Suvarna Garge (Editor)

2011 AFL season

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Premier
  
Geelong Football Club

Dates
  
24 Mar 2011 – 1 Oct 2011

Attendance
  
7,139,272

Champion
  
Geelong Football Club

Teams
  
17

Matches played
  
196

Premiers
  
Geelong (9th premiership)

Minor premiers
  
Collingwood (19th minor premiership)

Pre-season cup
  
Collingwood (1st pre-season cup win)

Highest attendance
  
99,537 (Grand Final, Collingwood vs. Geelong)

Coleman Medallist
  
Lance Franklin (Hawthorn) 71 goals

Brownlow Medallist
  
Dane Swan (Collingwood) 34 votes

Similar
  
2010 AFL season, 2009 AFL season, 2008 AFL season, 2007 AFL season, 2013 AFL season

Collingwood magpies v brisbane lions 2011 afl season round 22


The 2011 Australian Football League season was the 115th season of the Australian rules football competition. It was the debut year for Gold Coast, and was scheduled to be the only season to be played with 17 teams. Geelong beat Collingwood in the 2011 AFL Grand Final by 38 points.

Contents

The season opened on 24 March 2011, with Carlton defeating Richmond at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

This was the first season since 1994 to have byes, and only the fourth after the 1991, 1992 and 1994 seasons to feature a 24-round format. The full fixture was announced on 29 October 2010.

Draft

The 2010 National Draft was held on 18 November 2010 at the Gold Coast Convention Centre. 107 players were drafted, including 28 promoted rookies. Gold Coast were awarded the first three selections as part of its draft concessions, and selected David Swallow with the number one draft pick.

The 2011 Pre-season and Rookie Drafts were held on 7 December 2010, with another 80 players being selected. Greater Western Sydney had the first eight selections in the Rookie Draft as part of its draft concessions.

NAB Cup

The 2011 NAB Cup featured the addition of two new teams, Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney. The first round of matches featured 6 pools of 3 teams, with each game being shortened to two twenty-minute halves. Collingwood defeated Essendon in the Grand Final at Etihad Stadium on Friday, 11 March.

Premiership season

The fixture was officially announced on 29 October. Some of the highlights included:

  • Gold Coast had a bye for the first round and played its first home match in the second round against Carlton at the Gabba. Its first match at the renovated Metricon Stadium was against Geelong on 28 May. In addition, its draw includes two trips each to Western Australia and South Australia, one to Tasmania and one to Far North Queensland. Its only games against 2010 Grand Finalists Collingwood and St Kilda were at home, in Rounds 18 and 19 respectively. Its only match at the MCG was against Melbourne in the penultimate round of the season.
  • This season had 24 rounds; 19 rounds featured eight matches with one team having a bye, and five rounds featured seven matches with three teams having a bye. There were eleven additional matches compared with 2010, giving a total of 196 games including finals (previously 185).
  • Two venues hosted their first AFL matches during the season: Cazaly's Stadium in Cairns hosted the Richmond vs Gold Coast match in Round 17, and the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide hosted the Port Adelaide vs Melbourne match in Round 24. (The Adelaide Oval match was not a part of the original fixture released on 29 October; the game was moved there from AAMI Stadium during the season).

    • Round 6

    .

    Win/Loss table

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

    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.
  • Underlined numbers indicate that the team had a bye during that round.

    • Awards

  • The Brownlow Medal was awarded to Dane Swan of Collingwood, who received 34 votes.
  • The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Jimmy Bartel of Geelong
  • The AFL Rising Star was awarded to Dyson Heppell of Essendon, who received 44 votes.
  • The Coleman Medal was awarded to Lance Franklin of Hawthorn, who kicked 71 goals during the home and away season.
  • The McClelland Trophy was awarded to Collingwood.
  • The Wooden Spoon was "awarded" to Gold Coast.
  • The AFL Players Association Awards were as follows:
  • The Leigh Matthews Trophy was awarded to Chris Judd of Carlton, for being the Most Valuable Player throughout the premiership season.
  • The Robert Rose Award went to Jonathan Brown of Brisbane Lions, for being the Most Courageous Player throughout the premiership season.
  • The Best Captain award went to Chris Judd of Carlton.
  • The Best First-Year Player award was won by Dyson Heppell of Essendon.
  • The AFL Coaches Association Awards were as follows:
  • The Player of the Year Award was given to Marc Murphy of Carlton, who received 94 votes.
  • The Allan Jeans Award was given to John Worsfold of West Coast.
  • The Assistant Coach of the Year Award was given to Darren Crocker of North Melbourne.
  • The Best Young Player Award was given to Nat Fyfe of Fremantle.

    • Betting scandals

    The issue of betting became prominent during the 2011 season. The previous few years had seen other sports compromised by major spot-fixing scandals – most notably the Pakistan cricket spot-fixing controversy – so the issue was already well publicised at the time. The AFL had in place a strict policy prohibiting anyone involved in the AFL from placing any bet on any AFL outcome.

    Early in the season, it emerged that there were several suspicious plunges on players who were usually defenders to kick the first goal of a match; in each case, the player unexpectedly started in the forward-line, indicating that the plunges may have been caused by team information somehow leaking to punters. Five suspicious plunges on defenders for the first goal were identified during the season:

  • Round 7, Port Adelaide vs Hawthorn – Hawthorn midfielder/defender Brent Guerra
  • Round 7, Gold Coast vs Brisbane Lions – Brisbane defender Daniel Merrett
  • Round 8, Brisbane Lions vs Essendon – Brisbane defender Matt Maguire
  • Round 9, Adelaide vs Collingwood – Collingwood defender Nick Maxwell
  • Round 24, Gold Coast vs Hawthorn – Gold Coast defender Nathan Bock

    • Nathan Bock was the only of the five players to kick the first goal of his respective match. The cases all raised concerns about "exotic bets" and the risk of spot-fixing, although in no case was a deliberate attempt at spot-fixing ever implicated.

    The controversy deepened prior to Round 17, when the investigation into the Maxwell plunge revealed that Heath Shaw was implicated in bets placed on Maxwell's first goal. Shaw and a friend from outside the Collingwood Football Club were found to have placed a shared $20 bet on Maxwell for first goal at a TAB venue, using Shaw's knowledge from team meetings that Maxwell would be starting forward; that friend had later placed two more bets on Maxwell worth $15, shared with another friend. Shaw was penalised by the league under the anti-gambling code, receiving a suspension of eight matches, with a further suspended sentence of six matches, and was fined $20,000.

    In their respective investigations, it was found that both Nick Maxwell and Nathan Bock had informed family members and friends that they would be starting in the forward-line before their respective plunges, and, unbeknownst to the players, those family members and friends then placed bets. Maxwell was fined $5,000, with a further suspended fine of $5,000, and Bock was fined $10,000 and suspended for two matches.

    Following Round 24, Essendon assistant coach Dean Wallis was found to have placed three separate FootyQuad bets worth a total of $400 during the latter half of the season, one of which included a leg which involved an Essendon match. Wallis was fined $7,500, and suspended for fourteen matches (the suspension prevents him from participating on match-day, and from interacting directly with his players during training, until the suspension is complete).

    Umpiring and rule changes

  • The AFL introduced a new interchange rule. The standard interchange system was reduced from four players to three players. A fourth player is named as a substitute, and begins the game wearing a green vest. The substitute can be brought on at any point in the game, permanently replacing any player on the bench or the field. The player being replaced must wear a red vest when leaving the ground. This rule was predominantly introduced to keep the number of players able to participate in the game for each team equal, even if a severe injury occurs.
  • The rules for calling "advantage" after a free kick were amended, to allow the players, rather than the umpires, make the decision on whether or not they see an advantage in continuous play.

    • References

    2011 AFL season Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA