1999 AFL season

The 1999 AFL season was the 103rd 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 25 March until 25 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 Kangaroos (North Melbourne) for the fourth time, after it defeated Carlton by 35 points in the 1999 AFL Grand Final.^[1]

AFL Draft

See 1999 AFL Draft.

Ansett Australia Cup

Hawthorn defeated Port Adelaide 12.11 (83) to 5.6 (36).

Home-and-away season

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Note: Tony Lockett kicked 9 Goals To break VFL/AFL All Time Goals Record by Player

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

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 95.7
Source: AFL Tables

Progression by round

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.

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Finals series

Qualifying Finals

Semi-finals

Note: West Coast Eagles played its "home" final at the MCG despite being ranked above Carlton 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.

Preliminary Finals

Grand Final

Match attendance

Awards

The Brownlow Medal was awarded to Shane Crawford of Hawthorn.
The Leigh Matthews Trophy as the AFL's most valuable player was awarded to Shane Crawford of Hawthorn.
The Coleman Medal was awarded to Scott Cummings of the West Coast Eagles.
The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Shannon Grant of the Kangaroos
The AFL Rising Star award was awarded to Adam Goodes of the Sydney Swans.
The wooden Spoon was "awarded" to Collingwood.
The reserves Grand Final was won by Essendon against St Kilda, the before the competition was merged with the Victorian Football League.

Notes

Richmond and Adelaide played in torrential and stormy conditions at Football Park in Round 9. Under new laws that were introduced following the power outage which interrupted a game at Waverley Park in 1996, the captains met in the centre to decide whether to call the game off at three quarter time (accepting the progress score as final), due to the thunder and lightning having put out two light towers during half time. At that stage, Adelaide led by a point, but the captains agreed to carry on with the game. Richmond ended up winning by 11 points.
Two rounds later, Richmond once again played in heavy and unrelenting rain at Football Park, this time against Port Adelaide. Port Adelaide won by the score of 4.8 (32) to 3.12 (30). It was Port Adelaide's lowest score, and remained as such until 2010, giving them the unique distinction during that period of time of having recorded a victory with their lowest score.
In round 10, Sydney's Tony Lockett kicked his 1300th career goal, breaking Gordon Coventry's 62-year standing record of 1299 career goals. Lockett still holds the record as of 2024.
Brisbane's half-time score of 21.5 (131) against Fremantle in round 20 set the new and enduring record for the highest half-time score in VFL/AFL history.
In their Round 12 game, Hawthorn trailed St Kilda by 63 points early in the second quarter before recovering to win by thirteen points. This set a new record for the largest ever comeback in a VFL/AFL game, a record which would stand until 2001.
The start of the Round 22 game between Richmond and Carlton at the Melbourne Cricket Ground was delayed by about half an hour after the scoreboard at the city end caught fire ten minutes before the scheduled bounce down. Players returned to the rooms, and much of the Ponsford Stand was evacuated onto the playing arena.
Collingwood lost 13 games in a row following on from the end of the previous season. They finally won against Fremantle in Round 8.
Port Adelaide's percentage of 90.12 remains the worst of any team in VFL/AFL history which qualified a team for the finals (excluding the seasons affected by World War I).
Waverley Park and Victoria Park both hosted their last senior AFL games in Round 22 – their absence would be replaced the following year by Colonial Stadium.

References

^ McCamish, Scott (25 September 1999). "1999 Grand Final Report". Australian Football Association of North America. Archived from the original on 18 July 2001. Retrieved 29 December 2023.

Sources

1999 AFL season at AFL Tables
1999 AFL season at Australian Football