The best-performed club across the AFL and AFLW competitions will receive a $1 million prize and be awarded the McClelland Trophy from this year.
The money will be shared by players and the winning club, with the split to be determined in the ongoing collective bargaining agreement negotiations between the AFL and AFL Players Association.
The 'champion club' will be determined as the club with the most points at the end of the men's and women's home-and-away seasons.
AFL wins are worth four points and AFLW wins worth eight, with the allocations scaled because of the different lengths of the two seasons.
The McClelland Trophy was first awarded in 1951 - in what was then the Victorian Football League - to the club with the best performance across the seniors, reserves and U19s competitions.
In recent years, it has been awarded to the club that finishes on top of the AFL ladder after the home-and-away season.
AFL Commission chairman Richard Goyder said the change would recognise clubs that perform best across both elite competitions.
"It is important to recognise that all clubs now field both an AFL and an AFLW team, and the champion club should be the one that has the best combined performance across both competitions," Goyder said.
"We want to encourage and incentivise our clubs to support the AFL and AFLW programs and recognise the achievement and challenges in driving high performance across both elite competitions.
"The McClelland Trophy has a long history of being associated with the best performed club and it is appropriate that it now recognises achievement and success across the year in our AFL and AFLW elite competitions."
If two or more clubs are tied on points, a combined percentage across both competitions will determine the champion club.
The points model will be reviewed each year based on any changes in season length.
Melbourne would have been named 'champion club' in 2022 with 136 points, ahead of Brisbane (132) and Geelong (128).
