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St Kilda Saints

Everyone, not just Saints fans, got nervous when reports of St Kilda updating their logo surfaced. It's not as though it is a spectacular logo, but it is beloved and has been their identity for 30 years.

Thanksfully they haven't departed too significantly with the redesign, with the most significant change being the "reduction" of the ribbon and swapping the motto fot eh year of establishment — which not everyone is a fan of. They've also updated the logo to include the full "St Kilda" name instead of "St K.F.C.", and thickened up the main outline which will help across smaller digital uses.

It's a clean refresh, refined enough to feel modern, yet similar enough to feel classic.

Gold Coast Suns

The Suns had one of the worst logos in the AFL, generic and with bizzare serifs on the "U" and "N". The "GC" part had poential that they could have explored further as part of a redesign. I think for most a rebrand couldn't come fast enough…

Unfortunately they've failed. Spectacularly.

Aside from still being quite generic, they say it is a ball, and the sun, and the letter "S", and that the letters "G" and "C" are hidden in there too. Apparently.

It's also monochrome red, which in their wisdom they have desied to use on a solid red background both on their new jerseys, but also on wider branding across web and merch and everything in-between. Seriously, they are selling red merchandise with a red logo on it. I thought it was a joke.

They've also changed their shade of yellow to a fade shade, which just doens't work, and gone with a blue logo on a yellow jersey for their alternate strip.

They've completely fumbled their chance to embrace the strong, vibrant yellow and red palette they had before, and the opporunity to lean into anything remotely representing the Gold Coast.

It's work like this that genuinely makes me question the agencies these teams choose to work with.

Adelaide Crows

I've never liked the old Crows logo, it was weirdly unbalanced, the lack of contrast in the crow's head just turns it into a random spiky shape and anything other than relatively large sizes.

The new logo hasn't been without its critics, but I'm not really sure why, I think its a huge improvement. It calls back to their older logo, the colours are better, the overall blaance feels better, and it looks like a crow.

Probably my only critique would be the kerning on "Adelaide" just not feeling quite right, but thats a small thing.

Tasmania Devils

Honeslty, revealing the logo for the 19th AFL team a full 4 years before they are expected to join the league seems like slightly jumping the gun, but here it is!

They've said that "’brushstroke’ style represents the culture of craftsmanship", "helps create a ‘windswept’ effect" and "represents our vast and rugged native wilderness" ... which to me sounds like the sort of thing marketers make up once they're presented with the design.

It's definitely a unique look in comparison to the other AFL teams, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, and at the very least they didn't mess around with the colours and gave us the green, yellow and red (or myrtle, primrose and rose, if you prefer) we all expected.

But it does feel quite busy, and in a landscape where so many team logos are being pared back to work in smaller — digital — applications, this one goes in the opposite direction. Without a distinct, recognisable silhouette its mostly disappears on darker backgrounds (like their jumper), and on light backgrounds looks more like a green tornado than a devil ... but maybe that isn't entirely accidental.

Also unveiled was their inaugural jumper, which is essentially the exact same myrtle with yellow map of Tassie and a red 'T' that other Tasmanian rep side have been using for years, just with a slightly more simplified/geometic map of Tassie, it's ok, but I kind of wish they'd done something different.

Overall it feels like an easy opportunity has been missed to craft a Tassie Devil logo that fits perfectly into the distinctive shape of Tasmania, but they won't take to an AFL field until 2028 so there's always time to tinker...

Sydney Swans

The Swans red 'V' logo is a classic, and they could have easily messed this up, but thankfully they didn't.

What we got is a more prominent, and detailed, Swan over the same red 'V'. The very clear Opera House motif from the old logo is gone in favour of a more subtle representation in the featers on the Swan — probably in response to the increased fee that the Sydney Opera House Trust has introduced for the use of the Sydney Opera House 'shape' in logos.

They have, thankfully, kept the Opera House in the 'V' on their guernsey.