The 2025 AFL season is upon us. In an eventful pre-season, footy fans have already been treated to a number of dazzling goals from the league's best, setting the tone for what might be one of the more prolific goalkicking seasons in recent memory.
It was Jesse Hogan who led the way in 2024, winning the Coleman Medal comfortably with 69 snags to his name in the home and away season. The question now is: Can he do it again? If not, who will?
We've picked out the seven favourite candidates for the 2025 Coleman Medal.
5. Charlie Curnow
Despite an early setback via a minor knee injury, a Coleman list would be invalid without Curnow.
The Blues spearhead will be out for redemption following a subpar year for his standards, kicking 57 goals with a below-average shot accuracy of 53%. It was a pretty significant drop from his 81 goals in 2023 but all signs point to a big year in 2025.
What likely hurt the big man in 2024 was Carlton's injury crisis in the back end of their year, where nearly 40% of their playing list was deemed unfit to play. With a depleted squad, the quality of Curnow's opportunities decreased also. He averaged just two goals per game after Round 15 compared to 3.07 in the 14 games beforehand.
Carlton have caught some of the injury bug impacting most of the AFL this pre-season, but are certainly healthier than they were at the end of 2024.
Their domination of GWS in the Community Series highlighted their hunger to redeem themselves after 2024's late season collapse. Undoubtedly will Curnow play a part in that once he returns in Round 2 so it's not unreasonable to expect another monster year from the Blues' fan favourite.
