The clubs most and least impacted by injuries in 2025

Connor Scanlon • July 30th, 2025 3:32 pm

Champion Data’s Daniel Hoyne has assessed which clubs have been the most and least impacted by injury so far in 2025.

Speaking on SEN’s Sportsday, Hoyne explained that raw injury numbers can be misleading and don’t always reflect a team’s actual vulnerability.

“The injury list can be a little bit misleading sometimes, when it’s not really the stars that are out,” he said.

Hoyne pointed to last season's runners-up Sydney as an example, exclaiming how injuries can change the entire landscape of a season for a club.

“Last year (Sydney were) the best one with injury of any team in the comp, Round 14 this year, the worst run with injury in the comp,” he added.

“When you get that year when you have a really good run with injury, you need to capitalise.”

See who the least and most impacted clubs by injuries are below:

Least impacted

1 - Gold Coast

“Gold Coast this year have been the least impacted team by injury,” Hoyne revealed.

“Only really Charlie Ballard, who went out Round 1 for the year.

“They’ve cashed in, tick, well done.”

2 - Adelaide

“Second least impacted team by injury this year.

“Well done, cashed in, could finish top of the ladder.

“Done what you should… injury-free season for the large part.”

3 - North Melbourne

“The next two are the biggest concerns for me, and this is why I wanted to raise it.

“North Melbourne have been the third least impacted team by injury this year.

“When you look at North, (George) Wardlaw has missed five or six games for the year.

“That doesn’t factor in (Tristian) Xerri missing through suspension, and (Paul) Curtis missing a couple of games through suspension.

“So, that’s all they’ve had, North.”

4 - Melbourne

“Melbourne have been the fourth least impacted team.

“It’s a little bit of (Jake) Lever here or there, it’s a little bit of (Steven) May here or there.

“(Jack) Viney’s missed a couple of weeks… (Judd) McVee’s missed a couple of weeks.

“But that’s about it.

“So, that’s the concern for me when I’m hearing talk, ‘What are Melbourne going to do (in the) off-season… what do they do with (Christian) Petracca? Do they go again?’

“Well, they haven’t got the excuse to go back to, ‘Geez, we’ve been impacted by injury, so potentially we can have another crack at it.’

“So, there’s no excuses to that side of the equation for those couple of teams — two of them have cashed in, two of them haven’t.”

5 - Port Adelaide

“The fifth least impacted team by injury this year, so far, has been Port Adelaide,” Hoyne admitted.

“Which would be a little bit concerning.”

6 - Brisbane

“Sixth least impacted team by injury the Lions.”

Most impacted

1 - Fremantle

“Fremantle have been affected by injury, clearly more than any other team this season,” revealed Hoyne.

“I think we can all appreciate now, (Hayden Young) is their best player. As good as (Caleb) Serong is, and as good as (Andy) Brayshaw is, this guy is their best player.

“So, for him to miss three months, four months of footy this year has been significant.

“(Sean) Darcy has missed periods of footy in that time. (Sam) Switkowski is now getting the recognition — missed six weeks.

“Alex Pearce has missed close to six weeks and (Luke) Jackson missed a bit of time in there.”

2 - GWS

“GWS, second most impacted team by injury this year.

“People are still forgetting that Brent Daniels has hardly played this year.

“Sam Taylor’s missed a lot of footy this year, Jesse Hogan’s missed close to a quarter of the season.

“(Kieren) Briggs has missed four weeks, Josh Kelly’s missed footy in there as well.”

3 - Western Bulldogs

“The Dogs (are) the third most impacted team by injury this year.”

4 - Carlton

“Carlton have been the fourth most impacted team by injury this season.

“So, you’ve got two teams in North Melbourne and Melbourne — no excuses. And then you’ve got Carlton.

“I don’t know why the industry just can’t sort of be a little bit more mature.

“At times, injuries, they’re not an excuse, it’s reality.

“So, the fact that they have been impacted the fourth most by any team this year is another element for Carlton supporters, and footy department in terms of, ‘How do we assess this season? What do we do next year? Do we back the players coming in? Or do we just have a refresh?’

“An injury audit (is needed).”

5 - Essendon

“(Essendon) are the fifth most impacted team by injury.”

Collingwood

“Pies are mid-table.

“Eighth most impacted team by injury as well.”