AFL tipping ladder Excel - Free Template

1. Open the Instructions sheet first and check the guidance, team reference and pale yellow input areas.
2. Go to Match Results and enter the round, match date, venue, home team, away team, home score and away score. The 2026 sample matches can be replaced or updated.
3. Use the round list from 1 to 30 and select AFL clubs from the supplied team lists. Scores accept whole numbers from 0 to 250.
4. Open Tipping Ladder and enter each tipster's name and city. Select one club in each Round 1 Tip to Round 9 Tip cell.
5. Check the calculated columns from Position through Round 1 Winning Margin. Do not type over these outputs unless you deliberately want to alter the workbook.
6. After a match is completed, review the Dashboard for tip selections, competition metrics, the leaderboard and form categories.
7. Save a copy before making major changes, then update results and tips after each round so the ladder remains current.

An AFL tipping ladder spreadsheet suits the person who runs a workplace pool, the office manager at a tradie business, a club volunteer or a group of mates who want a clear result after every round. You can use it before the first bounce to collect tips, then return after the weekend to enter final scores and refresh the ladder.

From workplace pools to community clubs

A four-person electrical business might have 12 staff tipping from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. The organiser enters the fixtures and results once, while each tipster receives one selection for every round. A footy club treasurer can use the same layout for a social competition without mixing tipping records into the club's bookkeeping.

The workbook has four named sheets. Match Results (image 1) shows ten columns from Round and Match Date through Winning Team, Winning Margin and Result Status. It includes prepared rows to 101, a filter on A1:J101 and freeze panes at A2, which makes a long fixture list easier to work through.

How the weekly entry works

On Thursday, enter or confirm the upcoming match details. Tipsters then use the yellow input cells on Tipping Ladder to choose clubs for Round 1 through Round 9. The supplied validation list helps prevent spelling differences such as Sydney Swans versus Sydney Swans with an extra space.

After the final siren, entering 93 for Sydney Swans and 88 for Collingwood produces Sydney Swans as the winner and a 5-point margin. A tipster who selected Sydney Swans receives one Correct Tip and one Ladder Point; a blank score keeps the match Pending rather than awarding a result.

Reading the competition at a glance

Tipping Ladder (image 2) provides 20 columns, including Accuracy and Form. Dashboard (image 3) summarises total tipsters, completed matches, average competition accuracy and the current leader, while the leaderboard charts make it practical to share results at the Monday meeting. Instructions (image 4) gives the entry rules and lists the AFL team reference.

An AFL tipping pool is usually a private competition rather than a GST or BAS reporting system, so the workbook does not calculate tax, prizes or betting liabilities. You still need a clear written scoring rule before the season starts. This template's built-in position logic gives one Ladder Point per Correct Tip, while Accuracy is Correct Tips divided by Matches Entered.

Set the competition rule before round one

For example, if a tipster selects 7 winners from 9 entered matches, the workbook shows 7 Correct Tips, 9 Matches Entered and 77.78% Accuracy. The formula ranks Ladder Points first, then uses correct tips, accuracy and tipster name to separate ties. It does not calculate a separate margin bonus or a countback prize.

That is an important technical position: keep the scoring rule simple unless your group has agreed to a different system in writing. If you promise one point per winner, changing to margin points halfway through the 2026 season will make the existing ladder misleading.

Privacy and prize records

Tipster names and cities are personal information. If a workplace or club shares the Dashboard publicly, use first names or agreed display names rather than publishing unnecessary details. The Privacy Act 1988 and Australian Privacy Principles are relevant when an organisation collects and shares personal information, particularly if the file is emailed beyond the original group.

Keep a separate note of entry fees, prize payments and the competition rules if money is involved. For instance, 40 entrants paying $10 creates $400 to reconcile; the workbook records tipsters and outcomes, but it does not contain an entry-fee ledger, payment register or prize calculation.

Dates, scores and source records

Match Results uses the Australian DD/MM/YYYY format. Enter a final score only when the match is complete, because a score of 0 is accepted as a valid whole number from 0 to 250. A blank Home Score or Away Score leaves the result Pending, so the organiser can distinguish an unfinished fixture from a genuine low score.

The biggest problems in a footy pool are rarely complicated Excel errors. They are late tips, inconsistent team names and results entered against the wrong round. One incorrect row can change every tipster's Correct Tips count and create an awkward argument when the prize is decided by a single point.

Wrong team names and wrong fixtures

If one result is typed as GWS instead of GWS Giants, COUNTIF will not match the tipster's valid selection. A competition with 30 tipsters could then lose up to 30 expected scoring matches from one spelling error. The team validation lists on Match Results and Tipping Ladder are there for a reason: select from the list instead of free-typing club names.

Similarly, entering a Round 2 score into a Round 1 fixture can give every participant a result against the wrong tips. The sample includes Sydney Swans 93, Collingwood 88 and Carlton 104, Richmond 67. Treat those as examples to verify, not permanent results if your competition uses different fixtures or needs corrections.

Incomplete scores create false confidence

Typing only one score leaves Result Status as Pending and Winning Team blank. If an organiser manually types over the calculated cells, the sheet may appear complete while the underlying result is not linked to both scores. Enter both final scores in F and G and let the formulas calculate the winner and margin.

A common practical failure is entering a tip after the match has started. The workbook does not record a timestamp or lock a selection, so your competition needs a separate closing rule. For a 9-round pool with 20 tipsters, one late selection can affect 180 possible tip cells over the season if people begin changing old rounds.

Overwriting formulas and misreading accuracy

Blank tip rows are prepared through row 101, but they are not automatically valid entrants until a Tipster name is entered. Accuracy is a percentage of entered selections, not a percentage of all season matches. Someone with 2 correct tips from 2 entered has 100.00% accuracy, but that is not equivalent to someone with 8 from 9.

Do not treat Average Margin as a personal performance score: the formula uses the average of completed match margins across Match Results. A 27-point average margin describes the competition's completed games, not necessarily the margins of a particular tipster's selections.

The easiest way to keep an AFL tipping spreadsheet alive is to attach it to two fixed moments: a tips deadline before the first match and a results update after the last match. A five-minute Monday check is more reliable than trying to reconstruct nine matches and dozens of selections at the end of the month.

A simple Friday and Monday workflow

• Friday: check Round, Match Date, Venue, Home Team and Away Team in Match Results before collecting tips.
• Before the first bounce: review Tipping Ladder for blank selections and confirm that every club was selected from the list.
• Monday: enter both final scores, then scan Result Status for any remaining Pending matches.
• After updating: open Dashboard and save a dated copy of the completed round for your records.

For example, a pool with 18 tipsters and 9 rounds has up to 162 tip cells to review. A quick filter and a consistent deadline will save far more time than checking each person's messages individually.

Use the workbook's controls properly

Match Results has a filter across A1:J101 and Tipping Ladder has one across A1:T101. Filter Result Status to Pending when chasing scores, or sort the ladder by Position after the formulas recalculate. The yellow cells are the practical entry areas; calculated columns such as Position, Correct Tips and Form should be left alone.

There are no protected cells, so keep a clean master copy before reorganising columns or changing formulas. The Dashboard (image 3) contains three charts and prepared leaderboard data, but it is not a button-driven reporting system. Excel recalculates the linked formulas when the input values change.

Knowing when to move on

This spreadsheet is a good fit for a pool of up to 100 named tipsters and 9 tipping rounds. Move to shared competition software or a system such as Xero or MYOB only for unrelated business records; those accounting platforms are not designed to manage AFL selections. For a larger pool, live mobile tips, locked deadlines or automatic fixture imports, use dedicated tipping software rather than adding more fragile formulas to this file.