2016 AFL season
| 2016 AFL premiership season | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Teams | 18 |
| Premiers |
Western Bulldogs (2nd premiership) |
| Minor premiers |
Sydney (9th minor premiership) |
| Matches played | 207 |
| Attendance | 6,870,241 (33,190 per match) |
| Highest attendance | 99,981 (Grand Final, Sydney vs Western Bulldogs) |
| Leading goalkicker |
Josh Kennedy West Coast (80 goals) |
| Brownlow Medallist |
Patrick Dangerfield Geelong (35 votes) |
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← 2015
2017 →
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The 2016 Australian Football League season was the 120th season of the elite Australian rules football competition. There were 18 teams competing in the league, the same as the previous four seasons. The first game was played on Thursday, 24 March, and the 2016 AFL Grand Final was played on Saturday, 1 October with the Western Bulldogs defeating Sydney by 22 points to win its second premiership and first in 62 years, breaking the then-longest active drought in VFL/AFL history.
Patrick Dangerfield 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.
For the third consecutive year, the NAB Challenge series took place, featuring 27 practice matches played over 25 days, which began on 18 February and ended on 13 March. The matches were stand-alone, with no overall winner of the series. Each team played three games, many of which were played at suburban or regional venues, with all games televised on Fox Footy. The super goal was retained for these pre-season matches.
The following rule changes were made for the 2016 season:
Notable features of the draw include:
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
On 12 January 2016, after appealing the AFL anti-doping tribunal's verdict that 34 past and present Essendon players were found not guilty of taking an illegal substance during the 2012 season, the Court of Arbitration for Sport returned a final verdict of guilty; as a result, these players, including twelve still at the club, five at another as well as 17 players who are currently playing at lower levels or have retired altogether, were suspended for the entire season.
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