The highest paid AFL players of 2026, ranked
AFL players are being paid more than ever. Here, we rank the league’s highest earners
By Cayle Reid
IN THE AFL, a million-dollar salary was once reserved exclusively for hall of famers, All-Australians and Brownlow winners, but nowadays every team has a player on its payroll making seven figures a year – or, in many cases, multiple players. In fact, 58 players are currently earning a salary over $1 million. It’s a side effect of the league’s growth. The AFL easily has the highest attendance numbers of any Australian sporting league, while attracting even more viewers at home, with a new seven-year TV rights deal with Channel 7 worth $4.5 billion kicking in at the start of the 2025 season.
So yes, there’s plenty of money going around, and some of it does indeed trickle down to the league’s top players. But who are the highest paid players in the AFL for the 2026 season? The coffers are hardly bare, with every one of the AFL’s highest-earning players taking home more than $1 million this year. In fact, you need to be making $1.3 million to even crack the top ten, the equivalent of the largest salary in the NRL. Amid the ongoing code wars, we’re sure AFL fans will revel in that fact.
Read on to discover the highest paid players in the AFL for the 2026 season, ranked from ten to one.
Who are the highest paid AFL players in 2026?
10. Mac Andrew, Gold Coast Suns
2026 salary: $1.3 million
Mac Andrew signed a massive extension with the Suns back in 2024 that can keep him at the club up until 2034 and be worth up to $12 million – making it the biggest contract in total value in AFL history. While the total deal is worth up to $12 million, Andrew’s annual salary only narrowly gets him inside the top ten. We doubt he’ll be complaining about that minor detail though.
9. Errol Gulden, Sydney Swans
2025 salary: $1.3 million
As one of the AFL’s best young players, Errol Gulden has a bevy of options when it comes to contract offers. He was offered a mammoth 10-year contract with the Adelaide Crows back in 2024, before ultimately resigning with the Swans. you’d expect more teams to be vying for his signature once his current deal runs out in 2028.
8. Christian Petracca, Gold Coast
2026 salary: $1.4 million
The Suns are on a spending spree. Following the club’s first ever finals appearance, the Gold Coast made a major move by trading for four-time All-Australian Petracca, thus absorbing his sizeable contract. The Suns can afford to splurge, after more than a decade of basement dwelling. They now look like genuine premiership contenders, led by a midfield that includes Petracca, Noah Anderson and reigning Brownlow medal winner Matt Rowell.
7. Clayton Oliver, Greater Western Sydney Giants
2026 salary: $1.4 million
A three-time All-Australian selection, Clayton Oliver’s trade to GWS forms one of the AFL’s most dominant midfields. The trade came just a year after Oliver signed a lucrative new contract with the Dees, who will continue to pay a portion of his salary all the way through to 2030. Absolutely shocking value for Melbourne there.
6. Max King, St. Kilda Saints
2026 salary: $1.4 million
How can someone who hasn’t played since 2024 be one of the AFL’s highest paid players? Well, St. Kilda signed King to a huge extension back in 2024, when he was one of the most in-form players in the comp. Since then, though, King has struggled with injuries and battled through multiple surgeries. He’s currently aiming to return by midseason, which would do a lot to help the Saints’ title chase.
5. Marcus Bontempelli, Western Bulldogs
2026 salary: $1.4 million
Considered by some to be the AFL’s premier player (he is by some degrees better than anyone above him on this list), Marcus Bontempelli has made the All-Australian team a whopping seven times and the 22under22 team a record five times. An all-important Brownlow still eludes the dominant, premiership-winning midfielder, although he has finished second twice. Maybe this year will be his year, as the Doggies look set to rise up the ladder.
4. Josh Kelly, Greater Western Sydney Giants
2026 salary: $1.6 million
Josh Kelly signed an eight-year extension with GWS back in 2021, and is just starting to enter the big-money portion of that contract now. Injuries have limited Kelly in recent years, but when he’s at the top of his game GWS are a tough team to beat. He will be crucial if the Giants are to go on a premiership charge this season.
3. Tom De Koning, St. Kilda Saints
2026 salary: $1.7 million
The Saints went on a spending spree over the offseason, because in addition to De Koning, they still have another high-earner further up this list. De Koning was part of Carlton’s mass exodus of 2025 AD, as one of many stars to leave the club for greener pastures. He signed a massive, eight-year contract with St. Kilda and will be expected to deliver a premiership in return.
2. Harley Reid, West Coast Eagles
2026 salary: $2 million
The AFL’s second two-million-dollar man is also one of its biggest young stars. Harley Reid turned down a Melbourne homecoming to remain with the West Coast Eagles in the offseason, signing a new deal that will keep him at the club until at least 2028. Money does a great job at quelling homesickness, it seems. We’d live in Perth too if we were getting paid $2 million a year to do so.
1. Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, St. Kilda Saints
2026 salary: $2 million
The third Saint in the top ten (told you they went on a spending spree), Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera is the AFL’s first two-million-dollar man. ‘Nasiah the Messiah’ broke the barrier when he signed a two-year extension last year worth a total of $4 million. It set a precedent that has already been followed by West Coast with Harley Reid. It’s a matter of when, not if, other players will join the $2 million club, as AFL salaries continue to skyrocket.
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