The 2000 Australian Football League season was the 104th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.
See List of Australian Football League premiers for a complete list.
See 2000 AFL Draft for more information.
Essendon defeated Kangaroos 16.21 (117) to 11.10 (76) in the Final.
All teams played 22 games during the home and away season, for a total of 176. An additional nine games were played during the finals series.
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.
The Brownlow Medal was awarded to Shane Woewodin of Melbourne.
The Coleman Medal was awarded to Matthew Lloyd of Essendon.
The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to James Hird of Essendon.
The AFL Rising Star award was awarded to Paul Hasleby of Fremantle.
The wooden spoon was “awarded” to St Kilda.
The AFL season started and ended three weeks early, with the Grand Final taking place on the first Saturday in September, to avoid scheduling conflicts with the 2000 Summer Olympics which began in Sydney on 15 September.
Essendon won the most home-and-away games (21) and total games (24) in a single season in the history of the VFL/AFL, breaking the records set by Carlton in 1995 (20 and 23 respectively), and broke Collingwood’s 1929 record when it won its first twenty games; if the pre-season cup is included, Essendon won 30 games out of 31. All of these records still stand; in 2008 Geelong won 21 of 22 in the home and away season to equal that record, but lost the Grand Final.
Essendon's Grand Final win was the last by a Victorian side until Geelong won in 2007.
The McIntyre "Final Eight" system, which had operated from 1994 to 1999, was replaced by the AFL's Amended "Final Eight" system. The AFL's Amended "Final Eight" system has operated continuously from 2000 until today.
In Round 18, Carlton played against Collingwood at Princes Park (Optus Oval) for the first time since Round 13, 1982. Carlton recorded its highest score and greatest winning margin against Collingwood (eclipsing those records previously set at Victoria Park in Round 12, 1943).
The WACA Ground hosted its 72nd and last game of AFL football when Richmond defeated Fremantle in Round 19.
Essendon's qualifying final winning margin of 125 points and their score of 198 points was the greatest ever winning margin in a Qualifying Final and highest ever score in any final in AFL/VFL history, it was also Essendon's highest ever score and biggest ever win over the Kangaroos.
