2008 AFL season

Template:Short description Template:Use Australian English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox Australian rules football season The 2008 AFL season was the 112th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured sixteen clubs, ran from 20 March until 27 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top eight clubs. A significant feature of the season was the celebration of the 150th anniversary since the sport of Australian rules football was first established in 1858.

The premiership was won by the Hawthorn Football Club for the tenth time, after they defeated Geelong by 26 points in the 2008 AFL Grand Final.

Win/loss table

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	F1	F2	F3	GF	Ladder
Adelaide	WB -3	WCE +76	PA +6	Haw -44	Frem +17	Carl +30	NM +33	Melb +76	WCE -50	Ess +5	Rich +50	Haw -4	BL -13	Geel -68	Coll -32	PA -12	Syd +24	Carl +8	Rich +63	Ess +56	StK -48	WB +9	Coll -31	X	X	X	5
Brisbane Lions	WCE -16	Coll +2	Syd -17	PA +20	Haw -12	Melb +52	Geel -27	Carl +33	StK +46	NM +31	Frem +22	WB -63	Adel +13	Melb -1	Ess -37	WCE +46	Rich -3	NM -8	Haw -69	WB +11	Carl -6	Syd -61	X	X	X	X	10
Carlton	Rich -30	StK -40	Ess -16	Coll +23	Melb +33	Adel -30	WCE +37	BL -33	Frem +9	Geel -56	PA +12	Coll +30	Ess -35	Rich +30	StK -32	Syd -2	WB +28	Adel -8	PA +66	NM -51	BL +6	Haw -78	X	X	X	X	11
Collingwood	Frem +26	BL -2	Rich +44	Carl -23	NM -7	Ess +73	Haw +65	StK +9	Geel +86	WCE +100	Melb +21	Carl -30	WB -10	Syd +29	Adel +32	NM -18	Ess -48	Haw -54	StK +14	PA +31	Syd +45	Frem -24	Adel +31	StK -34	X	X	8
Essendon	NM +55	Geel -99	Carl +16	WB -30	StK -36	Coll -73	PA -64	Syd -91	Rich -38	Adel -5	Haw -51	WCE +22	Carl +35	Frem +4	BL +37	Rich -4	Coll +48	Melb +16	WCE -10	Adel -56	WB -46	StK -108	X	X	X	X	12
Fremantle	Coll -26	Haw -15	WCE +14	Rich -64	Adel -17	Geel -1	Melb -6	WB -3	Carl -9	PA -28	BL -24	NM +53	StK -8	Ess -4	Geel -74	Melb +46	PA +28	WCE +33	Syd -4	StK -43	Rich -7	Coll +24	X	X	X	X	14
Geelong	PA +9	Ess +99	Melb +30	StK +42	Syd +42	Frem +1	BL +27	Rich +30	Coll -86	Carl +56	NM +13	PA +59	WCE +135	Adel +68	Frem +74	WB +61	Haw +11	Rich +63	Melb +116	Syd +39	NM +33	WCE +99	StK +58	X	WB +29	Haw -26	1
Hawthorn	Melb +104	Frem +15	NM +16	Adel +44	BL +12	Rich +12	Coll +65	PA +15	Melb +19	WB -32	Ess +51	Adel +4	NM -27	WCE +57	Syd +31	StK -30	Geel -11	Coll +54	BL +69	Rich -29	WCE +71	Carl +78	WB +51	X	StK +54	Geel +26	2
Melbourne	Haw -104	WB -95	Geel -30	NM -48	Carl -33	BL -53	Frem +6	Adel -76	Haw -19	StK -79	Coll -21	Rich -22	Syd -40	BL +1	WB -31	Frem -46	NM -28	Ess -16	Geel -116	WCE +34	PA -78	Rich -80	X	X	X	X	16
Template:AFL NM	Ess -55	Rich +41	Haw -16	Melb +48	Coll +7	Syd 0	Adel -33	WCE +6	WB +3	BL -31	Geel -13	Frem -53	Haw +27	StK -15	PA +2	Coll +18	Melb +28	BL +8	WB +20	Carl +51	Geel -33	PA -76	Syd -35	X	X	X	7
Template:AFL	Geel -9	Syd -68	Adel -6	BL -20	WCE +24	StK +21	Ess +64	Haw -15	Syd -11	Frem +28	Carl -12	Geel -59	Rich -4	WB -54	NM -2	Adel +12	Frem -28	StK -8	Carl -66	Coll -31	Melb +78	NM +76	X	X	X	X	13
Richmond	Carl +30	NM -41	Coll -44	Frem +64	WB 0	Haw -12	StK -3	Geel -30	Ess +38	Syd -82	Adel -50	Melb +22	PA +4	Carl -30	WCE +77	Ess +4	BL +3	Geel -63	Adel -63	Haw +29	Frem +7	Melb +80	X	X	X	X	9
Template:AFL	Syd +2	Carl +40	WB -38	Geel -42	Ess +36	PA -21	Rich +3	Coll -9	BL -46	Melb +79	WB -27	Syd -35	Frem +8	NM +15	Carl +32	Haw +30	WCE -17	PA +8	Coll -14	Frem +43	Adel +48	Ess +108	Geel -58	Coll +34	Haw -54	X	4
Sydney	StK -2	PA +68	BL +17	WCE +62	Geel -42	NM 0	WB -18	Ess +91	PA +11	Rich +82	WCE +5	StK +35	Melb +40	Coll -29	Haw -31	Carl +2	Adel -24	WB -16	Frem +4	Geel -39	Coll -45	BL +61	NM +35	WB -37	X	X	6
West Coast	BL +16	Adel -76	Frem -14	Syd -62	PA -24	WB -60	Carl -37	NM -6	Adel +50	Coll -100	Syd -5	Ess -22	Geel -135	Haw -57	Rich -77	BL -46	StK +17	Frem -33	Ess +10	Melb -34	Haw -71	Geel -99	X	X	X	X	15
Western Bulldogs	Adel +3	Melb +95	StK +38	Ess +30	Rich 0	WCE +60	Syd +18	Frem +3	NM -3	Haw +32	StK +27	BL +63	Coll +10	PA +54	Melb +31	Geel -61	Carl -28	Syd +16	NM -20	BL -11	Ess +46	Adel -9	Haw -51	Syd +37	Geel -29	X	3
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	F1	F2	F3	GF	Ladder

Template:AFL win loss table legend Bold – Home game

Statistics

Leading goalkickers

^{updated after grand final}

The Coleman Medal was awarded to Lance Franklin for kicking the most goals at the end of the home and away season.

	Player	Club	Games	Goals			Best Performance
				Season	Finals	Total	Goals	Opponent(s)	Round(s)
1	Lance Franklin	Hawthorn	25	102	11	113	9	Essendon	11
2	Brendan Fevola	Carlton	22	99	–	99	8	Essendon, Collingwood	3, 11
3	Daniel Bradshaw	Brisbane Lions	20	75	–	75	7	Hawthorn	5
4	Jarryd Roughead	Hawthorn	24	66	9	75	6	Collingwood, West Coast	7, 14
5	Jonathan Brown	Brisbane Lions	21	70	–	70	6	Carlton, Template:AFL, Template:AFL NM	8, 9, 10
6	Matthew Pavlich	Fremantle	19	67	–	67	8	Template:AFL NM	12
7	Nick Riewoldt	Template:AFL	24	56	9	65	6	Hawthorn	16
8	Matthew Lloyd	Essendon	21	62	–	62	8	Melbourne	18
9	Stephen Milne	Template:AFL	24	54	6	60	7	Richmond, Essendon	7, 22
10	Daniel Motlop	Template:AFL	21	57	–	57	7	Essendon	7

Disposals

Rank	Player	Team	Total
1	Joel Corey	Geelong	730
2	Jimmy Bartel	Geelong	702
3	Sam Mitchell	Hawthorn	667
4	Daniel Cross	Western Bulldogs	663
5	Adam Cooney	Western Bulldogs	637
6	Matthew Boyd	Western Bulldogs	629
7	Kane Cornes	Template:AFL	613
8	Joel Selwood	Geelong	607
9	Gary Ablett, Jr.	Geelong	606
10	Dane Swan	Collingwood	590

Kicks

Rank	Player	Team	Total
1	Leigh Montagna	Template:AFL	388
2	Jimmy Bartel	Geelong	382
3	Dane Swan	Collingwood	368
4	Sam Fisher	Template:AFL	359
5	Lindsay Gilbee	Western Bulldogs	352
6	Brent Harvey	Template:AFL NM	339
7	Joel Corey	Geelong	339
7	Brendon Goddard	Template:AFL	337
9	Nick Dal Santo	Template:AFL	336
10	Marc Murphy	Carlton	335

Handballs

Rank	Player	Team	Total
1	Daniel Cross	Western Bulldogs	422
2	Joel Corey	Geelong	391
3	Sam Mitchell	Hawthorn	354
4	Kane Cornes	Template:AFL	345
5	Adam Cooney	Western Bulldogs	326
6	Joel Selwood	Geelong	324
7	Lenny Hayes	Template:AFL	322
8	Jimmy Bartel	Geelong	320
9	Shane Tuck	Richmond	318
10	Gary Ablett, Jr.	Geelong	318

Marks

Rank	Player	Team	Total
1	Nick Riewoldt	Template:AFL	240
2	Samuel Fisher	Template:AFL	228
3	Matthew Richardson	Richmond	220
4	Robert Murphy	Western Bulldogs	204
5	Cameron Mooney	Geelong	201
6	Brendon Goddard	Template:AFL	182
7	Paul Medhurst	Collingwood	179
8	Brian Lake	Western Bulldogs	175
9	Brad Johnson	Western Bulldogs	172
10	Clinton Young	Hawthorn	172

Tackles

Rank	Player	Team	Total
1	Brett Kirk	Sydney	151
2	Lenny Hayes	Template:AFL	144
3	Jude Bolton	Sydney	143
4	Joel Corey	Geelong	138
5	Domenic Cassisi	Template:AFL	133
6	Jimmy Bartel	Geelong	124
7	Daniel Cross	Western Bulldogs	117
8	Martin Mattner	Sydney	126
9	James Kelly	Geelong	112
10	Daniel Harris	Template:AFL NM	109

Hitouts

Rank	Player	Team	Total
1	Aaron Sandilands	Fremantle	646
2	Dean Cox	West Coast	571
3	Darren Jolly	Sydney	543
4	Mark Blake	Geelong	525
5	Jamie Charman	Brisbane Lions	434
6	Steven King	Template:AFL	408
7	Dean Brogan	Template:AFL	397
8	David Hille	Essendon	364
9	Troy Simmonds	Richmond	359
10	Robert Campbell	Hawthorn	358

Awards

• The 2008 Brownlow Medal for the AFL's fairest and best player was awarded to Adam Cooney, of the Western Bulldogs, who polled 24 votes.
• The Leigh Matthews Trophy as the AFL's most valuable player was awarded to Gary Ablett, Jr., of Geelong.
• The Coleman Medal was awarded to Lance Franklin of Hawthorn, who kicked 102 goals during the home and away season.
• The Norm Smith Medal as the player adjudged best afield in the AFL Grand Final was awarded to Luke Hodge, of Hawthorn.
• The McClelland Trophy was awarded to Geelong for holding top position on the ladder after 22 rounds.
• The Wooden Spoon was obtained by Melbourne who finished the season in last place on the ladder after 22 rounds.
• Chris Judd from Carlton was named the captain of the 2008 All-Australian Team, with seven Geelong players named and nine players made their All-Australian debuts.
• The AFL Mark of the Year and Alex Jesaulenko Medal was awarded to Matthew Lloyd of Essendon for a spectacular high mark against Melbourne in round 19.
• The AFL Goal of the Year and Phil Manassa Medal was awarded to Leon Davis of Collingwood for his chase, tackle and goal against Fremantle in round 22.
• The AFL Army Award was awarded to Brett Deledio for the footballer who displays the most courageous and/or team related act of the season, for running with the flight of the ball to attempt a mark in the final minutes of Richmond's round 7 loss to Template:AFL.

Coleman Medal

• Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the player led the count in that round.

	Player	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	Total
1	Lance Franklin	6	4	5	6	8	1	6	6	3	5	9	1	1	5	4	3	4	8	6	3	4	4	102
2	Brendan Fevola	2	2	8	7	7	1	4	5	1	3	2	8	7	4	3	5	6	5	4	6	2	7	99
3	Daniel Bradshaw	3	3	5	5	7	6	1	1	6	6	0	-	-	4	4	4	3	5	2	2	6	2	75
4	Jonathan Brown	6	2	1	4	0	2	-	6	6	6	3	3	2	5	5	3	3	5	1	3	4	0	70
5	Matthew Pavlich	1	3	5	3	0	5	5	4	4	1	3	8	5	6	1	5	-	4	1	3	-	-	67
6	Jarryd Roughead	3	4	4	1	1	5	6	3	1	4	3	3	2	6	3	3	2	4	1	0	2	5	66
7	Matthew Lloyd	6	0	4	-	0	3	5	1	4	1	2	2	4	1	4	2	4	8	3	3	4	1	62
8	Daniel Motlop	2	2	2	0	4	3	7	2	2	5	1	3	6	0	1	4	2	2	1	-	5	3	57
9	Nick Riewoldt	2	2	2	3	3	3	1	-	1	1	2	1	3	1	3	6	5	3	2	5	3	4	56
10	Stephen Milne	1	4	2	2	2	0	7	2	2	3	1	1	-	4	5	1	2	1	2	3	2	7	54

Rising Star Nominees

The AFL Rising Star award for 2008 was awarded to Rhys Palmer from Fremantle.

Club Best and Fairests

Club	Award Name	Winner
Adelaide	Malcolm Blight Medal	Nathan Bock
Brisbane Lions	Merrett–Murray Medal	Jonathan Brown
Carlton	John Nicholls Medal	Chris Judd
Collingwood	Copeland Trophy	Dane Swan
Essendon	Crichton Medal	David Hille
Fremantle	Doig Medal	Matthew Pavlich
Geelong	Carji Greeves Medal	Joel Corey
Hawthorn	Peter Crimmins Medal	Lance Franklin
Melbourne	Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Medal	Cameron Bruce
Template:AFL NM	Syd Barker Medal	Brent Harvey
Template:AFL	John Cahill Medal	Kane Cornes
Richmond	Jack Dyer Medal	Brett Deledio
Template:AFL	Trevor Barker Award	Sam Fisher
Sydney	Bob Skilton Medal	Jarrad McVeigh
West Coast	Club Champion Award	Dean Cox
Western Bulldogs	Charles Sutton Medal	Daniel Cross

Notable events

• This was the first season in which Carlton and Richmond faced off in what is now the traditional first clash of the season.

• This was the first season since 1998 in which NMFC competed as "North Melbourne" instead of "Kangaroos", following the end of their decade-long experiment with home-away-from-home venues in Sydney, Canberra and the Gold Coast.
• The Western Bulldogs came back from a 37-point deficit against Template:AFL at quarter time to win the game by 38 points, a 75-point turnaround, in round 3.
• The Brisbane Lions produced its biggest ever comeback in round 4 against Template:AFL when they were down by 47 points late in the third quarter to win by 20 points, a 67-point turnaround.
• Sydney forward Barry Hall was suspended for seven weeks, then the equal-longest suspension handed out since the tribunal was reconfigured to a points-based system in 2005, for striking West Coast defender Brent Staker with a clean punch to the head. Later in the season, Fremantle's Dean Solomon beat that record, being suspended for eight weeks after hitting Geelong's Cameron Ling in the cheekbone with an elbow.
• Melbourne won its first game for the season in round 7 against Fremantle by six points, after recovering from a 50-point half-time deficit, the second-largest half-time deficit ever overcome in VFL/AFL history. This was the second in a VFL/AFL-record string of five consecutive games which Fremantle lost after holding a three-quarter time lead.
• West Coast suffered its worst ever loss at Subiaco Oval, and worst loss anywhere since 1989, in round 13, losing to Geelong by 135 points.
• In round 13, Dustin Fletcher (in his 288th game) and his father, Ken (264 games), claimed the record of most VFL/AFL games played by a father-son combination (552 games).
• In round 16, Richmond player Joel Bowden deliberately conceded two behinds directly from the kick-in, to waste time while protecting his team's four-point lead over Essendon. This was a major motivation for the introduction of a rule from 2009 that allows the umpire to give award free kick for a deliberate rushed behind.
• With its final-round victory, Geelong matched Essendon's 2000 record of 21 wins in a home-and-away season. Ironically, Geelong also set the record for the highest average losing margin in a VFL/AFL season, with its only loss coming by 86 points against Collingwood.
• In the round 22 match between Carlton and Hawthorn, Hawthorn forward Lance Franklin became the first player since Tony Lockett in 1998 to kick 100 goals in the home-and-away Season. Franklin became the 28th player in VFL/AFL history to reach this milestone, and the first indigenous player to do so.
• In the same game, Brendan Fevola scored seven second-half goals to fall one goal short of the same milestone, becoming the first person in VFL/AFL history to finish on 99 goals for a season.
• The final game of the home and away season saw the 8th-placed Template:AFL requiring a win of 90+ points over Essendon to claim 4th place going into the finals. Template:AFL recorded a then-record winning margin over Essendon of 108 points which saw the Saints replace Adelaide in 4th place for the finals series.
• On Monday 1 September, Leigh Matthews announced his resignation from his senior coaching position at the Brisbane Lions. Michael Voss took up this position despite committing to West Coast for 2009.
• The second elimination final between Sydney and Template:AFL NM was, at the time, the lowest crowd number for a final outside Victoria with only 19,127 despite being at ANZ Stadium where Sydney had averaged 50,000 for finals.
• The Grand Final between Geelong and Hawthorn drew a crowd of 100,012, the first crowd over 100,000 people since the 1986 Grand Final.
• By losing the Grand Final after finishing with a home-and-away record of 21–1, Geelong broke the record set in 1935 and 1936 by South Melbourne (16–2) for best record by a non-premier, and the record for most wins by a non-premier held jointly by Collingwood (1973) and West Coast (1991) (both 19 wins).
• Sydney played in a controversial draw against Template:AFL NM at Telstra Dome in round 6; it was later revealed that Sydney had nineteen men on the field for a brief period of play before, during and after the behind that tied the scores was scored. As a direct consequence of this, the league amended the interchange laws in round 9, appointing interchange stewards to police the players and to signal to the field umpires if an infringement has occurred. Any infringement now results in a free kick being awarded.

Club leadership

Club	Coach	Captain(s)	Vice Captain(s)/Leadership Group
Adelaide	Neil Craig	Simon Goodwin	Nathan Bassett, Brett Burton, Tyson Edwards, Ben Rutten and Nathan van Berlo
Brisbane Lions	Leigh Matthews	Simon Black, Jonathan Brown, Nigel Lappin and Luke Power	N/A
Carlton	Brett Ratten	Chris Judd	Nick Stevens (vc), Andrew Carrazzo, Heath Scotland and Kade Simpson
Collingwood	Mick Malthouse	Scott Burns	Josh Fraser (vc), Tarkyn Lockyer, Nick Maxwell and Scott Pendlebury
Essendon	Matthew Knights	Matthew Lloyd	Mark McVeigh and David Hille (vc)
Fremantle	Mark Harvey	Matthew Pavlich	Josh Carr (vc)
Geelong	Mark Thompson	Tom Harley	Cameron Ling (vc), Cameron Mooney (vc), Joel Corey, Paul Chapman and Max Rooke
Hawthorn	Alastair Clarkson	Sam Mitchell	Luke Hodge (vc), Shane Crawford, Chance Bateman and Brad Sewell
Melbourne	Dean Bailey	Cameron Bruce and James McDonald	Brock McLean and Brad Miller
Template:AFL NM	Dean Laidley	Adam Simpson	Brady Rawlings, Daniel Harris, Michael Firrito, Nathan Thompson, Drew Petrie, Corey Jones, Daniel Pratt and Brent Harvey
Template:AFL	Mark Williams	Warren Tredrea	Brendon Lade (vc), Chad Cornes (vc), Shaun Burgoyne (vc), Michael Wilson, Kane Cornes and Dom Cassisi
Richmond	Terry Wallace	Kane Johnson	Chris Newman (vc), Nathan Foley (vc), Nathan Brown, Troy Simmonds, Joel Bowden and Kayne Pettifer
Template:AFL	Ross Lyon	Nick Riewoldt	Lenny Hayes
Sydney	Paul Roos	Leo Barry, Craig Bolton and Brett Kirk	N/A
West Coast	John Worsfold	Darren Glass	Dean Cox (vc), Tyson Stenglein (vc), Matt Priddis, Ashley Hansen and Adam Selwood
Western Bulldogs	Rodney Eade	Brad Johnson	Scott West, Robert Murphy, Daniel Cross, Daniel Giansiracusa, Matthew Boyd and Dale Morris

Umpires

The AFL introduced an additional two boundary umpires in round 21 in order to reduce the error rate and enable the umpires to keep up with the play.

Brett Rosebury was appointed the 2008 All-Australian umpire, the first West Australian umpire to receive that honour. Controversially, however, he was not appointed to umpire the AFL Grand Final, with Scott McLaren, Michael Vozzo and Shaun Ryan selected ahead of Rosebury.

Scott McLaren umpired his 300th game, and Shane McInerney umpired his 250-game, in round 4. Experienced field umpires Martin Ellis and Matthew Head both announced their retirements during the year.

Coach changes

• Surprising some, Leigh Matthews announced his retirement as coach of the Brisbane Lions two days after their final game of the season in what was replaced as a move to make way for potential coaching candidate, Michael Voss.

• Despite being newly signed for two years as assistant coach of West Coast, as expected, former Brisbane Lions captain Michael Voss was appointed as coach of the Brisbane Lions, one day after Leigh Matthews resigned.

See also

• 2008 Australian football code crowds

References

• 2008 Season – AFL Tables
• 2008 AFL season – Finalsiren.com

External links

• AFL (Australian Football League)
• 2008 Interactive Fixture in Excel
• 2008 Schedule By Week as a PDF
• 2008 Schedule By Team as a PDF
• AFL Venue Information