The 2014 AFL season was the 118th 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 eighteen clubs, ran from 14 March until 27 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

Hawthorn Football Club The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Mulgrave, Victoria, that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was founded in 1902 in the inner-east suburb of H ...

for the twelfth time and second time consecutively, after it defeated by 63 points in the 2014 AFL Grand Final.

Pre-season

NAB Challenge

The AFL abandoned the NAB Cup competition, replacing it with the NAB Challenge series. The NAB challenge featured 18 practice matches played over 18 consecutive days, beginning 12 February and ending 1 March; the matches were stand-alone in nature, with no overall winner crowned for the series. Each team played two pre-season games, many of which were played at suburban or regional venues; all games were televised on

Fox Footy Fox Footy (stylised as FOX FOOTY) is an Australian rules football subscription television channel dedicated to screening Australian rules football matches and related programming. It is owned by Fox Sports Pty Limited, operated out of their Me ...

. There had been a proposal to conclude the pre-season with an All-Star representative match, replacing the NAB Cup Grand Final as the centrepiece of the preseason, but this did not go ahead. The

Super Goal A super goal is a method of scoring used in the Australian Football League's NAB Cup, pre-season competition in the sport of Australian rules football. Under the rule, a goal scored from a distance greater than fifty metres is awarded nine points, ...

was retained for these matches.

Premiership season

The full fixture was released on Thursday 31 October 2013, and the premiership season was launched at the redeveloped

Adelaide Oval Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the city centre and North Adelaide. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

on 5 March. Notable features of the draw included: * played most of its home games at night in 2014, with its first game played against on a Thursday night in round 1.AFL doubles TV costs
''The Age'', 26 October 2013 * The

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hem ...

was unavailable for round 1 due to cricket commitments. This meant that the ground did not host a round 1 match for the first time since 2006 (due to the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 British Empire Game ...

), and the match between and which had served as the season's first match in Melbourne since

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...

was held in round 2 instead. *The AFL trialled five Sunday night matches during the season, two of which were televised on the

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by Seven West Media Limited, and is one of five main free-to-air television networks in Australi ...

.Footy on Sunday nights set for Seven
''The Age'', 29 October 2013 * Traeger Park in

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

hosted its first premiership match when met in round 11. * Match starting times are local.

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Round 22

Round 23

Win/loss table

Bold – Home game
X – Bye
Opponent for round listed above margin

Ladder

Ladder progression

Finals series

Week one

Week two

Week three

Week four

Attendances

By club

By ground

Awards

*The Brownlow Medal was awarded to

Matt Priddis Matthew Harley Priddis (born 21 March 1985) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). Prior to being drafted, Priddis won two premierships with the Sub ...

of , who received 26 votes. *The AFL Rising Star was awarded to Lewis Taylor of the , who received 39 votes. *The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to

Luke Hodge Luke Hodge (born 15 June 1984) is a former Australian rules football player who played with the Hawthorn Football Club and the Brisbane Lions in the Australian Football League (AFL). He played for the Hawthorn Football Club from 2002 to 2017 ...

of *The AFL Goal of the Year was awarded to Matthew White of . *The AFL Mark of the Year was awarded to Chad Wingard of . *The McClelland Trophy was awarded to for the first time since

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on b ...

. *The Wooden Spoon was "awarded" to for the first time since

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

. *The AFL Players Association awards **The Leigh Matthews Trophy was awarded to Nat Fyfe of . **The Robert Rose Award was awarded to

Joel Selwood Joel Anthony Selwood (born 26 May 1988) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was a quadruple premiership player, a six-time All-Australian, and a three- ...

of for the third year in a row and fourth time overall. **The Best Captain was awarded to

of . **The Best First-Year Player was awarded to

Marcus Bontempelli Marcus Bontempelli (born 24 November 1995) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League (AFL). He has served as Western Bulldogs captain since the 2020 season, and was previ ...

of the . **The 22under22 Team captaincy was awarded to Dyson Heppell of for the second year in a row. *The AFL Coaches Association Awards **The Player of the Year Award was given to Robbie Gray of , who received 111 votes. **The Allan Jeans Senior Coach of the Year Award was awarded to

John Longmire John Longmire (born 31 December 1970) is the current coach of the Sydney Swans. As a player, he represented the North Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) from 1988 to 1999. Early years Longmire was born in Corowa, ...

of . **The Assistant Coach of the Year Award was awarded to Brett Montgomery of . **The Development Coach of the Year Award was awarded to Steven King of . **The Support Staff Leadership Award was awarded to John Kilby of . **The Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Neale Daniher. **The Best Young Player Award was awarded to

Jaeger O'Meara Jaeger O'Meara (born 23 February 1994) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He previously played for the Gold Coast Suns from 2013 to 2016, and the Haw ...

of . **The Media Award was awarded to

Gerard Whateley Gerard Whateley is a Melbourne-based sports broadcaster and writer. Since January 2018 he has been chief sports caller and host of the ''Whateley'' program on the sports radio station SEN1116. He is also co-host of Fox Footy's ''AFL 360'' progra ...

for his work on

. *The Jim Stynes Community Leadership Award was awarded to Beau Waters of .

Milestones

Coleman Medal

The Coleman Medal was awarded to

Lance Franklin Lance Franklin (born 30 January 1987), also known as Buddy Franklin, is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). He previously played for the Hawthorn Football Club from ...

of , who kicked 67 goals during the home and away season.

Best and fairest

Club leadership

Club financials

Coach changes

Post-season

International Rules Series

The

International Rules Series The International Rules Series is a senior men's international rules football competition between the Australia international rules football team (selected by the Australian Football League) and the Ireland international rules football team ...

returned for 2014 at the later time of November. Ahead of the series, the AFL adopted a new rule permitting only those who had been selected in an

All-Australian team The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-performed players during the season, led by ...

in their careers playing for the Australian team. The series was also reduced to a single test match and several rule changes were made so as to enable greater participation from key position players in the AFL. Australia defeated Ireland by 10 points, 56–46, to claim their first win in

International rules football International rules football ( ga, Peil na rialacha idirnáisiunta; also known as international rules in Australia and compromise rules or Aussie rules in Ireland) is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was develop ...

since the 2010 series.

Notable events

*On 3 March 2014, it was announced that CEO of the AFL, Andrew Demetriou, would be resigning from the post following the conclusion of the season, after eleven years in the role. Gillon McLachlan was later named his successor. *On 13 May 2014,

Greater Western Sydney Greater Western Sydney (GWS) is a large region of the metropolitan area of Greater Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia that generally embraces the north-west, south-west, central-west, and far western sub-regions within Sydney's metropol ...

midfielder Toby Greene was charged with a number of offences including assault with a dangerous weapon and intentionally causing serious injury over an alleged assault in a Melbourne licensed venue the previous night. He was later suspended by the club for five weeks. *Just a year after being racially abused in a match against , 's

Adam Goodes Adam Roy Goodes (born 8 January 1980) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). Goodes holds an elite place in VFL/AFL history as a dual Brownlow Medallis ...

was once again the target of a racial vilification, this time by an supporter. While the incident went unheard during the weekend, it only came to light on 20 May 2014; the Essendon club responded by terminating that supporter's membership. *On 26 May 2014, Hawthorn head coach Alastair Clarkson was hospitalised after being diagnosed with Guillain–Barré syndrome. Brendon Bolton was appointed as the acting head coach for a couple of months while Clarkson recovered.Club statement: Alastair Clarkson
, hawthornfc.com.au, 27 May 2014afl.com.au
/ref> *As part of the ongoing investigation into the Essendon Football Club supplements controversy, on 13 June 2014, the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) issued show cause notices to 34 Essendon players from its 2012 list. In response, Essendon executives lodged a Federal Court application alleging that ASADA's joint investigation with the AFL was unlawful and in breach of the ASADA Act.Herald Sun: Essendon launches Federal Court challenge against ASADA and AFL
heraldsun.com.au, 13 June 2014 On 19 September, Justice John Middleton ruled that ASADA's investigation was lawful, allowing ASADA to trigger the start of the show-cause response period, which gives charged players 14 days to answer doping allegations against them.ASADA vs Essendon: Anti-doping agency's probe of AFL club supplements program lawful, court rules (ABC News)
/ref>

References

{{2014 AFL season Australian Football League seasons 2014 in Australian rules football