AFL 2025 Top 8 Betting Preview - Odds & Expert Predictions

A tightly contested 2025 AFL season looks likely, with a large number of teams seemingly capable of contending for the flag and an even larger number capable of at least contending for the finals. That means there are really no certainties to finish top eight, with even teams like the Lions or Giants capable of missing out if they suffer a couple of key injuries or are marginally worse than expected. Invariably that makes the market for teams to play finals particularly interesting, with some really solid teams at better than even money with AFL betting sites to play finals. Below, we take a look at some of the best value teams to play finals this year.

The Dockers are the first and only team on this paying under $2 with betting sites to play finals, but of the teams that are in that category they look like offering some of the better value. Fremantle somehow missed the finals last year, but a percentage of 111.91 was indicative of the fact that they really shouldn’t have. They ended the season with a 12-1-10 record, but with a number of close losses they will view 2024 as a missed opportunity.

This year, they have a great chance to make amends. Under coach Justin Longmuir they have developed into a really strong defensive team, and last year they began to show some signs that their ball movement and scoring ability was on the improve too. The Dockers are every chance of becoming a genuine Premiership threat this season, and with a large number of wins likely to come from their home games in Perth, they have to be playing finals.

• What brings them here? The Dockers gradually improved under Justin Longmuir to the point where they won 15 games in 2022, and though they have missed the finals both years since they should be expecting to be right up near the top four in 2025.
• What has changed? Shai Bolton is a massive pick-up for a team which is crying out for some X-factor ahead of the ball. No one left the club aside from delisted players.
  
• Injury report. Sean Darcy will miss the first couple of weeks of the season with an ankle injury, while both Hayden Young and Nat Fyfe also have lingering injuries with no specific timeline on a return.

Bet on the Dockers to make the top eight @ $1.60 with PlayUp

The Doggies have been the subject of plenty of criticism for some time now, with coach Luke Beveridge often accused of not getting the best out of their talented list. But they have made the finals in five of the last six seasons, and last year won 14 games and boasted a massive percentage of 125.06%, and heading into the finals looked like just about the best team in it. Alas, they were knocked out in the first week, but the inconsistency which has for so long plagued them was noticeably absent for the last three months or so of the season.

If they can continue to bring that same level of intensity week in week out, the talent on this list should surely see them finishing in the top eight and potentially even competing for a flag. Their main outs from last season were players who weren’t contributing much anyway, so there is no reason the Dogs can’t be every bit as good as they were last year. They are a hard team to trust at times, but last year they were really impressive and at better than even money, look like great value to play finals this year.

• What brings them here? The Doggies, albeit inconsistent at times, have made the finals in five of the past six seasons.
  
• What has changed? Caleb Daniel, Jack Macrae and Bailey Smith have been traded while Alex Keath retired. Matthew Kennedy comes across from the Blues. 
  
• Injury report. Unfortunately the Dogs enter the year with plenty of significant injuries. Marcus Bontempelli will miss around six weeks to start the year, Liam Jones similar, while Jason Johannisen and Cody Weightman could be out for two months or more and Adam Treloar will miss around the first three weeks. 

Bet on the Bulldogs to make the top eight @ $2.35 with BetRight

The Crows loom as one of the biggest X-factor teams in the league in 2025. After improving every year during Matthew Nicks’ tenure up until they won 11 games in 2023, they were widely expected to leap into the top eight last year. Instead, they lost their first five games and ultimately ended the year with just 8 wins, a massive failure given the expectations which surrounded them.

That has seen plenty of people in the AFL world forget about them, but improvement is rarely linear and the Crows would hardly be the first team to initially struggle under the weight of expectation, only to ultimately bounce back. They clearly have the talent to win a lot more than 8 games and at their best, look like one of the best teams in the business. It would be no surprise to see them improve significantly on last year’s performance, and at $2.20 on some of the betting apps they look like good value in this market. 

• What brings them here? The Crows have not made the finals since they lost the Grand Final in 2017, but their list is now at the point where the top eight should be a minimum expectation. 
  
• What has changed? Elliott Himmelberg was traded while club legend Rory Sloane retired (though he did that partway through last year). Isaac Cumming and James Peatling join from GWS while Alex Neal-Bullen comes across from the Dees.
  
• Injury report. Chayce Jones will miss the first couple of games of the year. 

Bet on the Crows to make the finals @ $2.20 with PlayUp

Last year was a bit of a depressing one for the Demons. They finished top four in the three previous years, but after winning the flag in 2021 had been knocked out in straight sets twice in a row. A whole lot of off-field tumult and an aging list led to a really disappointing 2024, with just 11 wins coming after at least 16 in the three years previous, but does this group still have a little more in the tank?

There is plenty of reason to think they do. Max Gawn might be getting on but he is still an elite ruckman, and with Christian Petracca back fit and firing and Clayton Oliver looking set to return to the dominant player he once was, their previously elite midfield could be back this season. Steven May and Jake Lever will again head the backline, and while they still lack a key forward they do have smaller talent up there like Bayley Fritsch and Kysaiah Pickett. They may well miss the finals, but all going well they could also finish top four.

• What brings them here? The Demons were close to the best team in the league for three years before falling off a cliff in 2024.
  
• What has changed? Ben Brown and Lachie Hunter retired and Alex Neal-Bullen was traded, while Harvey Langford is a highly touted draft prospect they selected at pick 6.
  
• Injury report. Shane McAdam will unfortunately miss the season with an Achilles, while youngsters Koltyn Tholstrup and Judd McVee will probably miss over a month. Kozzie Pickett is out until Round 4 through suspension.

Bet on the Demons to make the top eight @ $2.70 with PlayUp

Being wary of the Suns’ finals prospects is understandable given that they have been in the league for 14 seasons and not made them on a single occasion. But surely, surely they are getting close. They have won between 9 and 11 games in each of their last three years, with last year’s tally the highest they have managed in their history in Damian Hardwick’s first season in charge.

The three-time Premiership coach looks like just the man to finally get this team into the top eight, and with a couple of handy acquisitions in the off-season they look closer than ever to doing just that. Of course, we have said that before – plenty of times – and seen them fail, but at some point they’re going to make it and though there are probably a few better prospects in this market, this could easily be the year they do.

• What brings them here? The Suns have been hovering just outside the eight for years, but now have plenty of experience and a Premiership-winning coach to lead them there.
  
• What has changed? Rory Atkins and Jack Lukosius were traded while Brandon Ellis retired. Elliott Himmelberg, John Noble and former Premiership star with Hardwick Daniel Rioli all join the team.
  
• Injury report. New recruit Leo Lombard is out for ten weeks and David Swallow for eight, while Sam Flanders will miss the first week or two due to a back injury.

Bet on the Suns to make the top eight @ $3.00 with PlayUp 

It’s now been more than 20 long years since the Bombers last won a final, but for the purposes of this market, we don’t need them to – they just need to get there. Of course, even that has been a struggle, with just six top-eight finishes in the last 20 seasons. The most recent of them came in 2021, but they haven’t exactly bottomed out since then, winning 11 games and just missing finals in the last two years.

So will anything be different this season? From a personnel perspective, not much notable has come in for the Bombers, while Jake Stringer was traded and both Dyson Heppell and Jake Kelly retired. Which means, of course, that they are reliant on the list which has so far struggled to move past the middle of the ladder. There is every chance that will again be the case this year. They are capable of putting themselves in or around the eight though and if things go right making finals isn’t out of the realms of possibility, but there are more than seven other teams better than the Bombers.

• What brings them here? The Bombers have been right around the eight for the last couple of years, but unable to break into it.
  
• What has changed? Stringer, Heppell and Kelly are out, while Isaac Kako looks like a draft pick who could potentially make an immediate impact.
  
• Injury report. Matt Guelfi is out for the first six or eight weeks with a hamstring, while each of Darcy Parish, Nik Cox, Alwyn Davey Jr and Jayden Leverde enter the year with lingering, but not long-term, injuries.

Bet on the Bombers to make the top eight @ $4.40 with PlayUp 

The Saints are not in an entirely different position to the Bombers. For years they have been loitering around the middle of the ladder, but never really dropping far down it or rising far up it. In 2018 they won only four games, but in the other eight of the past nine seasons they have won between 9 and 13 games. Last year it was 11, seeing them just miss the finals a year after just making it.

They have lost a couple of key players in the off-season, while Jack Macrae comes into the side – a pick-up which doesn’t really move the needle too much for them. The Saints have long struggled with their outside run and ball movement, and while they have gradually improved in that area, they remain an average team with ball in hand. More than likely they will again find themselves in the lower section of the middle part of the ladder, but with a tight season predicted, a couple of surprise wins could see their odds to make the eight shorten.

• What brings them here? The Saints have been stuck in football purgatory for some time now, remaining right around the middle of the ladder nearly every year for close to a decade.
  
• What has changed? Josh Battle left the club for Hawthorn and Brad Crouch retired, while Jack Macrae comes in from the Dogs.
  
• Injury report. Dougal Howard and Mattaes Phillipou will miss the first couple of months of the season, Liam Henry and Cooper Sharman around a month, and Max King and Mitch Owens the first couple of weeks.

Bet on the Saints to make the top eight @ $6.00 with BetRight

It’s safe to say that this is a long shot, though there is reason to believe the Kangaroos will finally show some improvement in 2025. Of course, that improvement will need to be substantial for them to make the eight and it is admittedly very unlikely. But there are at long last the signs that this club is putting together a decent young list, and the acquisition of some experience in the off-season should help them develop more quickly.

The Kangaroos had another poor year in 2024 from a win/loss perspective, but through the middle of the year they won a couple of games and lost a couple of others to good teams and generally gave success-starved North fans a glimpse of what could be. It’s probably a year or three too soon, but finally the Kangaroos appear to be capable of crawling their way out of the bottom three.

• What brings them here? The Roos have had ample opportunity to improve, with high draft pick after high draft pick courtesy of endless low finishes. Finally, they seem to have some talent.
  
• What has changed? Hugh Greenwood, Liam Shiels and Jaidyn Stephenson retired, while Caleb Daniel, Luke Parker and Jack Darling were traded in.
  
• Injury report. Callum Coleman-Jones will miss the first 10-12 weeks, while George Wardlaw and Josh Goater will both miss probably over a month with serious hamstrings.

Bet on the Kangaroos to make the top eight @ $10.00 with PlayUp

It’s going to be a fascinating race for the top eight this year, with plenty of teams more than capable of playing finals footy. Teams like the Saints and Bombers have long hovered around the eight and could theoretically offer some value, but with the number of good teams it’s hard to see them getting there. Most of the best options are higher up the list – the Demons could easily rebound at close to $3 with all betting sites in Australia, while the Dogs were one of the better teams last season but are at well over $2 with new betting sites like BetRight to make it. But I’ve got my eye on the Crows. They clearly have the talent and following last season’s disappointment, can show that was just a blip on the radar in what has otherwise been a pretty consistent climb up the ladder. At better than even money, this should finally be their year to get back into the September action.