2004 AFL season

2004 AFL premiership season
Teams	16
Premiers	Port Adelaide (1st premiership)
Minor premiers	Port Adelaide (3rd minor premiership)
Pre-season cup	St Kilda (2nd pre-season cup win)
Matches played	185
Attendance	6,368,297 (34,423 per match)
Highest attendance	77,671 (Grand Final, Port Adelaide v Brisbane Lions)
Coleman Medallist	Fraser Gehrig (St Kilda)
Brownlow Medallist	Chris Judd (West Coast)
← 2003 2005 →

The 2004 Australian Football League season was the 108th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.

See List of Australian Football League premiers for a complete list.

AFL Draft

See 2004 AFL Draft for more information.

Wizard Home Loans Cup

The Wizard Home Loans Cup Final saw St. Kilda defeat Geelong 1.14.5 (98) to 1.10.7 (76) in front of a crowd of 50,533 (For an explanation of pre-season scoring see Pre-season rule changes)

Premiership season

Round 1 (season launch)

Round 2

Round 3 (Easter)

Round 4

Round 5 (ANZAC Day)

Round 6

Round 7 (Mother's Day)

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12 (Queen's Birthday)

Round 13 (Split Round)

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18 (Heritage Round)

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Round 22

Ladder

2004 AFL Ladder
	Team	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	%	Pts
1	Port Adelaide (P)	22	17	5	0	2413	1823	132.36	68
2	Brisbane Lions	22	16	6	0	2447	1783	137.24	64
3	St Kilda	22	16	6	0	2443	1909	127.97	64
4	Geelong	22	15	7	0	2088	1741	119.93	60
5	Melbourne	22	14	8	0	2127	1900	111.95	56
6	Sydney	22	13	9	0	1938	1804	107.43	52
7	West Coast	22	13	9	0	2042	1968	103.76	52
8	Essendon	22	12	10	0	2282	2228	102.42	48
9	Fremantle	22	11	11	0	1882	1870	100.64	44
10	Kangaroos	22	10	12	0	2142	2135	100.33	40
11	Carlton	22	10	12	0	1825	2235	81.66	40
12	Adelaide	22	8	14	0	1950	2039	95.64	32
13	Collingwood	22	8	14	0	1899	2082	91.21	32
14	Western Bulldogs	22	5	17	0	1957	2459	79.59	20
15	Hawthorn	22	4	18	0	1668	2375	70.23	16
16	Richmond	22	4	18	0	1693	2445	69.24	16
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, PF = Points for, PA = Points against

Ladder progression

• Numbers highlighted in green indicate that the team finished the round inside the top 8.
• Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished first on the ladder in that round.
• Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished in last place on the ladder in that round.

	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22
1	Port Adelaide	4	8	12	12	16	20	20	20	24	28	28	32	36	40	44	48	52	52	56	60	64	68
2	Brisbane Lions	4	8	12	12	16	16	20	24	24	28	32	36	36	40	44	48	52	52	52	56	60	64
3	St Kilda	4	8	12	16	20	24	28	32	36	40	40	40	44	44	44	48	52	52	56	60	60	64
4	Geelong	0	0	0	4	4	8	12	16	20	20	24	28	32	32	36	40	44	48	52	56	56	60
5	Melbourne	0	4	8	12	16	20	24	24	28	28	32	36	40	40	44	48	52	56	56	56	56	56
6	Sydney	0	4	8	12	12	12	12	12	16	20	24	24	28	32	36	36	36	40	40	44	48	52
7	West Coast	4	4	4	8	8	8	8	12	12	16	16	20	20	24	28	32	32	36	40	44	48	52
8	Essendon	0	0	4	8	12	16	20	24	24	28	32	32	32	32	36	36	36	40	40	44	44	48
9	Fremantle	4	4	8	12	16	20	20	20	24	24	24	28	28	32	32	36	40	44	44	44	44	44
10	Kangaroos	4	8	12	12	12	12	12	16	16	16	20	20	24	28	32	32	36	36	40	40	40	40
11	Carlton	0	4	4	4	8	8	12	12	12	12	16	20	24	24	24	28	28	28	32	32	36	40
12	Adelaide	0	0	0	0	4	4	8	8	8	12	12	12	16	20	20	20	20	24	24	28	32	32
13	Collingwood	0	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	8	12	16	16	16	20	20	20	24	28	32	32	32	32
14	Western Bulldogs	0	0	0	4	4	8	8	8	12	12	12	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	20	20
15	Hawthorn	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	12	12	16	16
16	Richmond	4	4	4	4	4	8	12	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16

Finals series

Qualifying and Elimination Finals (Father's Day)

Semi finals

Preliminary Finals

Note: Brisbane played its "home" final at the MCG despite being ranked above Geelong due to the agreement then in place with the Melbourne Cricket Club that at least one game each week of the finals be played at the MCG.

Grand final

This was the first Grand Final in the history of the AFL to be played by two non-Victorian teams; Port Adelaide's first; and the Brisbane Lions' fourth consecutive.

Match attendance

Total match attendance for all games was 5,915,407 people. Attendance at the Grand Final was 77,671 people. The largest non-finals attendance was 60,898 people for the Collingwood v Carlton game of Round 22.

Attendances during the season were affected by the ongoing reconstruction of the Ponsford, Olympic and Melbourne Cricket Club stands at the MCG to be ready for the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Awards

• The Brownlow Medal was awarded to Chris Judd of West Coast.
• The Leigh Matthews Trophy was awarded to Nick Riewoldt of St Kilda.
• The Coleman Medal was awarded to Fraser Gehrig of St Kilda.
• The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Byron Pickett of Port Adelaide.
• The AFL Rising Star award was awarded to Jared Rivers of Melbourne.
• The Wooden Spoon was "awarded" to Richmond for coming last.

Coleman

	Player	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	Total
1	Fraser Gehrig	7	3	5	6	4	2	4	5	5	9	0	1	5	0	-	-	8	3	5	10	4	4	90
2	Matthew Lloyd	4	1	8	2	3	3	5	4	2	5	7	5	5	1	9	2	6	7	0	1	3	6	89
3	Warren Tredrea	6	5	4	2	2	4	7	0	3	1	2	4	2	2	6	3	6	3	6	0	3	4	75
4	Barry Hall	1	5	2	4	4	4	3	5	2	1	5	3	3	6	4	1	3	1	5	0	6	2	70
5	David Neitz	-	9	3	6	6	2	2	0	4	4	1	3	4	2	3	6	6	5	2	1	0	-	69
6	Brendan Fevola	3	5	4	2	6	2	6	0	3	1	7	6	8	-	-	1	3	1	0	1	4	3	66
7	Nick Riewoldt	3	2	4	1	1	2	0	1	2	3	1	0	2	1	9	5	7	3	3	3	5	2	60
8	Matthew Richardson	5	0	0	-	-	-	7	10	1	2	5	5	3	-	6	6	2	2	2	2	4	3	65
9	Phillip Matera	5	3	3	3	0	4	2	5	2	6	1	3	3	1	2	3	4	3	3	1	2	2	61
10	Saverio Rocca	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3	2	1	8	2	3	5	6	1	2	2	5	4	3	2	49

Notable events

• St Kilda won its first ten matches of the season, which was at that time the longest winning streak in its history. This record stood until 2009, when the Saints won 19 games in a row.
• A five-minute brawl broke out between rivals Hawthorn and Essendon in the round 11 match, after which one Bomber (Justin Murphy) and four Hawks players received suspensions totalling 16 matches, and a combined total of $70,700 of fines were handed out. 27 charges were brought before the AFL Tribunal, the most ever from a single game.^[1] The game is widely known as the "Line in the Sand Match," as the brawls were sparked in the third quarter after Hawthorn players were urged at a half-time address by club legend Dermott Brereton to metaphorically draw such a line; Brereton thought the young Hawks were being physically intimidated by the more experienced Bombers.^[2]
• In Round 13, Geelong defeated the Brisbane Lions for the first time since the merged club was established in 1997. The win broke a 10-game winning streak for Brisbane against Geelong.
• During the Round 19 match between Sydney and the Kangaroos, Sydney head trainer Wally Jackson suffered a fatal heart attack during the last quarter.^[3] Most of the Sydney players were upset and distracted as Jackson was given CPR on the interchange bench; and despite Sydney having led the Kangaroos by 40 points at three-quarter time, they faded to lose by six points.
• On Saturday, 28 August 2004 (round 22), the Brisbane Lions set the VFL/AFL record for having the most experienced team in history. The 22-man Brisbane Lions squad had collectively played 3,740 senior career games,^[4] and had collectively scored 3,399 senior career goals. Only four of the 22 players had not played over 100 AFL games;Jonathan Brown (90 games), Robert Copeland (74 games), Dylan McLaren (26 games) and Richard Hadley (24 games).^[5]

Notes

1. Hinds, Richard (9 June 2004). "Bombers, Hawks to face 27 charges".
2. Brereton, Dermott (25 September 2008). "Dermott Brereton recalls the `line in the sand' game".
3. Jessica Halloran (9 August 2004). "Swans mourn loss of their father figure". Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, NSW). Retrieved 26 July 2015.
4. "Single Team - Most Total Games".
5. "Round 22, 2004: Brisbane Lions vs Kangaroos".

References

• 2004 Season – AFL Tables