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The 2006 AFL season was the 110th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured sixteen clubs, ran from 30 March until 30 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top eight clubs.

The premiership was won by the West Coast Eagles for the third time, after it defeated Sydney by one point in the AFL Grand Final.

Pre-season competition

Geelong 3.10.5 (92) defeated Adelaide 1.10.15 (84) in the 2006 NAB Cup Final. The game was held at AAMI Stadium, with an attendance of 30,707.

Premiership season

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Round 22

Ladder

Ladder progression

Finals series

Week one

Week two

Week three

Week four

Awards

• The Brownlow Medal was awarded 25 September 2006 to Adam Goodes from Sydney, for the AFL's best and fairest player.
• The Leigh Matthews Trophy was awarded to Chris Judd from West Coast as the AFL Players Association's most valuable player.
• The Coleman Medal was awarded to Brendan Fevola from Carlton. It was the first time since 1965 that the season's leading goalkicker came from the wooden spoon side, and the fourth (and, as of 2022, most recent) time overall.
• The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Andrew Embley from West Coast as the player best afield in the 2006 AFL Grand Final.
• The AFL Rising Star award goes to Danyle Pearce from Port Adelaide.
• The McClelland Trophy was awarded to West Coast for finishing on top of the ladder after the regular season.
• The Wooden Spoon was "awarded" to Carlton for finishing 16th on the AFL ladder for the second straight year under Denis Pagan.
• The 2006 All-Australian Team has been announced, with 10 debutants and Brad Johnson named as captain.
• The AFL Mark of the Year was awarded to Brad Ottens from Geelong for his mark in round 5.
• The AFL Goal of the Year was awarded to Eddie Betts from Carlton for his goal in round 21.

Best and fairests

Notable events

• The Melbourne Cricket Ground was unavailable until round 4, due to its use as the main athletics stadium at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, which concluded just four days prior to the season starting.
• Matthew Lloyd, in only his third game as Essendon captain, injured his hamstring against the Western Bulldogs, ending his season. This marked the Bulldogs' first victory over Essendon since inflicting their only defeat of the 2000 season. Despite a first round thrashing of reigning premiers Sydney, in which Lloyd kicked eight goals on Leo Barry, Essendon would suffer its worst season since 1933, winning only two further matches and drawing one against Carlton, and just avoiding the wooden spoon to the Blues on percentage.
• In Round 5, Fremantle and St Kilda's game ended in controversy after the final siren was not heard by umpires, with the extra time allowing St Kilda to level the scores – the result was changed by the AFL commission later in the week on the basis that the timekeeper had failed to perform his duties.
  • The amended result proved crucial to the end-of-season ladder standings, because had the draw stood, St Kilda would have finished in the top four at the expense of reigning premiers Sydney, which would've finished fifth and therefore missed out on the double chance in the finals.
• Richmond suffered three 100-point losses in season 2006, against the Western Bulldogs in round 1 (115 points), Sydney in round 7 (118 points) and St Kilda in round 17 (103 points).
• A struggling Richmond team defeated league-leaders Adelaide in round 8 in an often-discussed game. To counteract Adelaide's strong flood, Richmond slowly built up a lead by patiently controlling the football without ever kicking to a contest, a move described as both boring and brilliant. In the final quarter, Adelaide were forced to switch to man-on-man tactics, almost erasing the deficit, but falling three points short. In executing this plan, Richmond took 181 marks, which is the highest amount ever (recorded since 1987).
• In round 8, Brendan Fevola became the first player to kick all of his team's goals in a game since Mark Arceri in 1991 (also while playing for Carlton, kicking their only goal). Of Carlton's 4.10 (34), Fevola contributed 4.5 (29), Simon Wiggins scored two behinds, and three behinds were rushed. He also became the first player in 41 years to win a Coleman Medal from the wooden spoon winning side.
• St Kilda broke two long winning droughts at the SCG and the Gabba by beating Sydney and Brisbane in rounds 11 and 22 respectively. The latter match was Michael Voss' final game for the Lions.
• For the first time in VFL/AFL history, four non-Victorian teams filled the top four with West Coast, Adelaide, Fremantle and Sydney all earning the double chance. The remainder of the top eight were filled by teams based in Victoria.
• Bottom teams Essendon and Carlton had a draw in round 16, 2006. Carlton's Eddie Betts scored the match-tying goal with under one minute remaining to deny Essendon what would have been just their second win for the season. Essendon would eventually achieve that the following week. This match was dubbed the "Bryce Gibbs Cup", named after the young Glenelg midfielder who was expected to be, and ultimately was, drafted with the first pick at the end of the year, by the media as both teams were firmly rooted to the bottom of the ladder leading into their match.
• In the second Qualifying Final, Sydney beat minor premiers West Coast by a solitary point, the final scores reading 85 to 84. When the teams met again in the grand final, the final scores were also 85 to 84, but it was West Coast that claimed the victory.
• Rohan Smith and Scott West each played their 300th games for the Western Bulldogs in the club's 74-point defeat to West Coast in the semi-final. For Smith, this was his final AFL game.
• A major flaw of the fixture was that the previous season's Grand Finalists, West Coast and Sydney, did not meet until round 15 of the regular season. The 294-day wait between the 2005 Grand Final and their round 15 rematch on July 15 set a record for the longest wait between a Grand Final and the rematch, until this was surpassed in 2020 (a 300-day wait for Richmond and Greater Western Sydney between their meeting in the 2019 Grand Final and their rematch in Round 8 of the COVID-19-affected 2020 season).

Player changes

Debuts

Retirements

End of season

Club captains

Delistings

Trades

See also

• 2006 AFL finals series
• 2006 Australian football code crowds
• List of 2006 AFL debuts
• Collingwood Magpies 2006 Season
• Sydney Swans 2006 Season
• List of Australian Football League premiers

References

• 2006 season results – AFL Tables

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5. Robinson, Mark (18 November 2006). "Lloyd wants to rip season apart". PerthNow. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
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• 2006 Australian Football League season
• Australian Football League seasons
• 2006 in Australian rules football