The 2011 AFL season was the 115th 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 seventeen clubs, with the newly established Gold Coast Suns, based in Gold Coast, Queensland, playing its inaugural season. The season ran from 24 March until 1 October, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top eight clubs.
The 2011 Pre-season and Rookie Drafts were held on 7 December 2010, with another 80 players being selected. Greater Western Sydney, set to join the AFL as a senior club in 2012, had the first eight selections in the Rookie Draft as part of its draft concessions.[3]
The 2011 NAB Cup featured all seventeen senior clubs, as well as Greater Western Sydney which would not join the AFL as a senior club until 2012. The first round of matches featured lightning football matches played among six pools of three teams; standard matches were played for the rest of the competition. Collingwood defeated Essendon in the Grand Final at Etihad Stadium on Friday, 11 March.
The fixture was announced on 29 October.[4] Some of the highlights included:
Gold Coast had a bye for the first round and played its first home match in the second round against Carlton at the Gabba. Its first match at its permanent home ground, the renovated Metricon Stadium, was against Geelong on 28 May.
The season had 24 rounds; 19 rounds featured eight matches with one team having a bye, and five rounds featured seven matches with three teams having a bye. There were eleven additional matches compared with 2010, giving a total of 196 games including finals, up from 185.[5]
The new club, Gold Coast, made its AFL Premiership debut against Carlton at The Gabba. Carlton's score of 26.15 (171) was its highest in a match since 2000; and the winning margin, 119 points, was its greatest since 2001.[7]
Richmond drew with St Kilda, ending the club's 13-game losing streak against the Saints, but extending the winless streak against the same opponent to 14 games. Richmond had not beaten St Kilda since round 4, 2003.
The longest and second longest active streaks of consecutive games played were both broken this weekend: Kane Cornes of Port Adelaide was omitted after 174 consecutive games, and Collingwood's Darren Jolly was out injured after 142 consecutive matches.[9]
Gold Coast recorded its first victory at AFL premiership level, defeating Port Adelaide by three points. Gold Coast trailed by 40 points late in the third quarter, before recovering to win the match; Port Adelaide's Justin Westhoffmissed a 45m set shot after the siren which would have won the game for Port Adelaide.[10]
Essendon's scored 15.4 (94) in the first quarter against Gold Coast. It was the second highest score by any club in a quarter of football and as of 2022 stands as the highest-scoring first quarter of all time.[11]
Essendon's final score of 31.11 (197) was its highest since 2000, and its final winning margin of 139 points was its highest since 1989.[12]
In a VFL/AFL first, twin brothers Chris Scott (Geelong) and Brad Scott (North Melbourne) faced each other as coaches. It was the first of many matches the pair coached against each other over the following nine seasons.[13]
Geelong recorded its 25th consecutive victory at Kardinia Park, breaking the VFL/AFL record for most successive wins at one venue.[14] The record was previously held jointly by Richmond at Punt Road Oval (1932–1935) and South Melbourne at Lake Oval (1934–1936).[15] Geelong would ultimately extend the streak to 29 wins before losing to Sydney in round 23.
The two Queensland teams, Gold Coast and the Brisbane Lions, played their first ever regular-season game against each other, known as the QClash.[16]
West Coast set new records for the club's highest score, 26.19 (175), and greatest winning margin, 123 points, in matches against the Western Bulldogs.[18] It was the Bulldogs' worst defeat since round 2, 1996.[19]
Adelaide's score of 3.6 (24) set a new record as the lowest match score ever in club history, breaking the previous club record of 4.7 (31) set in round 7, 1991;[27] and, it set a new record as the lowest match score ever at Etihad Stadium.[28] It was the lowest score conceded in a match by St Kilda since round 12, 1971.[29] Following the loss, Neil Craig stepped down as Adelaide head coach, effective immediately, and was replaced by Mark Bickley as caretaker.[30]
A new record crowd for any event at Metricon Stadium was set when 23,302 spectators watched Gold Coast play Collingwood. Reportedly, 7,000 of those spectators were Collingwood supporters who made the trip from Melbourne to watch the match.[31]
Geelong's final score of 37.11 (233) stands, as of 2023, as the second-highest ever scored by Geelong, the second-highest score ever conceded by Melbourne, the highest score ever at Skilled Stadium, the fourth-highest score of all-time, and the highest score by any team since quarters were shortened to 20 minutes in 1994.[33][34][35]
Geelong's final winning margin of 186 points stands, as of 2023, as Geelong's highest ever, the highest ever at Skilled Stadium, the second-highest ever conceded by Melbourne, the second-highest of all-time, and the largest since quarters were shortened to 20 minutes in 1994.
Geelong's second quarter score of 12.1 (73) was the highest ever by Geelong, and the equal-highest ever conceded by Melbourne.[36]
Geelong recorded 510 disposals through the game, a new record.[37]
Melbourne coach Dean Bailey was sacked by the club at an emergency board meeting on the day after the 186-point loss, to be replaced immediately by Todd Viney as caretaker.[38]
Port Adelaide's final score of 3.3 (21) and its losing margin of 138 points against Collingwood were in both cases new records as the worst in club history; the new record-losing margin for the club lasted only until the following round. Port Adelaide's total of six scoring shots was the fewest in club history, and the fewest by any team since round 12, 1971.[41] For Collingwood, the winning margin was its highest since round 4, 1979, and the third biggest win in its history.[42]
Hawthorn's winning margin of 165 points against Port Adelaide was: the highest winning margin in Hawthorn's history,surpassing the previous record of 160 points set in 1992);[43] the highest winning margin by any club at the MCG;[44] and the highest losing margin in Port Adelaide's history (surpassing the record of 138 points set the previous week).[41]
This was the last round coached for the season by Western Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade. His contract was not renewed for 2012, and he elected to stand aside immediately rather than complete the season. Paul Williams replaced him as caretaker for the last three matches.[citation needed]
The Port Adelaide vs Melbourne match was originally scheduled to be played at AAMI Stadium. On 30 June 2011, the AFL announced the match would be moved to the Adelaide Oval. This was the first AFL match to be played at the venue.[47]
Port Adelaide's win over Melbourne ended a club record 11-match losing streak and lifted it off the bottom of the ladder.[48] This ensured that Gold Coast finished its inaugural AFL season with the wooden spoon.
The elimination final between Carlton and Essendon had an attendance of 90,161, the largest crowd for an elimination final in VFL/AFL history. This record stood until 2013.[49]
The issue of betting became prominent during the 2011 season. The previous few years had seen other sports compromised by major spot-fixing scandals – most notably the Pakistan cricket spot-fixing controversy – so the issue was already well publicised at the time. The AFL had in place a strict policy prohibiting anyone involved in the AFL from placing any bet on any AFL outcome.
Early in the season, it emerged that there were several suspicious plunges on players who were usually defenders to kick the first goal of a match; in each case, the player unexpectedly started in the forward-line, indicating that the plunges may have been caused by team information somehow leaking to punters. Five suspicious plunges on defenders for the first goal were identified during the season:
Nathan Bock was the only of the five players to kick the first goal of his respective match. The cases all raised concerns about "exotic bets" and the risk of spot-fixing, although in no case was a deliberate attempt at spot-fixing ever implicated.
The controversy deepened prior to round 17, when the investigation into the Maxwell plunge revealed that Heath Shaw was implicated in bets placed on Maxwell's first goal. Shaw and a friend from outside the Collingwood Football Club were found to have placed a shared $20 bet on Maxwell for first goal at a TAB venue, using Shaw's knowledge from team meetings that Maxwell would be starting forward; that friend had later placed two more bets on Maxwell worth $15, shared with another friend. Shaw was penalised by the league under the anti-gambling code, receiving a suspension of eight matches, with a further suspended sentence of six matches, and was fined $20,000.[74]
In their respective investigations, it was found that both Nick Maxwell and Nathan Bock had informed family members and friends that they would be starting in the forward-line before their respective plunges, and, unbeknownst to the players, those family members and friends then placed bets. Maxwell was fined $5,000, with a further suspended fine of $5,000,[74] and Bock was fined $10,000 and suspended for two matches.[75]
Following round 24, Essendon assistant coach Dean Wallis was found to have placed three separate FootyQuad bets worth a total of $400 during the latter half of the season, one of which included a leg which involved an Essendon match. Wallis was fined $7,500, and suspended for fourteen matches (the suspension prevents him from participating on match-day, and from interacting directly with his players during training, until the suspension is complete).[76]
The AFL introduced a new interchange rule. The standard interchange system was reduced from four players to three players. A fourth player is named as a substitute, and begins the game wearing a green vest. The substitute can be brought on at any point in the game, permanently replacing any player on the bench or the field. The player being replaced must wear a red vest when leaving the ground. This rule was predominantly introduced to keep the number of players able to participate in the game for each team equal, even if a severe injury occurs.[96]
The rules for calling "advantage" after a free kick were amended, to allow the players, rather than the umpires, make the decision on whether or not they see an advantage in continuous play.[97]
^Gill, Katrina (27 September 2011). "Coaches vote Murphy best". Australian Football League. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
^Whiting, Michael (10 September 2011). "Rockliff wins top honour". AFL BigPond Network. Archived from the original on 11 October 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
^Whiting, Michael (9 September 2011). "Ablett shines brightest". AFL BigPond Network. Archived from the original on 11 October 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
^McNicol, Adam (13 September 2011). "Cotchin named top Tiger". AFL BigPond Network. Archived from the original on 11 October 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
^Denham, Greg; Smith, Patrick (24 May 2011). "AFL probes betting leaks". The Australian. Archived from the original on 22 October 2012. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
^ abTormey, Michael (26 January 2011). "Captain in waiting". Official AFL Website. Archived from the original on 29 January 2011. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
^Ryan, Peter (21 January 2011). "Leader of the pack". AFL – The official site of the Australian Football League. Archived from the original on 7 October 2012. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
^Witham, Jennifer (31 January 2011). "AFL's red-vest rule". AFL BigPond Network. Archived from the original on 7 October 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2011.
