2006 AFL season

The 2006 AFL season was the 110th 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 30 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 West Coast Eagles for the third time, after it defeated by one point in the AFL Grand Final.

Pre-season competition
3.10.5 (92) defeated 1.10.15 (84) in the 2006 NAB Cup Final. The game was held at AAMI Stadium, with an attendance of 30,707.

Awards

 * The Brownlow Medal was awarded 25 September 2006 to Adam Goodes from, for the AFL's best and fairest player.
 * The Leigh Matthews Trophy was awarded to Chris Judd from as the AFL Players Association's most valuable player.
 * The Coleman Medal was awarded to Brendan Fevola from . It was the first time since 1965 that the season's leading goalkicker came from the wooden spoon side, and the fourth (and, as of 2022, most recent) time overall.
 * The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Andrew Embley from as the player best afield in the 2006 AFL Grand Final.
 * The AFL Rising Star award goes to Danyle Pearce from.
 * The McClelland Trophy was awarded to for finishing on top of the ladder after the regular season.
 * The Wooden Spoon was "awarded" to for finishing 16th on the AFL ladder for the second straight year under Denis Pagan.
 * The 2006 All-Australian Team has been announced, with 10 debutants and Brad Johnson named as captain.
 * The AFL Mark of the Year was awarded to Brad Ottens from for his mark in round 5.
 * The AFL Goal of the Year was awarded to Eddie Betts from for his goal in round 21.

Best and fairests

 * Adelaide: Simon Goodwin
 * Brisbane: Simon Black
 * Carlton: Lance Whitnall
 * Collingwood: Alan Didak
 * Essendon: Scott Lucas
 * Fremantle: Matthew Pavlich
 * Geelong: Paul Chapman
 * Hawthorn: Sam Mitchell


 * Kangaroos: Brady Rawlings
 * Melbourne: James McDonald
 * Port Adelaide: Brendon Lade
 * Richmond: Kane Johnson
 * St Kilda: Nick Riewoldt
 * Sydney: Adam Goodes
 * West Coast: Chris Judd
 * Western Bulldogs: Brad Johnson

Notable events

 * The Melbourne Cricket Ground was unavailable until round 4, due to its use as the main athletics stadium at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, which concluded just four days prior to the season starting.
 * Matthew Lloyd, in only his third game as captain, injured his hamstring against the, ending his season.  This marked the Bulldogs' first victory over Essendon since inflicting their only defeat of the 2000 season. Despite a first round thrashing of reigning premiers , in which Lloyd kicked eight goals on Leo Barry,  Essendon would suffer its worst season since 1933, winning only two further matches and drawing one against , and just avoiding the wooden spoon to the Blues on percentage.
 * In Round 5, and 's game ended in controversy after the final siren was not heard by umpires, with the extra time allowing St Kilda to level the scores – the result was changed by the AFL commission later in the week on the basis that the timekeeper had failed to perform his duties.
 * The amended result proved crucial to the end-of-season ladder standings, because had the draw stood, St Kilda would have finished in the top four at the expense of reigning premiers Sydney, which would've finished fifth and therefore missed out on the double chance in the finals.
 * suffered three 100-point losses in season 2006, against the in round 1 (115 points),  in round 7 (118 points) and  in round 17 (103 points).
 * A struggling Richmond team defeated league-leaders Adelaide in round 8 in an often-discussed game. To counteract Adelaide's strong flood, Richmond slowly built up a lead by patiently controlling the football without ever kicking to a contest, a move described as both boring and brilliant. In the final quarter, Adelaide were forced to switch to man-on-man tactics, almost erasing the deficit, but falling three points short. In executing this plan, Richmond took 181 marks, which is the highest amount ever (recorded since 1987).
 * In round 8, Brendan Fevola became the first player to kick all of his team's goals in a game since Mark Arceri in 1991 (also while playing for Carlton, kicking their only goal). Of Carlton's 4.10 (34), Fevola contributed 4.5 (29), Simon Wiggins scored two behinds, and three behinds were rushed. He also became the first player in 41 years to win a Coleman Medal from the wooden spoon winning side.
 * St Kilda broke two long winning droughts at the SCG and the Gabba by beating Sydney and Brisbane in rounds 11 and 22 respectively. The latter match was Michael Voss' final game for the Lions.
 * For the first time in VFL/AFL history, four non-Victorian teams filled the top four with, , and  all earning the double chance. The remainder of the top eight were filled by teams based in Victoria.
 * Bottom teams and  had a draw in round 16, 2006. Carlton's Eddie Betts scored the match-tying goal with under one minute remaining to deny Essendon what would have been just their second win for the season. Essendon would eventually achieve that the following week. This match was dubbed the "Bryce Gibbs Cup", named after the young Glenelg midfielder who was expected to be, and ultimately was, drafted with the first pick at the end of the year, by the media as both teams were firmly rooted to the bottom of the ladder leading into their match.
 * In the second Qualifying Final, beat minor premiers  by a solitary point, the final scores reading 85 to 84. When the teams met again in the grand final, the final scores were also 85 to 84, but it was West Coast that claimed the victory.
 * Rohan Smith and Scott West each played their 300th games for the in the club's 74-point defeat to  in the semi-final. For Smith, this was his final AFL game.
 * A major flaw of the fixture was that the previous season's Grand Finalists, West Coast and Sydney, did not meet until round 15 of the regular season. The 294-day wait between the 2005 Grand Final and their round 15 rematch on July 15 set a record for the longest wait between a Grand Final and the rematch, until this was surpassed in 2020 (a 300-day wait for and  between their meeting in the 2019 Grand Final and their rematch in Round 8 of the COVID-19-affected 2020 season).

End of season

 * John Barker –
 * Mark Chaffey –
 * Barnaby French –
 * Saverio Rocca –
 * Jarrad Schofield –
 * Brad Scott –
 * Greg Stafford –


 * Chad Morrison –
 * Adam Kingsley –
 * Stephen Powell –
 * Justin Peckett –
 * Michael Voss – (due to being contracted until the end of the 2007 AFL season he was still on Brisbane's list in 2007)
 * Rohan Smith –
 * Drew Banfield –

Delistings

 * Jayden Attard –
 * Matthew Ball –
 * Matthew Bishop –
 * Luke Forsyth –
 * Ben Hart –
 * Clark Keating –
 * Andrew Kellaway –


 * Troy Makepeace –
 * Marty Pask –
 * Justin Perkins –
 * Mark Powell –
 * Cameron Thurley –