The 2007 AFL season was the 111th 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 30 March until 29 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top eight clubs.
Richmond‘s heavy defeat of 157 points vs Geelong was its biggest loss in the club's history while Geelong’s score of 35.12 (222) was also the highest score Richmond has conceded.
West Coast became the second team since the current finals system was established in 2000 to lose both of its finals after qualifying for the double chance by finishing in the top four.
On Thursday 8 February it was announced that the Seven Network (who had not broadcast AFL for five years) and Ten Network had reached an agreement to on-sell four games per round to pay-TV provider Foxtel.
In round 6, Geelong scored 35.12 (222) against Richmond, which was at the time the highest score kicked in an AFL game since quarters were shortened from twenty-five to twenty minutes in 1994. It was also the first time a team has scored over 200 points since round 22, 1995. Their winning margin of 157 points also broke the record for the same period, and they scored an all-time record 23 more goals than behinds, and an all-time record three-quarter time score of 29.9 (183). This was also Richmond’s biggest loss in its 99-year VFL/AFL history and as of 2022 remains the biggest winning margin for any game at Docklands Stadium.
In round 8, Hawthorn and St Kilda were widely criticised for their game, which in perfect weather yielded only seven goals in the first three-quarters (before opening up in the final quarter, where nine goals were kicked), and was described as boring by Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy.[17]
Round 12's game between Carlton and Hawthorn attracted 53,459 fans, breaking the record for the highest AFL crowd at Telstra Dome. In the same game, Hawthorn kicked their highest ever score against Carlton: 27.18 (180), and also achieved their greatest winning margin against Carlton, 100 points.[18]
Robert Harvey became just the 10th player in VFL/AFL history to reach 350 games, helping St Kilda defeat West Coast. The win was the second time in 60 games that a Victorian team had beaten West Coast at Subiaco Oval.[19]
On 24 August, the Seven Network broadcast some details obtained from players' confidential medical records on its nightly news program relating to the use of non-performance-enhancing drugs. It allegedly purchased these details for $3000 from a woman who found them in a gutter outside a medical clinic in Melbourne. The name of the club involved, Hawthorn, was revealed by Seven on air, but before the end of the news program (at which time Seven had promised to actually reveal the names of the players), the AFL obtained a court injunction from the Supreme Court of Victoria which prevented this – and which continues to suppress the publication of any part of the records, including the name of the club.[21] Because anonymity was guaranteed under the AFL's "three-strikes" drugs policy, the AFL players responded by boycotting the Seven Network, refusing to answer any questions posed by its journalists, including in matches broadcast by the network.[22] Shortly after the completion of round 22, faced with the possibility of ongoing player boycotts – including of the Brownlow Medal count[23] – the Seven Network issued a statement "regretting" any harm the broadcast may have caused to the AFL, the clubs and the players, and promised not to broadcast or reveal any of the details of the medical records in future.[24] The AFL Players Association took the "statement of regret" as an apology and the boycott was lifted.[25] The scandal came to be known as "Guttergate".[26]
The final game of the home-and-away season was particularly controversial as two teams, Melbourne and Carlton, each had records of 4–17, and had no chance of winning the wooden spoon, which had been won by Richmond (record of 3-18-1). Under priority draft pick rules, this meant that whichever team won the game would lose a potential priority draft pick (which would have been the first overall selection if Carlton had it, or pick No. 18 if Melbourne had it). Melbourne won by five goals in a game noted for a lack of defensive pressure, while many in the crowd openly supported their teams to defeat.
The second semi-final between West Coast and Collingwood went into extra time after scores were level at the end of regulation. This was only the second time that extra time has been used in an AFL game, and was also the second time that these teams had drawn in a final.
^"Hawks hammer hapless Blues". Official AFL Website of the Hawthorn Football Club. 15 June 2007. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 18 June 2007.
^"Connolly falls on his sword". Australian Broadcasting Corporation .au. 18 July 2007. Archived from the original on 24 August 2007. Retrieved 26 July 2007.
