2000 AFL season

The 2000 AFL season was the 104th season of the Australian Football League, the highest-level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season featured 16 clubs and ran from 8 March until 2 September, comprising a 22-match home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top eight clubs. The season was scheduled earlier than usual to avoid a clash with the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.
won the premiership, defeating by 60 points in the 2000 AFL Grand Final; it was Essendon's 16th VFL/AFL premiership. Essendon also won the minor premiership by finishing atop the home-and-away ladder with a 21–1 win–loss record, with its home-and-away and overall win–loss records standing as the best in the league's history. Melbourne's Shane Woewodin won the Brownlow Medal as the league's best and fairest player, and Essendon's Matthew Lloyd won the Coleman Medal as the league's leading goalkicker.

Ansett Australia Cup

The 2000 pre-season began with the 2000 Ansett Australia Cup. Unlike most pre-season competitions which start in February, the 2000 series started on 31 December 1999 with a one-off "Match of the Millennium" between and, which was notable for Brendan Fevola kicking twelve goals, a pre-season record. defeated the by 41 points in the grand final.

Home-and-away season

All starting times are local time. Source:

Round 8

Round 16

Ladder

Progression by round

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22
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Home matches and membership

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Finals series

All starting times are local time. Source:

Win/loss table

The following table can be sorted from biggest winning margin to biggest losing margin for each round. If two or more matches in a round are decided by the same margin, these margins are sorted by percentage. Opponents are listed above the margins and home matches are in bold.
Source:

Season notes

became the first team in VFL/AFL history to win 21 matches in a home-and-away season.
By winning the grand final, Essendon set a new record for the most wins in a season ; the club also set a new record for the highest average winning margin in a season.
Due to a major upgrade of the Gabba, the Brisbane Lions played their first four regular season games away from home. They were also the only non-Victorian club to qualify for the finals.
This is the season when the current finals format was introduced.

Awards

Major awards

The Brownlow Medal was awarded to Shane Woewodin of Melbourne.
The Coleman Medal was awarded to Matthew Lloyd of Essendon.
The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to James Hird of Essendon.
The AFL Rising Star was awarded to Paul Hasleby of Fremantle.
The wooden spoon was "awarded" to St Kilda.

Leading goalkickers