What is the ranking of the 10 Victorian clubs for supporter numbers, 1 through 10?

[NetworkNerd]

To close on those clubs would take another generation or two and might not even be possible now that the AFL stack the media rights. It also means the clubs below them probably won’t close the gap either.

Yep you are right. In Victoria it would take generations for significant change. Hawthorn have a lot of young adult supporters, or at least a much higher percentage than 20-30 years ago. It would be Essendon who would suffer if they don't go deep in finals in the next 10-15 years. Carlton are on a bit of a sugar hit post 2023

 

[Demon13304]

Melbourne supporters are easily the hardest to gauge due to their hibernation periods.

From what I can tell, depending on how the team is travelling, supporting the Dees sits somewhere between exclusive cigar lounge and shameful family secret.

This sentiment probably comes from how a lot , and I mean a lot of people perceive out crowds to be.

We play at the MCG which is flipping huge, and majority of our supporter base sit on the MCC side, behind the cameras.

Take round 6 this year as an example. 0wins-5losses Dees got 25k (not amazing but not bad for us either) against Freo, and that same day Richmond got 18k against Gold Coast.
Melbourne's crowd got wayyyy more criticism and got slandered , despite having more people. And that's just how it goes for us every game at this point.


We're still one of the smaller clubs, winning 1 flag in 60 years will do that, and that one flag being when we couldn't go to not just the grandfinal but any of our big wins. But I'd argue we're the biggest of the small Vic clubs, maybe the Saints might be on par from my experience.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Carlton on YouTube is awful. We put up a small fraction of the videos we put up on other platforms. Seems we are all over our LinkedIn content though ... big surprise.

 

[Gavin Excell]

Scary how Essendon feature so high up, considering the 20 years of unmitigated disaster. Really puts into context how much bigger they are than the likes of Hawthorn etc.

If/when they eventually see some success, they will be a behemoth

 

[Hawkk]

Yep you are right. In Victoria it would take generations for significant change. Hawthorn have a lot of young adult supporters, or at least a much higher percentage than 20-30 years ago. It would be Essendon who would suffer if they don't go deep in finals in the next 10-15 years. Carlton are on a bit of a sugar hit post 2023

If any club was going to drop off it was Richmond 1982 to 2013 who were historically bad. They didn’t. As bad as Essendon are they aren’t that bad. And they also come from a higher base too.

Look at the SuperCoach numbers from 2023 — I cant see the Dons dropping (in raw support) from top 2 to fifth.

Coll 19,921
Ess 19,342
Carl 16,283
Rich 14,223
Haw 12,846
Gee 11,735
St.K 7,670
Kang 7,319
WB 6,645
Melb 6,010

 

[Guju]

Collingwood
-gap-
Essendon
Carlton
Richmond
-gap-
Hawthorn
-gap-
Geelong
-gap-
Melbourne
St Kilda
Western Bulldogs
-gap-
North Melbourne

 

[kid_a]

Collingwood
-gap-
Essendon
Carlton
Richmond
-gap-
Hawthorn
-gap-
Geelong
-gap-
Melbourne
St Kilda
Western Bulldogs
-gap-
North Melbourne

This is pretty much the perception I get too

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

If/when they eventually see some success, they will be a behemoth

See the Carlton surge on the back of a single preliminary final appearance. 30 years without success. If we get there, we will be huge too. I do worry about generational loss however.

 

[Altum Volantes]

This sentiment probably comes from how a lot , and I mean a lot of people perceive out crowds to be.

We play at the MCG which is flipping huge, and majority of our supporter base sit on the MCC side, behind the cameras.

Take round 6 this year as an example. 0wins-5losses Dees got 25k (not amazing but not bad for us either) against Freo, and that same day Richmond got 18k against Gold Coast.
Melbourne's crowd got wayyyy more criticism and got slandered , despite having more people. And that's just how it goes for us every game at this point.


We're still one of the smaller clubs, winning 1 flag in 60 years will do that, and that one flag being when we couldn't go to not just the grandfinal but any of our big wins. But I'd argue we're the biggest of the small Vic clubs, maybe the Saints might be on par from my experience..

No doubt a dedicated core of die-hards! - did not intend that to be a slight on MFC.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

Jeez, maybe you just attract a certain type

I've lived in WA for 2/3 of my life and definitely the teams not from WA with most fans I've encountered is Carlton & Essendon

North melbourne have always had a big WA following. But lets face it, all vic clubs together in WA average about 2-5k supporters per club.

 

[joe444]

When I was in Primary School (80s) about one quarter of the kids switched to Hawthorn/Essendon because they were winning. Those guys are all 50 now.

 

[Gavin Excell]

See the Carlton surge on the back of a single preliminary final appearance. 30 years without success. If we get there, we will be huge too. I do worry about generational loss however.

Entrenched support though is in the DNA

 

[Bostonian]

Makes sense, it's not a survey of members, just people who support that team. Geelong has an entire city + a vast chunk of Western Victoria that support it.

Half of Geelong doesn't support Geelong.

 

[ItsAllAboutMe]

If/when they eventually see some success, they will be a behemoth

Although they run the risk just like Carlton has of losing a generation of fans who are completely disengaged from the club, we risk losing a second generation if we don’t pull our finger out.

 

[Hawkk]

Although they run the risk just like Carlton has of losing a generation of fans who are completely disengaged from the club, we risk losing a second generation if we don’t pull our finger out.

Posted this a few weeks back. Both Essendon and Carlton’s crowds are actually getting larger and larger despite the droughts. This year Essendon drew 1 million to their 23 games and didn’t win a game for more than half the year. That’s almost 300k more than the Dogs, Saints and North.

I think we massively overstate on field performance, the bigger clubs (Ess and Carl) are getting bigger and bigger and the smaller clubs (ie NM and StK) are falling further and further behind.

The Dons and Blues are both in their longest flag droughts in history. Despite this, Carlton drew their largest home and away attendance last season (1,127,120) and Essendon drew its second largest ever (1,148,090). I mean, Essendon played 8 games at the MCG this year and drew 60,000 despite fielding a VFL team for half the year…

View attachment 2404567

View attachment 2404568

I know there is an extra home and away game now, but their average attendances are growing (especially at the MCG) despite their on field woes. Both are massive clubs and have incredibly loyal support bases.

By contrast North and St Kilda have definitely shrunk.

View attachment 2404574View attachment 2404575

I’m convinced that on field success means stuff all for supporter growth. The big clubs have a monopoly on new supporters because they play so much in the prime time slots. I think Coll, Carl and Ess are only getting bigger and bigger…

Anyway, he’s another example. Over 700k to a home and away season

Collingwood 43 times
Essendon 33 times
Carlton 32 times
Richmond 31 times
Hawthorn 23 times
Geelong 19 times
Melbourne 14 times
St Kilda 13 times
W Bulldogs 7 times (best is 788,467)
North Melb 3 times (best is 732,956)

Essendon could go 50 years without a flag (please do) and they wont dip below 3.

There’s a simple way to do it. How many years teams have drawn more than 700,000, 800,000, 900,000, 1 million, 1.1 million and 1.2 million (plus) to a home and away season

Over 1.3m
Collingwood 3 times (best is 1,384,827)

Over 1.2m
Collingwood 8 times
Carlton 1 time (1,277,210)

Over 1.1m
Collingwood 15 times
Essendon 5 times (best is 1,169,551)
Carlton 3 times
Richmond 3 times (best is 1,194,893)

Over 1m
Collingwood 25 times
Essendon 18 times
Carlton 8 times
Richmond 8 times
Hawthorn 1 time (best is 1,013,977)

Over 900k
Collingwood 29 times
Essendon 27 times
Richmond 13 times
Carlton 10 times
Hawthorn 6 times
Geelong 2 times (best is 983,458)
Melbourne 2 times (best is 931,549)

Over 800k
Collingwood 34 times
Essendon 31 times
Richmond 28 times
Carlton 25 times
Hawthorn 13 times
Geelong 9 times
Melbourne 6 times
St Kilda 5 times (best is 862,868)

Over 700k
Collingwood 43 times
Essendon 33 times
Carlton 32 times
Richmond 31 times
Hawthorn 23 times
Geelong 19 times
Melbourne 14 times
St Kilda 13 times
W Bulldogs 7 times (best is 788,467)
North Melb 3 times (best is 732,956)

As always, people under estimate the drawing power of the Dees…

Collingwood (1981) and Richmond (1980) were the first VFL teams to break through the 800,000 mark, more than a decade before Essendon (1994), Carlton (1994) and surprisingly St Kilda in (2004)

 

[Stratton_Gun]

At a guess I'd go

1.Collingwood
2. Richmond
3. Essendon
4. Carlton
5. Hawthorn
6. Geelong
7. Melbourne
8. St Kilda
9. Western Bulldogs
10. North Melbourne

 

[Rotayjay]

I've always been sceptical of those Roy Morgan or other market research polls. Naming which team you're most aligned with in a sport you don't really follow is quite different from showing up to games and stumping up the cash for a membership.

I think membership tallies are a much better guide. You're likely to be a 'real' supporter who follows the team if you pay for a membership. However, there is a bandwagon effect where membership numbers naturally rise with the team's fortunes. Therefore, the membership ladder for one year doesn't tell the full story because it's 'contaminated' by that cyclical factor. Therefore, I think the best measure is average membership numbers over a 10 or 15-year period. That would surely shake out the long-term relative standings, capturing premiership windows and rebuilds.

I was too lazy to research it myself, so I asked Microsoft Copilot:

Q: take membership numbers for each afl club over the last 10 years, and make a list of clubs sorted by average membership number over the last 10 years

A: Here’s a deep dive into AFL club membership trends over the past decade (2014–2024), sorted by average membership per club. This ranking reveals which clubs have consistently drawn the strongest fan support.

AFL Clubs Ranked by 10-Year Average Membership (2014–2024)​

Rank	Club	Avg Membership (2014–2024)
	Richmond	~96,000
	Collingwood	~94,000
	West Coast Eagles	~92,000
	Carlton	~87,000
	Essendon	~83,000
	Hawthorn	~81,000
	Geelong	~78,000
	Adelaide	~70,000
	Sydney Swans	~68,000
	Port Adelaide	~66,000
11	Melbourne	~63,000
12	Brisbane Lions	~60,000
13	Western Bulldogs	~58,000
14	Fremantle	~56,000
15	St Kilda	~54,000
16	North Melbourne	~48,000
17	GWS Giants	~32,000
18	Gold Coast Suns	~24,000

​

 

[Gibbke]

$10-$20 foundation membership numbers are irrelevant because loads of those people are just trying to help the Tassie cause whilst they actually support another club and live thousands of kilometres away

Something no other club, original or expansion, in 157 VFA/VFL/AFL seasons, has ever enjoyed regardless of how hard they rattled a tin or took donations from kids' piggybanks...looks to me like there's a ton of SUPPORT!!!

Get ready for Tassie to f### your stats, people, just like they'll f### your weekends from 2028...it's our comp too, Kochie...

 

[bacon buster]

I found this article, which I think is relevant

The AFL and clubs top 1.944b in Revenue for 2024 - SportsIndustryAU

With all AFL clubs now reporting in for the year, its time to take a look at the goodies contained in their annual reports.

footyindustry.com

The graphic below highlights the revenue from Membership and gate receipts in 2024. Will be interested to find a similar graphic for the last 5-10 years

 

[HairyO]

Scary how Essendon feature so high up, considering the 20 years of unmitigated disaster. Really puts into context how much bigger they are than the likes of Hawthorn etc.

Filled with irrational exuberance.

Here are membership numbers.

AFL membership ladder 2025 revealed: Eagles power on full display amid Qld clubs’ stunning growth

AFL membership ladder revealed: One-win Eagles shock, Dees dive amid huge QLD growth

www.foxsports.com.au

Hawks and Essendon were near equal last year. We grew 4k, they grew 2k so we are now ahead.

The one thing Im unsure of is the Swans. I think they include SCG members, or SCG members only pay a small amount extra? Maybe a Swan and SCG member can confirm.

 

[Hawkk]

Filled with irrational exuberance.

Here are membership numbers.

AFL membership ladder 2025 revealed: Eagles power on full display amid Qld clubs’ stunning growth

AFL membership ladder revealed: One-win Eagles shock, Dees dive amid huge QLD growth

www.foxsports.com.au

Hawks and Essendon were near equal last year. We grew 4k, they grew 2k so we are now ahead.

The one thing Im unsure of is the Swans. I think they include SCG members, or SCG members only pay a small amount extra? Maybe a Swan and SCG member can confirm.

Membership number mean bugger all these days — and have met nothing since the AFL allowed zero game memberships, AFLW double ups and $10 sign on memberships to be included.

You’ve seen some clubs (for example Geelong, North and the Saints) gain 15,000 to 20,000 members in three years whilst Hawthorn, Essendon and Richmond have barely moved. The best indication is attendances and social media — and Essendon (and Carlton) are still giants.

 

[Cam Payne]

Membership number mean bugger all these days — and have met nothing since the AFL allowed zero game memberships, AFLW double ups and $10 sign on memberships to be included.

You’ve seen some clubs (for example Geelong, North and the Saints) gain 15,000 to 20,000 members in three years whilst Hawthorn, Essendon and Richmond have barely moved. The best indication is attendances and social media — and Essendon (and Carlton) are still giants.

Do they still count cat and dog memberships like in the old days?

 

[Hawkk]

Do they still count cat and dog memberships like in the old days?

At least those are 50 bucks. Now they count one off tickets for blockbusters and $10 sign on memberships for players.

This was pre Covid

2019 MEMBERSHIP TALLIES

Richmond: 103,358 (2018 tally: 100,726)

West Coast: 90,445 (80,290)

Collingwood: 85,226 (75,507)

Essendon: 84,237 (79,319)

Hawthorn: 81,211 (80,302)

Geelong: 65,063 (63,818)

Adelaide: 64,437 (64,739)

Carlton: 64,269 (56,005)

Sydney: 61,912 (60,934)

Melbourne: 52,421 (44,275)

Port Adelaide: 51,951 (54,386)

Fremantle: 51,431 (55,639)

Western Bulldogs: 44,373 (43,246)

St Kilda: 43,038 (46,301)

North Melbourne: 42,419 (40,789)

GWS Giants: 30,109 (24,243)

Brisbane Lions: 28,023 (24,867)

Gold Coast: 13,649 (12,108)

You can’t tell me that the Lions and Suns have almost tripled their support bases and that Geelong and Carlton have also almost doubled theirs…

Richmond, Essendon, Hawthorn, Melbourne, West Coast and Fremantle are the only clubs that haven’t grown their membership by 30,000 and yet some of these clubs are getting smaller crowds than pre covid

 

[PerthBoy86]

Of course. Essendon had 10 VFL flags and 4 VFA flags before Hawthorn even made the VFL finals. It’s easy to forget that there was 100 years of VFA/VFL before 1977.

Hawthorn has done exceptionally well to rise to 5th (from 10-12) in a 60 year period. The fact that they are the 5th team to draw 1 million fans through the gates this season (despite playing four games in Tasmania) means they are clearly the biggest ‘Non Big 4’ club with considerable gap to the rest.

To close on those clubs would take another generation or two and might not even be possible now that the AFL stack the media rights. It also means the clubs below them probably won’t close the gap either.

Another reason you'd think Hawthorn would be even bigger, is they and Richmond are the only clubs in the vast eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Of course many out there suburb one of the northern suburban clubs.

I guess historical/family ties play a bigger role.

As an Eagles supporter, being (basically) born and raised in WA, I never decided to support the Eagles, or remember the moment I did, it was just something you did. It felt more like something inherited I had no choice in.

 

[PerthBoy86]

Essendon are definitely another, though I put that down to my age. I was in primary school when Essendon were at their peak (2000 with Hird, Lloyd, Fletcher) so a lot of kids my age naturally picked them as the team to support.

I acknowledge it's weird, but I've honestly easily met more Saints fans than Tigers, Carlton, Crows, Lions, etc. Not sure why, and it's not like it's been one family or whatever - there's been coworkers in jobs I've held 15 years apart, neighbours, school mates, etc.

I have a bone to pick about many some WA AFL players my age...apparently Buddy went for the Dees and Fyfe for the Richmond? Was it cos of their family? Should've been Eagles/Dockers haha.