The 2015 Australian Football League season was the 119th season of the elite Australian rules football competition. There were 18 teams competing in the league, the same as the previous year. The first game was played on Thursday, 2 April, and the Grand Final was played on Saturday, 3 October, with Hawthorn defeating West Coast by 46 points to win its 13th premiership and its third in successive years.
Nat Fyfe won the Brownlow Medal, voted by the umpires to be the best and fairest player in the league for the home-and-away season. Josh Kennedy won the Coleman Medal as the highest goal scorer in the competition.
The season was marred by the mid-season death of Adelaide senior coach Phil Walsh.
The biennial All Stars game, this year played in Western Australia, featuring an AFL team and the Indigenous All Stars team made up of some of the best Indigenous players in the game, returned for the 2015 pre-season. The West Coast Eagles were selected as the AFL team to play in the game, which was played at Medibank Stadium in Perth.
For the second consecutive year, the NAB Challenge series took place, featuring 27 practice matches played over 25 days, beginning February 26 and ending March 22. The matches were stand-alone in nature, with no overall winner crowned for the series. Each team played three pre-season games, many of which were played at suburban or regional venues, with most games televised on Fox Footy. The Super Goal was retained for these matches.
Notable features of the draw include:
To address poor attendances and late-finishing matches, all Saturday night matches on the east coast were brought forward by 20 minutes, with matches in this timeslot now starting at 7:20 pm. Matches in Adelaide and Perth retained their respective local starting times of 7:10 pm and 5:40 pm.
Many of the grounds used by the AFL hosted games in the 2015 Cricket World Cup, which ended on March 29. Consequently, the season started and finished slightly later than in previous years, with the Grand Final scheduled for the first Saturday in October instead of the customary last Saturday in September.
Due to the Sydney Royal Easter Show, Greater Western Sydney's primary home ground (Spotless Stadium) was unavailable until Round 6, therefore the club's first two home games were at its secondary home ground, StarTrack Oval, in Rounds 2 and 4.
St Kilda hosted Carlton in its annual New Zealand Anzac Day match, which started at 1:10 pm local time (11:10 am AEST). It brought to an end the regular fixture of the two clubs meeting on the Monday night following Mother's Day, as had been the case since 2010.
Mother's Day Round (Round 6) saw six matches played on Saturday instead of the usual five, with only two matches played on Mother's Day itself. This was repeated in Round 23, with no twilight game on the Sunday.
The Friday before the Grand Final became a public holiday in Victoria, following an election promise by the incoming state government, under the premiership of Daniel Andrews.
All starting times are local.
Fremantle secured the minor premiership for the first time in their history.
Fremantle and West Coast finished first and second on the ladder respectively, the first time two teams from the same state (outside of Victoria) had finished in the top two positions.
Geelong missed the finals for the first time since 2006.
Fremantle was the first minor premier to fail to reach the Grand Final since Adelaide in 2005.
North Melbourne became the first team in history to finish the home-and-away season in eighth position and qualify for a preliminary final.
Hawthorn's score of 27.11 (173) against Carlton in round 17 was the highest score posted by any side this season. St Kilda's score of 4.6 (30) against West Coast in round 23 was the lowest.
Matt Priddis (West Coast) set a new record for most handpasses in a season. Priddis reached a total of 472 handpasses, surpassing the previous record of 445 set by Gary Ablett, Jr. in 2009.
Todd Goldstein (North Melbourne) set a new record for most hit-outs in a season. Goldstein's final tally of 1,058 surpassed the previous record of 952 set by Gary Dempsey (North Melbourne) in 1982. Aaron Sandilands (Fremantle), who had 998 hit-outs for the season, also passed Dempsey's old record.
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
1The round 14 Adelaide vs Geelong match was cancelled due to the death of Adelaide coach, Phil Walsh, both clubs received two premiership points each, with no change to their percentages.
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 Nat Fyfe of Fremantle, who received 31 votes.
The Coleman Medal was awarded to Josh Kennedy of West Coast, who kicked 75 goals during the home and away season.
The Ron Evans Medal was awarded to Jesse Hogan of Melbourne, who received 49 votes.
The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Cyril Rioli of Hawthorn.
The AFL Goal of the Year was awarded to Eddie Betts of Adelaide.
The AFL Mark of the Year was awarded to Nic Naitanui of West Coast.
The McClelland Trophy was awarded to Fremantle for the first time in their history.
The wooden spoon was "awarded" to Carlton for the first time since 2006.
The AFL Players Association awards
The Leigh Matthews Trophy was awarded to Nat Fyfe of Fremantle for the second consecutive year.
The Robert Rose Award was awarded to Luke Parker of Sydney.
The Best Captain was awarded to Robert Murphy of the Western Bulldogs.
The Best First-Year Player was awarded to Isaac Heeney of Sydney.
The 22under22 Team captaincy was awarded to Jake Stringer of the Western Bulldogs.
The AFL Coaches Association AwardsThe AFL Coaches Association Player of the Year Award was awarded to Dan Hannebery of Sydney, who received 101 votes.
The Allan Jeans Senior Coach of the Year Award was awarded to Luke Beveridge of the Western Bulldogs.
The Assistant Coach of the Year Award was awarded to Adam Kingsley of St Kilda.
The Development Coach of the Year Award was awarded to Paul Hudson of St Kilda.
The Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to David Wheadon.
The Best Young Player Award was awarded to Marcus Bontempelli of the Western Bulldogs.
The Media Award was awarded to Gerard Whateley for his work on Fox Footy and ABC.
The Jim Stynes Community Leadership Award was awarded to Dennis Armfield of Carlton.
Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the player led the Coleman that round.
Underlined numbers indicates the player did not play that round.
The International Rules Series returned in November 2015, with Ireland entitled to the hosting rights. The match was played on Saturday, 21 November 2015 at Dublin's Croke Park. A highly qualified Australian side, who were looking for back-to-back series wins, fell to a classy Irish team by 4 points.
Doping and drugs
The AFL suffered significant bad publicity during 2015 related to four cases of illicit substance abuse in AFL clubs – three related to doping and one related to recreational drugs:
The Essendon Football Club supplements controversy – relating to the supplements program operating at the Essendon Football Club during the 2011/12 offseason – continued to be heard during the 2015 season. The 34 players implicated in the controversy were served with infraction notices in November 2014, and were provisionally suspended until their hearings at the AFL anti-doping tribunal were complete. In the week before the start of the AFL season, the players were found not guilty and their suspensions were lifted. In May 2015, the World Anti-Doping Agency announced an appeal of the not guilty verdicts to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which will not be heard until after the 2015 season.
Ryan Crowley (Fremantle) faced the AFL anti-doping tribunal after having tested positive to a banned substance in a drug test after Fremantle's Round 17, 2014 win against Greater Western Sydney. He commenced a provisional suspension commenced after a positive confirmation tests (also known as B-sample) mid September 2014. He appeared before the AFL Tribunal in May 2015, and was found guilty suspended for twelve months, backdated to the beginning of his provisional suspension; he became eligible to play again on 25 September 2015. The banned substance has not been identified, but is understood to have been present in a painkiller which Crowley had taken but which was not prescribed by the club doctor.
Lachlan Keeffe and Josh Thomas (both of Collingwood) tested positive to the banned substance clenbuterol in drug tests taken in February 2015. Both accepted provisional suspensions in March and returned positive B-samples in May. Both were handed infraction notices in July and accepted two-year bans in August (backdated to March), in addition they were delisted and fined $50,000 each by Collingwood.
In late June, former Gold Coast player Karmichael Hunt, who was being investigated by the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission over allegations of cocaine supply and possession, named several current Gold Coast players as having taken illicit recreational drugs during his time at the club. Although nothing further came from Hunt's allegations, days later, photographs from early 2013 emerged showing Gold Coast's Harley Bennell using speed; and a team-mate, whose anonymity is protected under the AFL's drugs policy, self-reported shortly afterwards that he had also been present and taken the drug. Bennell was fined $5000 and suspended for three matches.
In the early hours of Friday 3 July 2015, Adelaide coach Phil Walsh was found dead at his Adelaide residency following a domestic violence incident; his son, Cy, was charged with his murder. Walsh's wife Meredith also suffered injuries in the incident. In the immediate aftermath, the match between Adelaide and Geelong, which was to have been played on Sunday 5 July, was cancelled, with the clubs sharing two premiership points each. At the remaining seven matches of the round (Sydney and Port Adelaide had already played on Thursday night), respect was paid to Walsh by observing moments of silence both before and after the match; and pre- and post-match celebrations or promotions, including the playing of club songs and running through banners, were not carried out.
