2025 AFL Round 1: Gold Coast v Essendon

This is the match report for the match played on 27 August 2025 between Gold Coast and Essendon during round 1 of the 2025 AFL season. Gold Coast hosted Essendon at People First Stadium. Noah Anderson captained the hosts. Zach Merrett captained the visitors with Andrew McGrath as vice-captain. The hosts were coached by Damien Hardwick and the visitors were coached by Brad Scott.

Gold Coast
Back: W. Powell, B. Uwland, S. Collins
Half-back: J. Noble, M. Andrew, D. Rioli
Centre: L. Weller, M. Rowell, B. Fiorini
Half-forward: T. Miller, B. Ainsworth, B. Humphrey
Forward: B. Long, J. Farrar, B. King
Follower: J. Witts, A. Davies, N. Anderson (capt.)
Int.: C. Budarick, S. Flanders, J. Jeffrey, E. Read
Sub.: J. Rogers

Essendon
Back: A. McGrath (vice-capt.), J. Laverde, J. Nguyen
Half-back: M. Redman, J. Prior, A. Roberts
Centre: X. Duursma, Z. Merrett (capt.), L. Lual
Half-forward: A. Clarke, P. Wright, S. Durham
Forward: K. Langford, S. El-Hawli, I. Kako
Follower: T. Goldstein, J. Menzie, D. Shiel
Int.: L. Blakiston, M. Guelfi, L. McMahon, A. Perkins
Sub.: R. Unwin

Gold Coast (23.15.153) defeated Essendon (8.10.58).

Goalkickers
Gold Coast: B. King (7), N. Anderson (3), B. Ainsworth (2), M. Rowell (2), A. Davies, J. Farrar, B. Fiorini, B. Humphrey, B. Long, W. Powell, E. Read, D. Rioli, J. Witts
Essendon: J. Menzie (3), S. Durham, X. Duursma, I. Kako, K. Langford, L. McMahon

As a result of this match, Gold Coast were then 7th on the ladder (up from 9th) and Essendon remained 15th on the ladder by the end of the day.

Match Details

Season: 2025 AFL Season
Round: Round 1
Teams: Gold Coast v Essendon
Date: Wednesday 27 August 2025
Time: 7:20 PM
Venue: People First Stadium
Attendance: 16,768

Match Results

Outcome: Gold Coast def. Essendon
Score: 23.15.153 - 8.10.58

Quarter Breakdown

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
Gold Coast 7 . 4 9 . 10 15 . 15 23 . 15 23 . 15 (153)
Essendon 1 . 0 3 . 4 5 . 6 8 . 10 8 . 10 (58)
Margin GCST by 40 GCST by 42 GCST by 69 GCST by 95 GCST by 95
Duration 30:05 29:19 32:12 33:15 2:04:51

Honour Roll

Coaches: Damien Hardwick (Gold Coast), Brad Scott (Essendon)
Captains: Noah Anderson (Gold Coast), Zach Merrett (Essendon)
Vice-Captains: unknown (Gold Coast), Andrew McGrath (Essendon)

Brownlow Votes

Player Team # Votes
Noah Anderson GCST 15 3
Ben King GCST 34 2
Matt Rowell GCST 18 1

Player Statistics

Gold Coast

# Player Pos. ToG% GL BH DI KI HB MK HO TA CL CR FF FA RF IF
9 Ainsworth, Ben CHF 80% 2 1 17 9 8 5 0 3 0 3 0 1 1 4
15 Anderson, Noah (c) RO 78% 3 0 34 19 15 3 0 0 12 2 0 0 3 5
1 Andrew, Mac CHB 97% 0 0 14 7 7 5 0 0 0 5 2 3 2 1
35 Budarick, Connor INT 83% 0 2 10 5 5 3 0 3 1 6 0 3 0 3
25 Collins, Sam BPR 80% 0 0 9 5 4 2 0 1 0 2 1 1 1 0
5 Davies, Alex RR 76% 1 0 17 6 11 2 0 1 5 1 0 0 2 2
50 Farrar, Jy FF 78% 1 2 8 5 3 5 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
8 Fiorini, Brayden WR 83% 1 0 20 5 15 2 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 2
3 Flanders, Sam INT 82% 0 0 20 10 10 5 0 1 2 1 1 0 1 5
19 Humphrey, Bailey HFFR 53% 1 2 15 12 3 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 5
40 Jeffrey, Joel INT 81% 0 0 20 14 6 4 0 0 0 3 0 2 4 4
34 King, Ben FPR 82% 7 1 8 8 0 6 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
22 Long, Ben FPL 87% 1 1 12 8 4 6 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 4
11 Miller, Touk HFFL 72% 0 0 21 13 8 4 0 1 2 2 1 0 0 7
2 Noble, John HBFL 89% 0 0 32 15 17 2 0 3 0 5 1 1 6 1
27 Powell, Wil BPL 92% 1 0 23 10 13 7 0 3 1 1 2 0 4 2
20 Read, Ethan INT 79% 1 1 12 6 6 5 2 1 0 5 1 4 0 1
17 Rioli, Daniel HBFR 72% 1 0 17 5 12 2 0 1 0 2 0 1 1 3
29 Rogers, Jake SUB 27% 0 0 6 5 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
18 Rowell, Matt C 77% 2 1 31 13 18 0 0 8 5 4 0 0 2 4
32 Uwland, Bodhi FB 89% 0 0 19 11 8 6 0 1 1 3 1 1 5 4
14 Weller, Lachie WL 81% 0 1 26 15 11 5 0 1 4 5 1 0 2 7
28 Witts, Jarrod RU 82% 1 0 13 3 10 2 40 1 2 3 2 2 1 1
Rushed 3
Total (23 players) 23 15 404 209 195 86 42 32 36 59 14 20 37 67

Essendon

# Player Pos. ToG% GL BH DI KI HB MK HO TA CL CR FF FA RF IF
46 Blakiston, Lachlan INT 87% 0 0 10 5 5 3 4 2 0 3 2 1 3 3
36 Clarke, Angus HFFL 90% 0 0 21 11 10 6 0 0 0 1 2 0 2 2
22 Durham, Sam HFFR 80% 1 1 13 8 5 6 0 5 0 4 0 0 1 1
28 Duursma, Xavier WL 89% 1 0 17 6 11 3 0 3 2 2 0 0 0 0
41 El-Hawli, Saad FF 84% 0 0 7 3 4 2 0 2 1 1 0 1 0 2
17 Goldstein, Todd RU 37% 0 0 5 3 2 2 11 1 3 1 2 1 1 1
35 Guelfi, Matt INT 25% 0 0 5 3 2 0 0 1 0 5 0 1 0 0
10 Kako, Isaac FPR 78% 1 1 17 9 8 2 0 4 5 0 1 0 0 4
4 Langford, Kyle FPL 86% 1 0 13 9 4 5 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 1
15 Laverde, Jayden FB 94% 0 0 11 8 3 7 0 0 0 5 0 2 3 1
34 Lual, Luamon WR 86% 0 0 7 2 5 1 0 2 0 3 1 2 1 1
1 McGrath, Andrew (vc) BPL 84% 0 0 21 9 12 1 0 3 4 3 0 0 1 3
48 McMahon, Liam INT 78% 1 1 8 5 3 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1
29 Menzie, Jye RR 86% 3 0 10 8 2 6 0 3 1 1 1 0 1 2
7 Merrett, Zach (c) C 86% 0 0 28 14 14 2 0 3 3 2 2 0 5 3
42 Nguyen, Jayden BPR 78% 0 0 8 6 2 3 0 1 0 1 2 0 3 2
16 Perkins, Archie INT 72% 0 0 12 7 5 1 0 3 3 2 0 0 1 4
25 Prior, Jaxon CHB 80% 0 1 13 9 4 6 0 1 0 2 0 0 4 0
27 Redman, Mason HBFL 91% 0 0 22 16 6 5 0 1 0 0 1 0 6 2
21 Roberts, Archie HBFR 92% 0 0 29 18 11 6 0 4 4 9 1 3 7 4
9 Shiel, Dylan RO 78% 0 0 28 15 13 8 0 2 3 1 0 0 4 4
38 Unwin, Rhys SUB 57% 0 0 5 4 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 0 3
20 Wright, Peter CHF 83% 0 1 11 6 5 3 5 2 2 3 3 2 0 1
Rushed 5
Total (23 players) 8 10 321 184 137 80 20 45 31 54 20 14 43 45

Legend

ToG%: Time-on-Ground Percentage, GL: Goals, BH: Behinds, DI: Disposals, KI: Kicks, HB: Handballs, MK: Marks, HO: Hitouts, TA: Tackles, CL: Clearances, CR: Clangers, FF: Free Kicks For, FA: Free Kicks Against, RF: Rebounds Inside 50, IF: Inside 50s

Player Line-Up

Gold Coast Coach: Damien Hardwick
BACK FOLLOWER INTERCHANGE
1 A. McGrath (vc) 15 J. Laverde 42 J. Nguyen 28 J. Witts 35 C. Budarick
34 B. King 50 J. Farrar 22 B. Long 5 A. Davies 3 S. Flanders
FORWARD 15 N. Anderson (c) 40 J. Jeffrey
HALF-BACK

20 E. Read
27 M. Redman 25 J. Prior 21 A. Roberts

29 J. Rogers
19 B. Humphrey 9 B. Ainsworth 11 T. Miller



HALF-FORWARD



CENTRE



28 X. Duursma 7 Z. Merrett (c) 34 L. Lual



8 B. Fiorini 18 M. Rowell 14 L. Weller FOLLOWER INTERCHANGE
CENTRE 17 T. Goldstein 46 L. Blakiston
HALF-FORWARD 29 J. Menzie 35 M. Guelfi
36 A. Clarke 20 P. Wright 22 S. Durham 9 D. Shiel 48 L. McMahon
17 D. Rioli 1 M. Andrew 2 J. Noble

16 A. Perkins
HALF-BACK

38 R. Unwin
FORWARD



4 K. Langford 41 S. El-Hawli 10 I. Kako



25 S. Collins 32 B. Uwland 27 W. Powell



BACK



Essendon Coach: Brad Scott

Score Timeline

Quarter Team Scoring Event Score Time
Q1 GCST Jy Farrar behind 0.1.1 - 0.0.0 01:54
GCST Ben King goal 1.1.7 - 0.0.0 04:37
GCST Ben King goal 2.1.13 - 0.0.0 08:42
ESSE Sam Durham goal 2.1.13 - 1.0.6 10:47
GCST Bailey Humphrey behind 2.2.14 - 1.0.6 12:56
GCST Ben Long behind 2.3.15 - 1.0.6 14:52
GCST Ben King goal 3.3.21 - 1.0.6 18:17
GCST Ben King behind 3.4.22 - 1.0.6 20:12
GCST Noah Anderson goal 4.4.28 - 1.0.6 21:53
GCST Noah Anderson goal 5.4.34 - 1.0.6 24:32
GCST Ben Long goal 6.4.40 - 1.0.6 26:29
GCST Matt Rowell goal 7.4.46 - 1.0.6 30:01
Q2 ESSE Peter Wright behind 7.4.46 - 1.1.7 02:17
ESSE Isaac Kako behind 7.4.46 - 1.2.8 04:32
GCST Rushed behind 7.5.47 - 1.2.8 05:47
ESSE Rushed behind 7.5.47 - 1.3.9 07:11
GCST Ben Ainsworth behind 7.6.48 - 1.3.9 11:11
GCST Bailey Humphrey goal 8.6.54 - 1.3.9 12:27
GCST Connor Budarick behind 8.7.55 - 1.3.9 14:38
GCST Rushed behind 8.8.56 - 1.3.9 16:16
GCST Ethan Read goal 9.8.62 - 1.3.9 17:39
ESSE Kyle Langford goal 9.8.62 - 2.3.15 20:12
ESSE Jye Menzie goal 9.8.62 - 3.3.21 21:56
ESSE Liam McMahon behind 9.8.62 - 3.4.22 24:19
GCST Matt Rowell behind 9.9.63 - 3.4.22 25:51
GCST Connor Budarick behind 9.10.64 - 3.4.22 29:16
Q3 GCST Rushed behind 9.11.65 - 3.4.22 01:10
GCST Ben King goal 10.11.71 - 3.4.22 02:42
GCST Matt Rowell goal 11.11.77 - 3.4.22 03:52
ESSE Xavier Duursma goal 11.11.77 - 4.4.28 05:34
GCST Wil Powell goal 12.11.83 - 4.4.28 08:37
ESSE Rushed behind 12.11.83 - 4.5.29 10:22
GCST Jy Farrar behind 12.12.84 - 4.5.29 11:37
GCST Ethan Read behind 12.13.85 - 4.5.29 15:23
GCST Daniel Rioli goal 13.13.91 - 4.5.29 16:08
GCST Lachie Weller behind 13.14.92 - 4.5.29 19:21
GCST Brayden Fiorini goal 14.14.98 - 4.5.29 19:47
ESSE Rushed behind 14.14.98 - 4.6.30 23:33
GCST Ben King goal 15.14.104 - 4.6.30 24:01
GCST Bailey Humphrey behind 15.15.105 - 4.6.30 27:45
ESSE Jye Menzie goal 15.15.105 - 5.6.36 32:09
Q4 GCST Alex Davies goal 16.15.111 - 5.6.36 00:55
GCST Ben King goal 17.15.117 - 5.6.36 04:45
ESSE Jaxon Prior behind 17.15.117 - 5.7.37 08:32
GCST Jy Farrar goal 18.15.123 - 5.7.37 10:43
GCST Ben Ainsworth goal 19.15.129 - 5.7.37 12:00
ESSE Liam McMahon goal 19.15.129 - 6.7.43 15:26
GCST Noah Anderson goal 20.15.135 - 6.7.43 17:13
ESSE Rushed behind 20.15.135 - 6.8.44 19:01
ESSE Isaac Kako goal 20.15.135 - 7.8.50 20:08
ESSE Jye Menzie goal 20.15.135 - 8.8.56 22:02
ESSE Rushed behind 20.15.135 - 8.9.57 24:19
GCST Ben King goal 21.15.141 - 8.9.57 26:17
ESSE Sam Durham behind 21.15.141 - 8.10.58 28:06
GCST Ben Ainsworth goal 22.15.147 - 8.10.58 29:13
GCST Jarrod Witts goal 23.15.153 - 8.10.58 33:08