AFL
With an extra added round to the AFL Finals in 2026, there has been an adjustment to the prizemoney taken home by finals clubs.
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In 2025, AFL premiership winner Brisbane received $1.2 million — a figure that is slightly reduced in 2026 to cater for the extra finals.
How much will your AFL club receive in finals?
The Sporting News lists all the AFL Finals prizemoney for 2026.
AFL Finals prizemoney 2026
| Round | Prizemoney |
|---|---|
| Wildcard loser | $55,000 |
| Elimination final loser | $75,000 |
| Semi final loser | $100,000 |
| Preliminary final loser | $300,000 |
| Grand final loser | $600,000 |
| Grand final winner | $1.1 million |
Is a Wildcard Final an AFL Final?
According to AFL CEO Andrew Dillon, Wildcard Finals do count as actual AFL finals.
“The wildcard games will be wildcard finals,” he said.
“What we feel is by expanding the finals series we will have more games of consequence during the home-and-away [season], which we know fans love. We know our fans will go to those games, we know that they will watch them in numbers.”
Melbourne legend Garry Lyon believes the extra matches should not be termed as finals.
“In two weeks’ time, four teams are going to play two games to determine the eight sides that will compete in this year’s finals,” Lyon said on SEN Breakfast.
“It’s been dubbed ‘Wildcard Weekend’. It is not the commencement of the AFL final series.
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“I’m a fan of the concept, it’s worked well, but it’s a qualifying game. It’s a play-in game. No more, no less.
“I want to see the AFL come out and say, ‘Listen, we were asked on the spot — Will the Wildcards be finals? And we said, yes, they will be. But on further discussion, we determined that that is not the case and they won’t be recognised as finals, they are qualifying games’.
“The backtracking, if that is the case, will win the AFL fans across the country. ‘Oh, look at the AFL, they’ve had a think about it, they’ve realised they’re wrong and they’ve been man enough to stand up and say, these aren’t finals’.
“These are just qualifiers to play finals. They’re play-in games. They shouldn’t go down on your record as a final when you’re playing in a Wildcard game.
“Look, we go off now, we make the admission, we can see we got it wrong, the AFL. These are no longer finals. And then we, the media, go, well done. Now let’s promote these two games. Let’s build them up as magnificent qualifiers, but let’s just promote them as exactly what they are.
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“And that is a last-ditch attempt at being involved in the 2026 finals series.”
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