2001 AFL season

Template:Short description Template:Use Australian English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox Australian rules football season The 2001 AFL season was the 105th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season featured sixteen clubs, ran from 30 March until 29 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top eight clubs.

The premiership was won by the Brisbane Lions for the first time, after it defeated Essendon by 26 points in the AFL Grand Final.

AFL Draft

See 2001 AFL draft.

Ansett Australia Cup

Port Adelaide defeated the Brisbane Lions 17.9 (111) to 3.8 (26) in the grand final.

Premiership season

Round 18

Fremantle claimed their first win of the season in their match against Hawthorn.

Ladder

All teams played 22 games during the home-and-away season, for a total of 176. An additional nine games were played during the finals series.

Match attendance

Team	Hosted	Average	Highest	Lowest	Total	Last year	Up/Down
Essendon	11	51,790	83,905	29,528	569,685	48,353	+ 3437
Collingwood	11	49,977	78,638	26,067	549,751	45,012	+ 4965
Richmond	11	46,129	77,576	25,856	507,416	44,012	+ 2117
Adelaide	11	39,627	46,852	31,534	435,897	38,470	+ 1157
Melbourne	11	34,060	62,761	12,566	374,665	37,599	– 3499
West Coast Eagles	11	32,669	41,285	25,588	359,360	33,136	– 467
Hawthorn	11	31,449	52,472	16,595	346,490	34,417	– 2918
Carlton	11	31,263	70,051	15,622	343,889	34,414	– 3151
Port Adelaide	11	30,789	49,846	22,423	338,683	26,377	+ 4412
St Kilda	11	29,850	40,783	14,018	328,355	24,422	+ 5428
Western Bulldogs	11	29,660	48,728	15,111	326,263	30,572	– 912
Sydney	11	27,982	40,131	20,611	307,800	25,563	+ 2419
Brisbane Lions	11	27,638	36,149	20,059	304,014	27,406	+ 232
Geelong	11	27,093	50,160	14,298	298,024	27,729	– 636
Kangaroos	11	26,998	56,028	10,030	296,983	22,092	+ 4906
Fremantle	11	21,258	38,804	15,136	233,842	22,357	– 1099
Totals	176	33,643	83,905	10,030	5,921,117	32,618	+ 1025

Venue	Hosted	Average	Highest	Lowest	Total	Last year	Up/Down
MCG	44	47,425	83,905	17,566	2086,712	46,141	+ 1284
Football Park	22	35,208	49,846	22,423	774,580	32,424	+ 2784
Colonial Stadium	43	31,939	50,701	12,566	1373,371	30,524	+ 1415
Gabba	12	27,313	36,149	20,059	327,754	27,406	– 93
SCG	13	27,159	40,131	20,611	353,069	22,390	+ 4769
Subiaco Oval	22	26,964	41,285	15,136	593,202	30,326	– 3362
Optus Oval	9	23,417	30,067	15,622	210,750	24,656	– 1239
Shell Stadium	7	21,445	27,421	14,298	150,114	22,108	– 663
York Park	1	17,460	17,460	17,460	17,460	N/A	N/A
Manuka Oval	3	11,368	13,117	10,030	34,105	N/A	N/A
Totals	176	33,643	83,905	10,030	5,921,117	32,618	+ 1025

Awards

• The Brownlow Medal was awarded to Jason Akermanis of the Brisbane Lions.
• The AFL Players Association MVP Award went to Andrew McLeod of Adelaide.
  • This was the last year for the award under this name; starting with the 2002 season, it would be renamed the "Leigh Matthews Trophy".
• The Coleman Medal was awarded to Matthew Lloyd of Essendon.
• The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Shaun Hart of the Brisbane Lions.
• The AFL Rising Star award was awarded to Justin Koschitzke of St Kilda.

Notable events

• In their Round 16 match, Essendon trailed by 69 points 12 minutes into the second quarter against the Kangaroos, but recovered to record a high-scoring 12-point win. This presently stands as the largest ever comeback in a VFL/AFL game.
• Melbourne and Collingwood began its annual tradition of playing each other at the M.C.G. in a Melbourne home game on Queen's Birthday Holiday, as the only AFL match of the day. The teams had met on the King's or Queen's Birthday Holiday sporadically in the past (1950, 1958, 1961, 1964, 1975, 1977, 1983, 1993, 1996 and 1999) as one of several games played on the day, with the 1958 game's attendance of 99,256 still enduring as the highest crowd for a non-final, but this was the first season that the fixture became annual, and the second time (after 1996) that the game was the only one played on the day.
• Fremantle lost their first 17 matches of the season in succession; having lost in the final round of the 2000 season, this took the Dockers' losing streak to 18, the longest drought since Sydney's 26 consecutive losses in 1992 and 1993.
• During the season, it came to the attention of the AFL that in 2000 and 2001, the Brisbane Lions had been using a controversial but then-legal practice of rehydrating its players by use of intravenous saline drip during half-time and between matches. The half-time drips were administered through stents which were inserted into the players' elbows prior to the game and covered with tape during the game. The AFL was concerned about negative perceptions of the practice, and the Lions agreed in early September to immediately cease intravenous rehydration. The league banned the practice in the 2002 pre-season, and the World Anti Doping Agency later banned the practice in 2007.

References

• 2001 Season – AFL Tables