2007 AFL season

2007 AFL premiership season
Teams	16
Premiers	Geelong (7th premiership)
Minor premiers	Geelong (12th minor premiership)
Pre-season cup	Carlton (3rd pre-season cup win)
Matches played	185
Attendance	7,050,945 (38,113 per match)
Highest attendance	98,002 (First Preliminary Final, Geelong vs. Collingwood)
Coleman Medallist	Jonathan Brown (Brisbane Lions)
Brownlow Medallist	Jimmy Bartel Geelong (29 votes)
Wooden spooners	Richmond (7th wooden spoon)

The 2007 Australian Football League season was the 111th season of the elite Australian rules football competition and the 18th under the name 'Australian Football League', having switched from 'Victorian Football League' after 1989. The regular season commenced on 30 March 2007 and concluded with the 2007 AFL Grand Final on 29 September 2007 with Geelong defeating Port Adelaide by 119 points, the highest winning-margin in an AFL Grand Final, to claim the 2007 AFL premiership.

Pre-season competition

Premiership season

Round 1

Round 2 (Easter)

Round 3 (Rivalry Round)

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9 (Indigenous Round)

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12 (Split Round)

Round 13

Round 14 (Heritage Round)

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Round 22

Ladder

Ladder progression

Finals series

Week one

Week two

Week three

Week four

Awards

• The 2007 Brownlow Medal for the AFL's best and fairest player was awarded to Jimmy Bartel, of Geelong, who polled 29 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 Jonathan Brown of Brisbane Lions, who kicked 77 goals.
• The Norm Smith Medal as the player adjudged best afield in the AFL Grand Final was awarded to Steve Johnson, of Geelong.
• The AFL Rising Star award (Ron Evans Medal) was awarded to Joel Selwood, of Geelong.
• The McClelland Trophy was awarded to Geelong for holding top position on the ladder after 22 rounds.
• The Wooden Spoon was awarded to Richmond for coming in last place on the ladder after 22 rounds.
• Andrew McLeod from Adelaide was named the captain of the 2007 All-Australian Team.
• The AFL Mark of the Year was awarded to Michael Newton of Melbourne.
• The AFL Goal of the Year was awarded to Matthew Lloyd of Essendon.
• The AFL Army Award was awarded to Alwyn Davey of Essendon as the footballer who displayed the most courageous and/or team related act of the season.

Best and fairests

Notable events

• On Thursday 8 February it was announced that the Seven Network (who had not broadcast AFL for five years) and Ten Network had reached an agreement to on-sell four games per round to pay-TV provider Foxtel.
• In round 6, Geelong scored 35.12 (222) against Richmond, which was at the time the highest score kicked in an AFL game since quarters were shortened from twenty-five to twenty minutes in 1994. It was also the first time a team has scored over 200 points since round 22, 1995. Their winning margin of 157 points also broke the record for the same period, and they scored an all-time record 23 more goals than behinds, and an all-time record three-quarter time score of 29.9 (183). This was also Richmond’s biggest loss in its 99-year VFL/AFL history and as of 2018 remains the biggest winning margin for any game at Docklands Stadium.
• In round 8, Hawthorn and St Kilda were widely criticised for their game, which in perfect weather yielded only seven goals in the first three-quarters (before opening up in the final quarter, where nine goals were kicked), and was described as boring by Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy.^[17]
• Round 12's game between Carlton and Hawthorn attracted 53,459 fans, breaking the record for the highest AFL crowd at Telstra Dome. In the same game, Hawthorn kicked their highest ever score against Carlton: 27.18 (180), and also achieved their greatest winning margin against Carlton, 100 points.^[18]
• Robert Harvey became just the 10th player in VFL/AFL history to reach 350 games, helping St Kilda defeat West Coast. The win was the second time in 60 games that a Victorian team had beaten West Coast at Subiaco Oval.^[19]
• The round 16 game between the Brisbane Lions and Carlton at the Gabba saw Jonathan Brown become the first Brisbane Lions player to kick 10 goals in a match. He kicked 10.1 for the game. This surpassed Daniel Bradshaw's 9 goals in 2005 v Melbourne at the Gabba. After this match Denis Pagan was sacked as the coach of Carlton.^[20]
• On 24 August, the Seven Network broadcast some details obtained from players' confidential medical records on its nightly news program relating to the use of non-performance-enhancing drugs. It allegedly purchased these details for $3000 from a woman who found them in a gutter outside a medical clinic in Melbourne. The name of the club involved, Hawthorn, was revealed by Seven on air, but before the end of the news program (at which time Seven had promised to actually reveal the names of the players), the AFL obtained a court injunction from the Supreme Court of Victoria which prevented this – and which continues to suppress the publication of any part of the records, including the name of the club.^[21] Because anonymity was guaranteed under the AFL's "three-strikes" drugs policy, the AFL players responded by boycotting the Seven Network, refusing to answer any questions posed by its journalists, including in matches broadcast by the network.^[22] Shortly after the completion of round 22, faced with the possibility of ongoing player boycotts – including of the Brownlow Medal count^[23] – the Seven Network issued a statement "regretting" any harm the broadcast may have caused to the AFL, the clubs and the players, and promised not to broadcast or reveal any of the details of the medical records in future.^[24] The AFL Players Association took the "statement of regret" as an apology and the boycott was lifted.^[25] The scandal came to be known as "Guttergate".^[26]
• The final game of the home-and-away season was particularly controversial as two teams, Melbourne and Carlton, each had records of 4–17, and had no chance of winning the wooden spoon, which had been won by Richmond (record of 3-18-1). Under priority draft pick rules, this meant that whichever team won the game would lose a potential priority draft pick (which would have been the first overall selection if Carlton had it, or pick No. 18 if Melbourne had it). Melbourne won by five goals in a game noted for a lack of defensive pressure, while many in the crowd openly supported their teams to defeat.
• The second semi-final between West Coast and Collingwood went into extra time after scores were level at the end of regulation. This was only the second time that extra time has been used in an AFL game, and was also the second time that these teams had drawn in a final.
• Geelong set a new record for the highest winning margin in a grand final against Port Adelaide, winning by 119 points.

Club leadership

Umpires

Coach changes

See also

• 2007 Australian football code crowds
• List of 2007 AFL debuts
• List of Australian Football League premiers

Notes

References

External links

• 2007 Season – AFL Tables
• Official AFL website
• FOXSPORTS Australia AFL section
• Heraldsun site
• The Age Online
• Sportal AFL
• 2007 AFL season – Finalsiren.com
• CSV file of 2007 fixture for use with Microsoft Outlook calendars