The2002 AFL season was the 106th season of theAustralian Football League (AFL), the highest level seniorAustralian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured sixteen clubs, ran from 28 March until 28 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by afinals series featuring the top eight clubs.

The premiership was won by theBrisbane Lions for the second time and second time consecutively, after it defeatedCollingwood by nine points in theAFL Grand Final.

See2002 AFL Draft.

Port Adelaide defeatedRichmond 10.11 (71) to 9.8 (62) in the final.

All teams played 22 games during the home and away season, for a total of 176. An additional 9 games were played during the finals series.

Note: Adelaide played its "home" final at the MCG despite being ranked above Melbourne 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.

Total match attendance for all games was 5,643,908 people. Attendance at the Grand Final was 91,817 people. The largest non-finals attendance was 84,894 people for theCollingwood vEssendon game in round 5.

• TheBrownlow Medal was awarded toSimon Black of theBrisbane Lions.
• TheLeigh Matthews Trophy was awarded toLuke Darcy of theWestern Bulldogs andMichael Voss of theBrisbane Lions.
  • This was the first year for this award under this name. Previously, it was theAFL Players Association MVP Award.
• TheColeman Medal was awarded toDavid Neitz ofMelbourne.
• TheNorm Smith Medal was awarded toNathan Buckley ofCollingwood.
• TheAFL Rising Star award was awarded toNick Riewoldt ofSt Kilda.

• For the first time since 1965, no player kicked ten goals or more in a match.
• Collingwood would appear in the finals for the first time since 1994, breaking an eight year drought, the longest in club history. They would also win their first final in twelve years since their last premiership in 1990, also the longest drought of finals wins in club history.
• Carlton won the wooden spoon for the first time. Carlton was the last of the twelve traditional Victorian clubs to win the wooden spoon in the VFL/AFL.
• Carlton played only four home games atOptus Oval, after arranging a deal to play four home games atColonial Stadium. In order for the AFL to meet its contractual obligation to stage nine games per year at Optus Oval, six neutral games between a low-drawing Victorian team and an interstate team were staged at the venue. The unpopular venture was not repeated, as all of the home teams in these neutral games lost money due to poor crowds and, in many cases, conflicting sponsorship deals.^[2]
• Even though Adelaide was entitled to a home Semi-Final after losing its Qualifying Final to Brisbane, the game was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground due to a licence agreement which required at least one game to be played at the ground during each week of the finals.
• At the end of the season, the Carlton Football Club was found to have systematicallybreached the salary cap in 2000 and 2001. The club was fined and stripped of draft picks in the following two drafts, hampering their on-field results and long-term playing list rebuild in subsequent seasons.
• Sydney coachRodney Eade resigned followinground 12, after the Swans slumped to 14th on the ladder. He was eventually replaced byPaul Roos on a full-time basis, despite the board pushing forTerry Wallace, who resigned as coach of theWestern Bulldogs with one round to play in the regular season, to be appointed.^[3] Roos would later coach the side to the premiership in2005 before stepping down at the end of the2010 season.^[4][5]

• 2002 Season – AFL Tables

• 2002 in Australian rules football
• Australian Football League seasons
• 2002 Australian Football League season

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