2003 AFL season

2003 AFL premiership season
Teams	16
Premiers	Brisbane (3rd premiership)
Minor premiers	Port Adelaide (2nd minor premiership)
Pre-season cup	Adelaide (1st pre-season cup win)
Matches played	185
Attendance	6,351,655 (34,333 per match)
Highest attendance	79,451 (Grand Final, Brisbane Lions v Collingwood)
Coleman Medallist	Matthew Lloyd (Essendon)
Brownlow Medallist	Nathan Buckley (Collingwood) Mark Ricciuto (Adelaide) Adam Goodes (Sydney)
← 2002 2004 →

The 2003 Australian Football League season was the 107th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.

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

AFL Draft

See 2003 AFL Draft for more information.

National Cup

The 2003 Wizard Home Loans Cup saw Adelaide Crows defeat Collingwood 15.14 (104) to 10.13 (73) in the Final. (For an explanation of pre-season scoring see Pre-season rule changes)

Premiership season

Round 1 (season launch)

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4 (Easter)

Round 5 (ANZAC Day)

Round 6

Round 7 (Mother's Day)

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11 (Queen's Birthday)

• The Kangaroos-Tigers game was especially notable as the comeback of Kangaroos player Jason McCartney from life-threatening burns suffered in the 2002 Bali bombing. McCartney retired immediately after the match.

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Round 19 (Heritage Round)

Round 20

Round 21

The Sydney-Collingwood game is notable as it is the highest attended Aussie Rules match ever played outside of Victoria.

Round 22

Ladder

2003 AFL Ladder
	Team	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	%	Pts
1	Port Adelaide	22	18	4	0	2229	1752	127.23	72
2	Collingwood	22	15	7	0	2259	1858	121.58	60
3	Brisbane Lions (P)	22	14	7	1	2295	1882	121.94	58
4	Sydney	22	14	8	0	2142	1862	115.04	56
5	Fremantle	22	14	8	0	2143	2078	103.13	56
6	Adelaide	22	13	9	0	2114	1754	120.52	52
7	West Coast	22	12	8	2	2326	1982	117.36	52
8	Essendon	22	13	9	0	2190	1960	111.73	52
9	Hawthorn	22	12	10	0	2011	1999	100.60	48
10	Kangaroos	22	11	10	1	2185	2223	98.29	46
11	St Kilda	22	11	11	0	2095	2187	95.79	44
12	Geelong	22	7	14	1	1819	2025	89.83	30
13	Richmond	22	7	15	0	1846	2078	88.84	28
14	Melbourne	22	5	17	0	1899	2344	81.02	20
15	Carlton	22	4	18	0	1784	2674	66.72	16
16	Western Bulldogs	22	3	18	1	2014	2693	74.79	14
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, PF = Points for, PA = Points against

This marks the first time that Fremantle played a finals match and the first, and only time to date that all non-Victorian teams played in a finals series.

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	0	0	4	8	12	16	16	20	24	28	32	36	40	40	44	48	52	56	60	64	68	72
2	Collingwood	4	8	12	12	12	12	16	16	20	24	24	24	28	32	36	40	44	48	48	52	56	60
3	Brisbane Lions	4	8	10	14	18	22	22	26	30	34	34	34	38	38	42	42	42	46	50	50	54	58
4	Sydney	4	4	4	4	8	12	16	20	20	24	28	32	32	36	40	44	48	48	48	52	52	56
5	Fremantle	0	4	4	8	8	12	16	20	24	28	28	32	32	36	36	40	40	44	48	52	52	56
6	Adelaide	4	4	8	12	12	16	16	16	20	24	24	28	32	36	40	40	44	48	52	52	52	52
7	West Coast	4	4	8	8	12	16	20	24	28	28	30	34	38	38	42	42	46	46	46	48	52	52
8	Essendon	0	4	4	8	12	12	12	16	16	20	20	20	24	28	28	32	36	40	44	48	52	52
9	Hawthorn	0	4	4	8	8	12	12	12	12	12	16	20	24	28	28	32	32	32	36	40	44	48
10	North Melbourne	4	8	10	10	10	10	14	14	18	22	26	30	30	34	34	34	38	38	38	38	42	46
11	St Kilda	0	4	4	4	8	12	16	16	16	20	24	24	24	24	24	28	28	32	36	40	44	44
12	Geelong	0	0	0	4	4	4	4	4	8	8	12	12	12	16	20	20	20	20	24	26	26	30
13	Richmond	0	4	8	12	16	16	20	24	24	24	24	24	24	24	24	24	28	28	28	28	28	28
14	Melbourne	4	4	8	8	8	8	12	12	12	12	12	12	16	20	20	20	20	20	20	20	20	20
15	Carlton	0	0	4	4	8	8	8	12	12	12	12	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16
16	Western Bulldogs	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	6	6	6	6	6	10	10	14	14	14	14	14

Finals series

Qualifying and Elimination Finals (Father's Day)

	Qualifying Finals
7 September 2:30 pm	Port Adelaide 13.10 (88)	def. by	Sydney 15.10 (100)	AAMI Stadium (crowd: 33,968)
6 September 7:30 pm	Collingwood 9.12 (66)	def.	Brisbane Lions 7.9 (51)	MCG (crowd: 66,092)

	Elimination Finals
5 September 6:40 pm	Fremantle 8.9 (57)	def. by	Essendon 15.11 (101)	Subiaco Oval (crowd: 42,770)
6 September 2:30 pm	Adelaide 16.17 (113)	def.	West Coast 8.9 (57)	AAMI Stadium (crowd: 38,641)

Semi Finals

	Semi Finals
12 September 7:30 pm	Brisbane Lions 18.16 (124)	def.	Adelaide 12.10 (82)	The Gabba (crowd: 32,432)
13 September 7:30 pm	Port Adelaide 12.11 (83)	def.	Essendon 6.8 (44)	AAMI Stadium (crowd: 36,557)

Preliminary Finals

	Preliminary Finals
20 September 2:30 pm	Collingwood 17.10 (112)	def.	Port Adelaide 9.14 (68)	MCG (crowd: 77,405)
20 September 7:30 pm	Sydney 8.8 (56)	def. by	Brisbane Lions 14.16 (100)	Telstra Stadium (crowd: 71,019)

Grand Final

	Grand Final
27 September 2:40 pm	Brisbane Lions 20.14 (134)	def.	Collingwood 12.12 (84)	MCG (crowd: 79,451)	Report
This was the third consecutive Grand Final won by the Brisbane Lions during a three-year streak.

Match attendance

Total match attendance for all games was 5,872,352 people. Attendance at the Grand Final was 79,451 people. The largest non-finals attendance was 72,393 people for the Collingwood v Sydney game of Round 21.

Awards

• The Brownlow Medal was awarded to Mark Ricciuto of Adelaide, Nathan Buckley of Collingwood, and Adam Goodes of Sydney.
• The Leigh Matthews Trophy was awarded to Michael Voss of the Brisbane Lions.
• The Coleman Medal was awarded to Matthew Lloyd of Essendon.
• The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Simon Black of the Brisbane Lions.
• The AFL Rising Star award was awarded to Sam Mitchell of Hawthorn.
• The Wooden Spoon was "awarded" to the Western Bulldogs for coming last.

References

• 2003 Season – AFL Tables