upsets. Some teams have kissed their finals hopes goodbye, others have booked their spot for the business end of the season. As always, we’ve put together a five-leg multi of hindsight and bundled it up into a package we like to call 5 Lessons Learned – AFL (1) It cost Adelaide a spot in the finals… If your answer was the goal that wasn’t then you might be wrong. IT HIT THE POST! The Crows thought they were home! Watch #AFLCrowsSwans LIVE on ch. 503 or stream on Kayo: https://t.co/Jo6wz678kb BLOG htt ..read more

Controversial calls, upset results, thrillers, thumpings, and blow outs – Round 22 had it all. As always, we put together five legs of hindsight and bring you 5 Lessons Learned – AFL Round 22 (1) Blues fans can relax, you’re going to be playing finals The only use for the ladder predictor a Carlton fan can get out of it, is if the Blues will get a double chance this September. For the first time since 2013 (and the first time without extreme circumstances since 2011), Carlton will feature in finals football. The best. The BEST. Sound up for an all-time Navy Blue ????. pic.twitter.com/ilwGc ..read more