1993 AFL season

1993 AFL premiership season
Teams	15
Premiers	Essendon (15th premiership)
Minor premiers	Essendon (14th minor premiership)
Pre-season cup	Essendon (2nd pre-season cup win)
Matches played	157
Attendance	4,657,489 (29,666 per match)
Highest attendance	96,862 (Grand Final, Essendon v Carlton)
Leading goalkicker	Gary Ablett (Geelong)
Brownlow Medallist	Gavin Wanganeen (Essendon)
← 1992 1994 →

The 1993 Australian Football League season was the 97th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.

National Cup

Essendon 14.18 (102) def Richmond 11.13 (79)

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

Finals

Elimination Finals

Qualifying Final

Semi finals

Preliminary Final

Grand final

Ladder

All teams played 20 games during the home and away season, for a total of 150. Each team also had two byes. An additional 7 games were played during the finals series.

1993 AFL Ladder
	Team	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	%	Pts
1	Essendon (P)	20	13	6	1	2333	1959	119.09	54
2	Carlton	20	13	6	1	2315	1968	117.63	54
3	North Melbourne	20	13	7	0	2597	2150	120.79	52
4	Hawthorn	20	13	7	0	2166	1858	116.58	52
5	Adelaide	20	12	8	0	2168	1840	117.83	48
6	West Coast	20	12	8	0	1912	1651	115.81	48
7	Geelong	20	12	8	0	2354	2109	111.62	48
8	Collingwood	20	11	9	0	2086	2060	101.26	44
9	Footscray	20	11	9	0	1978	1997	99.05	44
10	Melbourne	20	10	10	0	2101	1873	112.17	40
11	Fitzroy	20	10	10	0	2001	2011	99.50	40
12	St Kilda	20	10	10	0	2040	2166	94.18	40
13	Brisbane Bears	20	4	16	0	1886	2504	75.32	16
14	Richmond	20	4	16	0	1753	2480	70.69	16
15	Sydney	20	1	19	0	1837	2901	63.32	4
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, PF = Points for, PA = Points against

Awards

• The Brownlow Medal was awarded to Gavin Wanganeen of Essendon.
• The AFLPA MVP was awarded to Gary Ablett of Geelong.
• The Coleman Medal was awarded to Gary Ablett of Geelong.
• The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Michael Long of Essendon.
• The inaugural AFL Rising Star award was awarded to Nathan Buckley of Brisbane Bears.
• The Wooden Spoon was "awarded" to Sydney.

Notable events

• Following the release of the Crawford Report, prepared by insolvency expert David Crawford, the clubs voted to make significant changes to the administrative structure of the AFL during the 1993 season. The AFL Commission was expanded from six members to eight members, and was given the power to make most administrative decisions relating to the league unilaterally; this replaced the previous system under which decisions required ratification by a vote of club presidents.^[1] The clubs retained the right to veto any Commission decision by a 75% vote; and, as several clubs were worried about their long-term viability at the time, a stipulation was included such that any decisions relating to the expulsion, merger or relocation of a club required ratification by a simple majority of all clubs and the agreement of the club in question.^[2]
• At the conclusion of their Round 4 game against Collingwood, St Kilda's Nicky Winmar responded to two hours of racial vilifications from the Collingwood cheer squad by declaring, "I'm black and proud of it!" while raising his jumper and pointing to his skin, an image which has since become famous. This was St Kilda's first win at Victoria park in two decades.
• North Melbourne and Brisbane Bears both set club-record high scores in this season. North Melbourne's 35.19 (229) in Round 6 was then the fifth-highest score of all time, and Brisbane's 33.21 (219) in Round 8 was then the tenth-highest of all times. The opponent in both of these games was Sydney.
• In the Round 8 game, Brisbane Bears set the record for the highest score at three-quarter time, 27.17 (179). This remained the record until 2007.
• In Round 18, a piglet with the word "PLUGA" and the number four painted on it was released onto the Sydney Cricket Ground during the match between Sydney and St Kilda; play was held up for two to three minutes as it managed to evade capture from trainers, security guards and players. The idea to release the pig had been devised by a small group of Sydney supporters and players the previous week, and was intended as a tactic to put dangerous St Kilda full-forward Tony "Plugger" Lockett off his game. As it happened, Lockett missed the game with injury, but was reportedly enraged when he saw the incident on television.^[3]

References

1. Stephen Linnell (2 March 1993). "Clubs give up their control". The Age (Melbourne, VIC). pp. 38, 34.
2. Stephen Linnell; Patrick Smithers (20 July 1993). "United club stand forces AFL to back down on expulsion power". The Age (Melbourne, VIC). pp. 37–38.
3. "The day a pitch-invading porker made Plugger feel pig sick". The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, NSW). 15 July 2006. Retrieved 14 December 2014.

• 1993 Season - AFL Tables