The 2014 Australian Football League season was the 118th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.
The premiership season began on 14 March with Collingwood hosting Fremantle at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne. The season concluded on 27 September with the AFL Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, with Hawthorn successfully defending their 2013 premiership by defeating Sydney by 63 points.
Matt Priddis won the 2014 Brownlow Medal, voted to be the best and fairest player in the league. Lance Franklin, who transferred from Hawthorn to Sydney after the 2013 season, won the Coleman Medal as the league's leading goal kicker.
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. 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 was retained for these matches.
The full fixture was released on Thursday 31 October 2013, and the premiership season was launched at the redeveloped Adelaide Oval in South Australia on 5 March. Notable features of the draw included:
Geelong played most of its home games at night in 2014, with its first game played against Adelaide on a Thursday night in Round 1.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground 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), and the match between Richmond and Carlton which had served as the season's first match in Melbourne since 2008 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.
Traeger Park in Alice Springs hosted its first premiership match when Melbourne met Port Adelaide in Round 11.
Match starting times are local.
Bold – Home game
X – Bye
Opponent for round listed above margin
This table can be sorted by margin, winners are represented in the first half of each column, and losers are represented in the second half of each column once sorted
Numbers highlighted in green indicates the team finished the round inside the top 8.
Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished in first place 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 indicates the team had a bye during that round.
The Brownlow Medal was awarded to Matt Priddis of West Coast, who received 26 votes.
The AFL Rising Star was awarded to Lewis Taylor of the Brisbane Lions, who received 39 votes.
The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Luke Hodge of Hawthorn
The AFL Goal of the Year was awarded to Matthew White of Port Adelaide.
The AFL Mark of the Year was awarded to Chad Wingard of Port Adelaide.
The McClelland Trophy was awarded to Sydney for the first time since 1996.
The Wooden Spoon was "awarded" to St Kilda for the first time since 2000.
The AFL Players Association awardsThe Leigh Matthews Trophy was awarded to Nathan Fyfe of Fremantle.
The Robert Rose Award was awarded to Joel Selwood of Geelong for the third year in a row and fourth time overall.
The Best Captain was awarded to Luke Hodge of Hawthorn.
The Best First-Year Player was awarded to Marcus Bontempelli of the Western Bulldogs.
The 22under22 Team captaincy was awarded to Dyson Heppell of Essendon for the second year in a row.
The AFL Coaches Association AwardsThe Player of the Year Award was given to Robbie Gray of Port Adelaide, who received 111 votes.
The Allan Jeans Senior Coach of the Year Award was awarded to John Longmire of Sydney.
The Assistant Coach of the Year Award was awarded to Brett Montgomery of Western Bulldogs.
The Development Coach of the Year Award was awarded to Steven King of Western Bulldogs.
The Support Staff Leadership Award was awarded to John Kilby of Essendon.
The Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Neale Daniher.
The Best Young Player Award was awarded to Jaeger O'Meara of Gold Coast.
The Media Award was awarded to Gerard Whateley for his work on Fox Footy.
The Jim Stynes Community Leadership Award was awarded to Beau Waters of West Coast.
The Coleman Medal was awarded to Lance Franklin of Sydney, who kicked 67 goals during the home and away season.
The International Rules Series 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 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 since the 2010 series.
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 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 Collingwood, Sydney's Adam Goodes was once again the target of a racial vilification, this time by an Essendon 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.
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 allegeing that ASADA’s joint investigation with the AFL was unlawful and in breach of the ASADA Act. 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.
