2006 AFL season

Template:Short description Template:Use Australian English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox AFL season The 2006 AFL season was the 110th 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 30 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 West Coast Eagles for the third time, after it defeated Sydney by one point in the 2006 AFL Grand Final.

Pre-season competition

Geelong 3.10.5 (92) defeated Adelaide 1.10.15 (84) in the 2006 NAB Cup Final. The game was held at AAMI Stadium, with an attendance of 30,707.

Awards

• The Brownlow Medal was awarded 25 September 2006 to Adam Goodes from Sydney, for the AFL's best and fairest player.
• The Leigh Matthews Trophy was awarded to Chris Judd from West Coast as the AFL Players Association's most valuable player.
• The Coleman Medal was awarded to Brendan Fevola from Carlton. It was the first time since 1965 that the season's leading goalkicker came from the wooden spoon side, and the fourth (and, as of 2022, most recent) time overall.
• The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Andrew Embley from West Coast as the player best afield in the 2006 AFL Grand Final.
• The AFL Rising Star award goes to Danyle Pearce from Template:AFL.
• The McClelland Trophy was awarded to West Coast for finishing on top of the ladder after the regular season.
• The Wooden Spoon was "awarded" to Carlton for finishing 16th on the AFL ladder for the second straight year under Denis Pagan.
• The 2006 All-Australian Team has been announced, with 10 debutants and Brad Johnson named as captain.
• The AFL Mark of the Year was awarded to Brad Ottens from Geelong for his mark in round 5.
• The AFL Goal of the Year was awarded to Eddie Betts from Carlton for his goal in round 21.

Best and fairests

• Adelaide: Simon Goodwin
• Brisbane: Simon Black
• Carlton: Lance Whitnall
• Collingwood: Alan Didak
• Essendon: Scott Lucas
• Fremantle: Matthew Pavlich
• Geelong: Paul Chapman
• Hawthorn: Sam Mitchell

• Kangaroos: Brady Rawlings
• Melbourne: James McDonald
• Port Adelaide: Brendon Lade
• Richmond: Kane Johnson
• St Kilda: Nick Riewoldt
• Sydney: Adam Goodes
• West Coast: Chris Judd
• Western Bulldogs: Brad Johnson

Notable events

• The Melbourne Cricket Ground was unavailable until round 4, due to its use as the main athletics stadium at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, which concluded just four days prior to the season starting.
• Matthew Lloyd, in only his third game as Essendon captain, injured his hamstring against the Western Bulldogs, ending his season. This marked the Bulldogs' first victory over Essendon since inflicting their only defeat of the 2000 season. Despite a first round thrashing of reigning premiers Sydney, in which Lloyd kicked eight goals on Leo Barry, Essendon would suffer its worst season since 1933, winning only two further matches and drawing one against Carlton, and just avoiding the wooden spoon to the Blues on percentage.
• In Round 5, Fremantle and Template:AFL's game ended in controversy after the final siren was not heard by umpires, with the extra time allowing St Kilda to level the scores – the result was changed by the AFL commission later in the week on the basis that the timekeeper had failed to perform his duties.
  • The amended result proved crucial to the end-of-season ladder standings, because had the draw stood, St Kilda would have finished in the top four at the expense of reigning premiers Sydney, which would've finished fifth and therefore missed out on the double chance in the finals.
• Richmond suffered three 100-point losses in season 2006, against the Western Bulldogs in round 1 (115 points), Sydney in round 7 (118 points) and Template:AFL in round 17 (103 points).
• A struggling Richmond team defeated league-leaders Adelaide in round 8 in an often-discussed game. To counteract Adelaide's strong flood, Richmond slowly built up a lead by patiently controlling the football without ever kicking to a contest, a move described as both boring and brilliant. In the final quarter, Adelaide were forced to switch to man-on-man tactics, almost erasing the deficit, but falling three points short. In executing this plan, Richmond took 181 marks, which is the highest amount ever (recorded since 1987).
• In round 8, Brendan Fevola became the first player to kick all of his team's goals in a game since Mark Arceri in 1991 (also while playing for Carlton, kicking their only goal). Of Carlton's 4.10 (34), Fevola contributed 4.5 (29), Simon Wiggins scored two behinds, and three behinds were rushed. He also became the first player in 41 years to win a Coleman Medal from the wooden spoon winning side.
• St Kilda broke two long winning droughts at the SCG and the Gabba by beating Sydney and Brisbane in rounds 11 and 22 respectively. The latter match was Michael Voss' final game for the Lions.
• For the first time in VFL/AFL history, four non-Victorian teams filled the top four with Template:AFL, Adelaide, Fremantle and Sydney all earning the double chance. The remainder of the top eight were filled by teams based in Victoria.
• Bottom teams Essendon and Carlton had a draw in round 16, 2006. Carlton's Eddie Betts scored the match-tying goal with under one minute remaining to deny Essendon what would have been just their second win for the season. Essendon would eventually achieve that the following week. This match was dubbed the "Bryce Gibbs Cup", named after the young Glenelg midfielder who was expected to be, and ultimately was, drafted with the first pick at the end of the year, by the media as both teams were firmly rooted to the bottom of the ladder leading into their match.
• In the second Qualifying Final, Sydney beat minor premiers Template:AFL by a solitary point, the final scores reading 85 to 84. When the teams met again in the grand final, the final scores were also 85 to 84, but it was West Coast that claimed the victory.
• Rohan Smith and Scott West each played their 300th games for the Western Bulldogs in the club's 74-point defeat to Template:AFL in the semi-final. For Smith, this was his final AFL game.
• A major flaw of the fixture was that the previous season's Grand Finalists, West Coast and Sydney, did not meet until round 15 of the regular season. The 294-day wait between the 2005 Grand Final and their round 15 rematch on July 15 set a record for the longest wait between a Grand Final and the rematch, until this was surpassed in 2020 (a 300-day wait for Richmond and Template:AFL GWS between their meeting in the 2019 Grand Final and their rematch in Round 8 of the COVID-19-affected 2020 season).

Player changes

Retirements

Name	Date of Birth	Club	Round Retired	Career Games	Career Goals	Reason
Justin Leppitsch	10 October 1975	Brisbane Lions	Round 10	227	194	Back-related calf injury
Gavin Wanganeen	18 June 1973	Template:AFL	Round 10	300	202	Injured knee
Paul Williams	3 April 1973	Sydney	Round 14	306	307	Fractured shoulder
Blake Caracella	15 March 1977	Collingwood	Round 17	187	218	Fractured spinal cord/vertebrae
Peter Riccardi	17 December 1972	Geelong	Round 19	288	286	Hamstring injury
Josh Francou	7 August 1974	Template:AFL	Round 20	156	72	Long-term knee injury
Jade Rawlings	9 October 1977	Kangaroos	Round 21	148	96	Long-term knee injury
Dean Rioli	20 May 1978	Essendon	Round 20	100	91	Hamstring, wrist and knee injuries

End of season

• John Barker – Hawthorn
• Mark Chaffey – Richmond
• Barnaby French – Carlton
• Saverio Rocca – Kangaroos
• Jarrad Schofield – Fremantle
• Brad Scott – Brisbane Lions
• Greg Stafford – Richmond

• Chad Morrison – Collingwood
• Adam Kingsley – Template:AFL
• Stephen Powell – Template:AFL
• Justin Peckett – Template:AFL
• Michael Voss – Brisbane Lions (due to being contracted until the end of the 2007 AFL season he was still on Brisbane's list in 2007)
• Rohan Smith – Western Bulldogs
• Drew Banfield – West Coast

Club captains

Club	Captain(s)	Vice Captain(s)/Leadership Group
Adelaide	Mark Ricciuto	Simon Goodwin, Tyson Edwards, Nathan Bassett and Brett Burton
Brisbane Lions	Simon Black, Jonathan Brown, Chris Johnson, Nigel Lappin and Luke Power
Carlton	Lance Whitnall	Nick Stevens, Kade Simpson (interim)
Collingwood	Nathan Buckley	James Clement (vc), Josh Fraser (deputy vc) and Ben Johnson (deputy vc)
Essendon	Matthew Lloyd and David Hille (acting)	Mark McVeigh (vc), Andrew Welsh, Scott Lucas and Dustin Fletcher
Fremantle		Matthew Pavlich
Geelong	Tom Harley	Cameron Ling and Cameron Mooney (deputy)
Hawthorn	Richard Vandenberg	Luke Hodge and Sam Mitchell
Kangaroos	Adam Simpson	Brent Harvey
Melbourne	David Neitz	Cameron Bruce, Brad Green, Brock McLean and James McDonald
Template:AFL	Warren Tredrea	Shaun Burgoyne, Brendon Lade, Michael Wilson and Chad Cornes
Richmond	Kane Johnson	Nathan Brown and Joel Bowden (deputy)
Template:AFL	Luke Ball
Sydney	Leo Barry, Barry Hall and Brett Kirk
West Coast	Chris Judd	Andrew Embley, Darren Glass and Dean Cox
Western Bulldogs	Brad Johnson	Scott West, Robert Murphy, Daniel Cross and Daniel Giansiracusa

Delistings

• Jayden Attard – Brisbane Lions
• Matthew Ball – Hawthorn
• Matthew Bishop – Template:AFL
• Luke Forsyth – Brisbane Lions
• Ben Hart – Adelaide
• Clark Keating – Brisbane Lions
• Andrew Kellaway – Richmond

• Troy Makepeace – Kangaroos
• Marty Pask – Brisbane Lions
• Justin Perkins – Kangaroos
• Mark Powell – Kangaroos
• Cameron Thurley – Kangaroos

See also

• 2006 AFL finals series
• 2006 Australian football code crowds
• List of 2006 AFL debuts
• Collingwood Magpies 2006 Season
• Sydney Swans 2006 Season
• List of Australian Football League premiers

References

• 2006 season results – AFL Tables