2003 AFL season

For the 2003 season of the Arena Football League, see 2003 Arena Football League season.

The 2003 AFL season was the 107th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level of senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured sixteen clubs, ran from 28 March until 27 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top eight clubs.

2003 AFL premiership season
Teams	16
Premiers	Brisbane 3rd premiership
Minor premiers	Port Adelaide 2nd minor premiership
Pre-season cup	Adelaide 1st pre-season cup win
Brownlow Medallist	Nathan Buckley (Collingwood) Adam Goodes (Sydney) Mark Ricciuto (Adelaide)
Coleman Medallist	Matthew Lloyd (Essendon)
Attendance
Matches played	185
Total attendance	6,351,655 (34,333 per match)
Highest	79,451 (Grand Final, Brisbane Lions vs. Collingwood)

The premiership was won by the Brisbane Lions for the third time and third time consecutively, after it defeated Collingwood by 50 points in the AFL Grand Final.

AFL Draft

See 2003 AFL Draft.

Wizard Home Loans Cup

Main article: 2003 Wizard Home Loans Cup

The 2003 Wizard Home Loans Cup saw Adelaide defeat Collingwood 15.14 (104) to 10.13 (73) in the final.

Premiership season

Round 11

• The Kangaroos-Tigers game was especially notable as the comeback of Kangaroos player Jason McCartney from life-threatening burns suffered in the 2002 Bali bombings. McCartney retired immediately after the match.

Round 19

Mathew Lloyd would kick 11 goals to surpass Simon Madden as the Essendon Football Club's greatest ever goal scorer.

Round 21

The Sydney vs. Collingwood game is notable as it is the highest attended Australian rules football match ever played outside of Victoria.

Ladder

2003 AFL ladder

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	D	PF	PA	PP	Pts
1	Port Adelaide	22	18	4	0	2229	1752	127.2	72	Finals series
2	Collingwood	22	15	7	0	2259	1858	121.6	60
3	Brisbane Lions (P)	22	14	7	1	2295	1882	121.9	58
4	Sydney	22	14	8	0	2142	1862	115.0	56
5	Fremantle	22	14	8	0	2143	2078	103.1	56
6	Adelaide	22	13	9	0	2114	1754	120.5	52
7	West Coast	22	12	8	2	2326	1982	117.4	52
8	Essendon	22	13	9	0	2190	1960	111.7	52
9	Hawthorn	22	12	10	0	2011	1999	100.6	48
10	Kangaroos	22	11	10	1	2185	2223	98.3	46
11	St Kilda	22	11	11	0	2095	2187	95.8	44
12	Geelong	22	7	14	1	1819	2025	89.8	30
13	Richmond	22	7	15	0	1846	2078	88.8	28
14	Melbourne	22	5	17	0	1899	2344	81.0	20
15	Carlton	22	4	18	0	1784	2674	66.7	16
16	Western Bulldogs	22	3	18	1	2014	2693	74.8	14

Source: AFL ladder
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) percentage; 3) number of points for.
(P) Premiers

This marks the first time that Fremantle played a finals match and the first, and only time to date that all non-Victorian teams played in a finals series.

Ladder progression

  Numbers highlighted in green indicate that the team finished the round inside the top 8.

  Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished first on the ladder in that round.

  Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished in last place on the ladder in that round.

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22
Port Adelaide	0	0	4	8	12	16	16	20	24	28	32	36	40	40	44	48	52	56	60	64	68	72
Collingwood	4	8	12	12	12	12	16	16	20	24	24	24	28	32	36	40	44	48	48	52	56	60
Brisbane Lions	4	8	10	14	18	22	22	26	30	34	34	34	38	38	42	42	42	46	50	50	54	58
Sydney	4	4	4	4	8	12	16	20	20	24	28	32	32	36	40	44	48	48	48	52	52	56
Fremantle	0	4	4	8	8	12	16	20	24	28	28	32	32	36	36	40	40	44	48	52	52	56
Adelaide	4	4	8	12	12	16	16	16	20	24	24	28	32	36	40	40	44	48	52	52	52	52
West Coast	4	4	8	8	12	16	20	24	28	28	30	34	38	38	42	42	46	46	46	48	52	52
Essendon	0	4	4	8	12	12	12	16	16	20	20	20	24	28	28	32	36	40	44	48	52	52
Hawthorn	0	4	4	8	8	12	12	12	12	12	16	20	24	28	28	32	32	32	36	40	44	48
North Melbourne	4	8	10	10	10	10	14	14	18	22	26	30	30	34	34	34	38	38	38	38	42	46
St Kilda	0	4	4	4	8	12	16	16	16	20	24	24	24	24	24	28	28	32	36	40	44	44
Geelong	0	0	0	4	4	4	4	4	8	8	12	12	12	16	20	20	20	20	24	26	26	30
Richmond	0	4	8	12	16	16	20	24	24	24	24	24	24	24	24	24	28	28	28	28	28	28
Melbourne	4	4	8	8	8	8	12	12	12	12	12	12	16	20	20	20	20	20	20	20	20	20
Carlton	0	0	4	4	8	8	8	12	12	12	12	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16
Western Bulldogs	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	6	6	6	6	6	10	10	14	14	14	14	14

Source:

Finals series

	Qualifying and elimination finals					Semi-finals						Preliminary finals					Grand final
	7 Sep, AAMI Stadium
	1	Port Adelaide	13.10 (88)
	4	Sydney	15.10 (100)			13 Sep, AAMI Stadium
						Port Adelaide		12.11 (83)
	5 Sep, Subiaco Oval					Essendon		6.8 (44)				20 Sep, Telstra Stadium
	5	Fremantle	8.9 (57)									Sydney		8.8 (56)
	8	Essendon	15.11 (101)									Brisbane Lions		14.16 (100)			27 Sep, MCG
																	Brisbane Lions		20.14 (134)
	6 Sep, AAMI Stadium											20 Sep, MCG					Collingwood		12.12 (84)
	6	Adelaide	16.17 (113)									Collingwood		17.10 (112)
	7	West Coast	8.9 (57)			12 Sep, The Gabba						Port Adelaide		9.14 (68)
						Brisbane Lions		18.16 (124)
	6 Sep, MCG					Adelaide		12.10 (82)
	2	Collingwood	9.12 (66)
	3	Brisbane Lions	7.9 (51)

Week one

	Qualifying Finals
7 September (2:30 pm)	Port Adelaide 13.10 (88)	def. by	Sydney 15.10 (100)	AAMI Stadium (crowd: 33,968)
6 September (7:30 pm)	Collingwood 9.12 (66)	def.	Brisbane Lions 7.9 (51)	MCG (crowd: 66,092)

	Elimination Finals
5 September (6:40 pm)	Fremantle 8.9 (57)	def. by	Essendon 15.11 (101)	Subiaco Oval (crowd: 42,770)
6 September (2:30 pm)	Adelaide 16.17 (113)	def.	West Coast 8.9 (57)	AAMI Stadium (crowd: 38,641)
Fremantle played in its first ever final, losing to Essendon by 44 points.

Week two

	Semi-finals
12 September (7:30 pm)	Brisbane Lions 18.16 (124)	def.	Adelaide 12.10 (82)	The Gabba (crowd: 32,432)
13 September (7:30 pm)	Port Adelaide 12.11 (83)	def.	Essendon 6.8 (44)	AAMI Stadium (crowd: 36,557)
No game was played at the MCG this week, despite the agreement then in place with the Melbourne Cricket Club that at least one game each week of the finals be played at the MCG. Neither match was considered a viable option to be moved, as one match featured two non-Victorian teams (Brisbane and Adelaide), and the other match featured a first-placed non-Victorian side (Port Adelaide) versus an eighth-placed Victorian side (Essendon).

Week three

	Preliminary Finals
20 September (2:30 pm)	Collingwood 17.10 (112)	def.	Port Adelaide 9.14 (68)	MCG (crowd: 77,405)
20 September (7:30 pm)	Sydney 8.8 (56)	def. by	Brisbane Lions 14.16 (100)	Telstra Stadium (crowd: 71,019)
The attendance of 71,019 for the final between Sydney and Brisbane is the largest attendance ever for an AFL game not featuring a Victorian team played outside Victoria. As of 2023, this remains the last time two finals matches were played on the same day after the first week.

Week four

Main article: 2003 AFL Grand Final

	Grand Final
27 September (2:40 pm)	Brisbane Lions 20.14 (134)	def.	Collingwood 12.12 (84)	MCG (crowd: 79,451)	Report
The Brisbane Lions victory was the clubs third successive premiership and were the fourth team to achieve three or more premierships in a row.

Match attendance

Total match attendance for all games was 5,872,352 people. Attendance at the grand final was 79,451 people. The largest non-finals attendance was 72,393 people for the Sydney vs Collingwood game in round 21.

Awards

• The Brownlow Medal was awarded to Mark Ricciuto of Adelaide, Nathan Buckley of Collingwood, and Adam Goodes of Sydney.
• The Leigh Matthews Trophy was awarded to Michael Voss of the Brisbane Lions.
• The Coleman Medal was awarded to Matthew Lloyd of Essendon.
• The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Simon Black of the Brisbane Lions.
• The AFL Rising Star award was awarded to Sam Mitchell of Hawthorn.
• The Wooden Spoon was "awarded" to the Western Bulldogs for coming last.

Notable events

• Western Bulldogs captain Chris Grant suffered a season-ending knee injury in his side's round one win over Geelong. His absence in the team was severely felt as the Bulldogs ended up finishing last on the AFL ladder.

• Essendon Forward Matthew Lloyd would kick 11 goals in his sides 67 point win over the Western Bulldogs to surpass Simon Madden as the recorder holder for most goals kicked by an Essendon player in the club's history.

External links

• 2003 Season – AFL Tables