Mid Season Update | As all bar one Victorian country football league has now passed the halfway point of the season, we thought we'd do our annual quick deep dive into how scoring is progressing for the current 2025 season.

With the quantity and quality of teams in different leagues across the state being such a regular talking point, below is how scoring currently sits just over the midpoint of the season thus far.

What’s the current winning average margin?

Well, we’re glad you asked. 

After 12 weeks of matches, inclusive of some general and individual league byes that have taken place so far, the average winning margin across all Victorian leagues currently sits at 56.34 points, which is down marginally by .63 from this time last year.  For a comparison, the end of season average of the past two years have been 56.90 pts in 2024 and 58.82 in 2023.

How does my league compare?

If you want close games then Division 1 of the Mornington Peninsula Nepean FNL is the place to go as they are leading all leagues with a current average winning margin of 28.95 points. Down in the south west of the state it’s the Hampden FNL with a close run season too with an average of 32.89 points for their weekly winners, while close behind is the Geelong and District FNL on 33.37 points per match.  In fourth place we head to the north west where the Sunraysia FNL has an average winning margin of 36.58 points per game, fractionally below the Ovens and Murray FNL who currently see games decided on average by 37.38 points.

The top 10 closest leagues all sit with average winning margins of between 28 and 41 points. IAn interesting observation is that both the Geelong and District FNL and the Sunraysia FNL also occupied third and fourth place on this list at the same time last season too. 

As a side note, the recently handed down recommendations to end the Golden Rivers FNL at the conclusion of this season and clubs move to other leagues  such as the nearby Central Murray FNL seems a little at odds with the competitiveness of both leagues.  While there are lots of factors at play in these types of decisions, the Golden Rivers FNL does currently sit in 10th place overall in the state in terms of competitiveness with an average winning margin of 41.24 points improving on the 50 points at this same stage in 2024. The Central Murray FNL currently has an average winning margin of 64 points, which is an increase of 33 points more than this time last year and they are currently placed 30th on the list.

It’s a different story at the other end of the table with the four team Upper Murray FNL currently seeing their weekend matches being won by an average of 127.18 points, ahead of the North Central FNL who are seeing weekly results at 98.73 points which is forty seven points greater than this time last year. A further four leagues, the Ellinbank and District FNL, Picola and District FNL, Tallangatta and District FNL and the historically strong Geelong FNL, are all seeing their average winning results on the wrong side of 70 points.

Overall, seventeen of the state's forty one leagues are experiencing average winning margins of more than 10 goals.

So what do the scores actually look like?

With such a spread of average winning margins across all leagues, how are the scores contributing to them? Based on a minimum of two games being played for a round of matches, only three rounds this year have had an average winning margin of under 10 points.  Round 2 of the Golden Rivers FNL saw an average margin of 7 points, while it was a 9 point average in Round 7 for the Wimmera FNL. Rounding out this small group were the four games played as the second part of the Opening Round in the Colac and District FNL where the average winning margin was a neat 10 points.

At the other end of the spectrum, there have been 22 rounds of matches spread over 11 different leagues who have had a round of games with an average winning margin of over 100 points. There's no surprise that the Upper Murray FNL which holds the largest average winning margin has also had 4 rounds where the average winning margin was over 100.  They share this total with the North Central FNL as well as the Geelong FNL, while close behind is the Tallangatta and District FNL with three rounds.

To the actual scores now and 2.1% of all games played so far have either been draws (13) or 1 point thrillers (23), while only 2 different clubs have been held scoreless to point of the year alongside 4 different clubs who have only managed to score a solitary point.  The highest score recorded so far was in the Geelong FNL where St Mary’s FNC set a new league record for the number of goals kicked in a match in their total of 48.16 304 against Lara FNC. So far it is the  only score of over 300 points that have been kicked so far in 2025, with there being a total of 10 games where the swinging score has been over 250 points.  In total, 11.77% (210) of all senior games played across the state have seen one of the competing teams kick a score of over 150 points.

So who’s doing all the winning?

At this point in time, Murchison Toolamba FNC in the Kyabram and District FNL is sitting on the longest current active winning streak in country Victoria with 25 straight wins, after Harrow Balmoral FNC had a run of 43 straight wins ended when they were defeated by Noradjuha Quantong FNC in Round 8 of the Horsham and District FNL. Conversely, it’s been 55 straight defeats for the Gormandale FNC in the North Gippsland FNL who have the longest active losing streak.  There is an asterisk to this though as the current longest losing streak does sit with the Maryborough FNC who are in recess for this season from the Bendigo FNL.  Their streak sits at 62 which they will be looking to break, hopefully returning to the Maryborough Castlemaine District FNL in season 2026.

But there is hope!  

So far this year Bunyip FNC (46), Caramut (42) Melton South FNC (40), Portland (33) and Undera (25) have all broken losing streaks this year that have run over more than 1 season. Currently as we head into the second half of the season there are still 25 clubs looking for that first elusive win for 2025, while another 23 clubs look to continue their winning ways as they aim for an undefeated season.