The AFL – founded in 1897 as the VFL – has seen 16 premiers in its history, with 15 current AFL teams and the defunct Fitzroy Lions having won the AFL flag.
That leaves just three current sides – GWS Giants, Fremantle Dockers and the Gold Coast Suns – who have failed to win a flag, with the Suns yet to qualify for a finals series.
Here’s how the best in AFL history stack up to other codes and leagues around the world.
Essendon and Carlton have the most premierships with 16. Collingwood will join them if they win Saturday’s grand final. Next are Hawthorn (13), Melbourne (12) and Richmond (11).
* National Rugby League – founded in 1908 as the NSWRL
South Sydney Rabbitohs have been premiers 21 times. St George, with their run of 11-straight titles between 1956-66, are next on 15 ahead of Sydney Roosters (13) and Balmain Tigers (11)
* Major League Baseball – first World Series 1903
The New York Yankees have the most titles with 27. Next are the St Louis Cardinals on 11. No other team is in double figures.
* English Premier League – Football League founded in 1888
Manchester United have 20 titles, two ahead of Liverpool. Arsenal (13) are the only other team with more than 10
* Scottish Premier League – Scottish Football League founded 1890
Rangers have 54 titles and Celtic are on 49. Aberdeen, Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian are on four apiece.
* Portuguese football – founded in 1934
All title winners have come from Lisbon or Porto. Benfica lead with 36, ahead of Porto (18) and Sporting (18). Belenenses and Boavista have one apiece.
* German football – founded in 1903
Bayern Munich lead with 28 titles, mostly in the current Bundesliga. No other team since 1903 has more than nine.
tim
Roar Rookie
But who have also had more wooden spoons, years of the lowest dominance. If we say that winning a flag means you were the most dominant team, do we rank a second place as being more dominant than 8th or 12th or bottom? Of what about win loss ratio in home and away games? By either of these measures, Collingwood is statistically on average the most dominant team, I would think, over all of VFL/AFL history. But who cares, history doesn't win flags.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Really interesting facts and figures. The spread of 16,16,16,13,12,11 does look reasonably well spread out (although nothing to celebrate for those of us at the other end of the spectrum). NSW/NRL is an interesting case study. In the modern game, the comp is very even, much more even than the AFL, but the early history of the NSWRL presents a different story, afterall, Souths mush have won 20 premierships in the first 53 or so seasons of the NSWRL, and then we have St George's 11 consecutive premierships, doesn't leave a lot of premierships to be shared around during that period. The A-League presents as relatively even, having commenced in 2005, in 13 seasons, the spread is 4,3,3,1,1,1, meaning six of the current 10 clubs have won a championship, another two have made the grand final, and two have never made it (but have not been in the comp since its inception).
Steve Franklin
Roar Rookie
Not as dominant as Carlton or Essendon who both have won more grand finals .
Fat Toad
Roar Rookie
For within the VFL/AFL Some other indicators you could consider are total games won, times in finals and times in the Grand final. Agreed its hard to get that from overseas stats.
Gyfox
Roar Rookie
I am quite surprised to see that the VFL/AFL premiership tallies are way below all those other football leagues, inc NRL. Suggests that AFL has always been a much even competition, even allowing for 4-in-a-row & dynasties