Trisha Shetty (Editor)

2007 AFL season

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Premier
  
Geelong Football Club

Start date
  
2007

Attendance
  
7,050,945

Champion
  
Geelong Football Club

Teams
  
16

Matches played
  
185

2007 AFL season httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaen663AFL

Premiers
  
Geelong(7th premiership)

Minor premiers
  
Geelong(12th minor premiership)

Pre-season cup
  
Carlton(3rd pre-season cup win)

Highest attendance
  
98,002 (first preliminary final, Geelong vs. Collingwood)

Coleman Medallist
  
Jonathan Brown(Brisbane Lions)

Brownlow Medallist
  
Jimmy BartelGeelong (29 votes)

Similar
  
2008 AFL season, 2006 AFL season, 2009 AFL season, 2010 AFL season, 2013 AFL season

The 2007 Australian Football League season was the 111th season of the elite Australian rules football competition. 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.

Contents

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.

    • Semi Finals

  • West Coast became the second team since the current Finals system was established in 2000 to lose both of its finals after qualifying for the double chance by finishing in the top 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.

    • 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, the highest score kicked in an AFL game since quarters were shortened from twenty-five to twenty minutes in 1994 and 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.
  • 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), and was described as boring by Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • The Round 16 game between Brisbane Lions against Carlton at The Gabba saw Jonathan Brown become the first Brisbane Lions player to kick 10 goals in a match, kicking 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.
  • 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. 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. Shortly after the completion of Round 22, faced with the possibility of ongoing player boycotts – including of the Brownlow Medal count – 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. The AFL Players Association took the "statement of regret" as an apology and the boycott was lifted. The scandal came to be known as "Guttergate".
  • The final game of the home-and-away season became particularly controversial through circumstance. The 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.

    • References

    2007 AFL season Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA