2008 AFL Premiership Season
Logo of the 2008 AFL Season
Teams	16
Premiers	Hawthorn (10th premiership)
Minor Premiers	Geelong (11th minor premiership)
AFL Cup Winner	St Kilda (3rd pre-season cup win)
Matches played	185
Attendance	7,083,015 (38,287 per match)
Coleman Medallist	Lance Franklin (Hawthorn)
Brownlow Medallist	Adam Cooney (Western Bulldogs)

The Australian Football League season of 2008 commenced on 20 March 2008 and concluded on 27 September 2008. The season marked the 150th anniversary of Australian rules football. The season consisted of 22 rounds finals games and 4 rounds of finals to determine the 2008 AFL Premier.

[edit] NAB Cup

St Kilda won the National Australia Bank Cup, defeating Adelaide at AAMI Stadium in Adelaide in the Final on 8 March 2008. St Kilda won by the score (69) to (64).

[edit] Premiership season

[edit] Round 1 (Season Launch/Easter)

[edit] Round 2

[edit] Round 3 (Rivalry Round)

[edit] Round 4

[edit] Round 5

[edit] Round 6 (ANZAC Round)

[edit] Round 7

[edit] AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match

[edit] Round 8

[edit] Round 9 (Indigenous Round)

[edit] Round 10

[edit] Round 11 (Queens Birthday)

[edit] Round 12

[edit] Round 13

[edit] Round 14 (Split Round)

[edit] Round 15

[edit] Round 16

[edit] Round 17

[edit] Round 18

[edit] Round 19 (Tom Wills Round)

[edit] Round 20

[edit] Round 21

[edit] Round 22

[edit] Ladder

[edit] Finals Series

The 2008 Finals Series will be conducted according to the conventions of the AFL's Amended "Final Eight" system that the AFL instituted in the AFL season 2000.

[edit] Qualifying and Elimination Finals

[edit] Semi Finals

[edit] Preliminary Finals

[edit] Grand Final

[edit] Game records

Statistics correct as at end of Round 22.

• Highest Score: 28.14 (182) - Geelong v West Coast 5.17 (47), Round 13 [1]
• Lowest Score: 5.9 (39) - Essendon v St Kilda 21.21 (147),Round 22[2]
• Highest Losing Score: 21.8 (134) - Carlton v Essendon 23.12 (150), Round 3 [3]
• Lowest Winning Score: 6.15 (51) - St Kilda v Sydney 6.13 (49), Round 1[4]
• Greatest Margin: 135 points - Geelong 28.14 (182) v West Coast 5.17 (47), Round 13[5]
• Smallest Margin (excluding draws): 1 point -
  • Fremantle 13.10 (88) v Geelong 13.11 (89), Round 6
  • Melbourne 14.9 (93) v Brisbane 13.14 (92), Round 14[6]
• Highest Aggregate Score: 44.20 (284) - Essendon 23.12 (150) v Carlton 21.8 (134), Round 3[7]
• Lowest Aggregate Score: 12.28 (100) - St Kilda 6.15 (51) v Sydney 6.13 (49), Round 1[8]
• Best Accuracy: 85.71% - 12.2 (74) Hawthorn v Western Bulldogs 15.16 (106), Round 10[9]
• Worst Accuracy: 22.73% -
  • 5.17 (47) West Coast v Geelong 28.14 (182), Round 13
  • 5.17 (47) Adelaide v West Coast 14.13 (97), Round 9[10]

[edit] Statistics leaders

[edit] Leading Goal-kickers and Coleman Medal

^{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.

[edit] Disposals

[edit] Kicks

[edit] Handballs

[edit] Marks

[edit] Tackles

[edit] Hitouts

[edit] 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 the Geelong Football Club for holding top position on the ladder after 22 rounds.^[1]
• The Wooden Spoon was obtained by the Melbourne Football Club who finished the season in last place on the ladder after 22 rounds.
• Chris Judd from the Carlton Football Club was named the captain of the 2008 All-Australian Team, with seven Geelong players named and nine players made their All-Australian debuts.^[2]
• 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.^[3]
• 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.^[3]
• 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 St Kilda.^[4]

[edit] Rising Star Nominees

The AFL Rising Star award for 2008 was awarded to Rhys Palmer from the Fremantle Football Club. In the final voting he received maximum votes from eight of the nine judges to beat Hawthorn's Cyril Rioli by 7 votes. Trent Cotchin from Richmond was third with last years number 1 draft pick Matthew Kreuzer fourth and Palmer's Fremantle teammate Garrick Ibbotson in fifth position.^[5] A total of 79 players who were eligible for the award played more than 5 games during the 2008 season.^[6]

[edit] Club Best and Fairests

[edit] Notable events

• 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 highest ever odds for an AFL–VFL game of $34 were offered for Melbourne to beat Geelong in their Round 3 clash at Skilled Stadium. Geelong won by 30 points.
• Western Bulldogs came back from a 37-point deficit from the Saints at quarter time to come back and win the game by 38 points to make a 75-point turnaround in Round 4.
• Brisbane Lions produced its biggest ever comeback in Round 4 against Port Adelaide 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, the equal-longest suspension handed out since the tribunal was reconfigured, 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 a reckless bump.
• Collingwood's 73-point win over Essendon in round 6 was the biggest victory on an Anzac Day Match ever.
• Sydney earned a controversial draw against North Melbourne at Telstra Dome in round six, after it was later revealed that the tying behind was scored with nineteen men on the field. As a direct consequence of this, the league amended the interchange laws in round nine.
• 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.[11] 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.
• Round 14 marked the first time all non-Victorian clubs lost in the same round since Port Adelaide entered the competition in 1997. The feat was repeated in Round 15.
• With its final-round victory, Geelong matched the 2000 Essendon record of 21 wins in a 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 at the hands of 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 & 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 be stranded on 99 goals for a season.
• The final game of the season saw the 8th-placed St Kilda requiring a win of 90+ points over Essendon to claim 4th place going into the finals. They recorded a 108-point victory which stole the Crows' 4th place.
• On Monday 1 September, Leigh Matthews announced his resignation from his senior coaching position at the Brisbane Lions. Michael Voss has taken up this position despite committing to the West Coast Eagles for 2009.
• The second elimination final between Sydney and North Melbourne was the lowest crowd number for a final outside Victoria with only 19,127 despite being at ANZ Stadium where Sydney have 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).

Australia will be taking on Ireland in the a two test International Rules series. This series will be played in Australia and the matches will be played at Subiaco oval, Perth, Friday night the 24 October. The second test will be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday night 31 October. Last year the International Rules series was aborted by the Irish to their thought that the Australians were too rough in the previous series held in Ireland. However after discussions between the teams they have decided to go on with this year's series if the Australians decided to play fairly.^{[citation needed]} The 25-man Australian squad led by Michael Malthouse includes:

• Nathan Bock (Adelaide)
• Matthew Boyd (Western Bulldogs)
• Jared Brennan (Brisbane Lions)
• Campbell Brown (Hawthorn)
• Shaun Burgoyne (Port Adelaide)

Matt Campbell (North Melbourne)

Ryan Crowley (Fremantle)

Michael Firrito (North Melbourne)

Nathan Foley (Richmond)

Brent Harvey (North Melbourne)

Roger Hayden (Fremantle)

Leigh Montagna (St Kilda)

Daniel Motlop (Port Adelaide)

Marc Murphy (Carlton)

Michael Osborne (Hawthorn)

Scott Pendlebury (Collingwood)

Drew Petrie (North Melbourne)

David Rodan (Port Adelaide)

Max Rooke (Geelong)

Brad Sewell (Hawthorn)

Kade Simpson (Carlton)

Adam Selwood (West Coast)

Dale Thomas (Collingwood)

Scott Thompson (Adelaide)

Daniel Wells (North Melbourne)

[edit] Club leadership

[edit] 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.^[27]

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.^[28]

Scott McLaren umpired his 300th game in Round 4^[29] and Shane McInerney umpired his 250 game in Round 4.^[30] Experienced field umpires Martin Ellis and Matthew Head both announced their retirements during the year.^[31][32]

[edit] Player changes

[edit] Debuts

A total of 84 players made their AFL debut in 2008,^[33] including 14 of the 17 first round draft selections from the 2007 AFL Draft^[34]. Hawthorn's Cyril Rioli was the only debutant to play all 22 games in the Home and Away season.^[33]

[edit] Retirements

[edit] Sackings/Delistings

[edit] 2008 Trade Week

In total only six trades were completed, with many players who requested trades, including Ryan O'Keefe, Andrew Lovett, Mark Seaby, Josh Carr and Daniel Harris unable to finalise deals during the week.^[85] The lowest number of completed trades prompted calls by the AFLPA for a form of free agency to be introduced, although it could be explained as a one-off event due to a combination of the high regard for the players available in year's draft and the impending concessions to be given to the expansion teams, Gold Coast and Western Sydney in the coming years.^[86]

[edit] Coaching 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 reported as a move to make way for potential coaching candidate, Michael Voss.^[87]

• Despite being newly signed for two years as Assistant Coach of the West Coast Eagles, as expected, former Brisbane Lions captain Michael Voss was appointed as coach of the Brisbane Lions, one day after Leigh Matthews resigned.^[88]

[edit] See also

• 2008 Australian football code crowds

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

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

[edit] 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