2015 AFL season

The 2015 AFL season was the 119th season of the Australian Football League, the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured eighteen clubs, ran from 2 April until 3 October, 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 Hawthorn Football Club for the 13th time and third time consecutively, after it defeated by 46 points in the 2015 AFL Grand Final.
The season was marred by the mid-season death of senior coach Phil Walsh, who was the victim of a domestic incident. Adelaide's following match was cancelled.

Pre-season

All Stars game

The biennial All Stars game, this year played in Western Australia, featuring an AFL team and the Indigenous All Stars team made up of some of the best Indigenous players in the game, returned for the 2015 pre-season. was the All Stars' opponent, and the match was played at Medibank Stadium in Perth.

NAB Challenge

The pre-season series of matches, known as the 2015 NAB Challenge, featured 27 practice matches played over 25 days, beginning 26 February and ending 22 March. The matches were stand-alone in nature, with no overall winner crowned for the series. Each team played three pre-season games, many of which were played at suburban or regional venues, with most games televised on Fox Footy. The nine-point super goal was used in these matches.

Premiership season

Notable features of the draw include:

To address poor attendances and late-finishing matches, all Saturday night matches on the east coast were brought forward by 20 minutes, with matches in this timeslot now starting at 7:20 pm and Saturday twilight matches were brought forward by five minutes to start at 4:35 pm. Matches in Adelaide and Perth retained their respective local starting times of 7:10 pm and 5:40 pm.
Many of the grounds used by the AFL hosted games in the 2015 Cricket World Cup, which ended on 29 March. Consequently, the season started and finished slightly later than in previous years, with the Grand Final scheduled for the first Saturday in October instead of the customary last Saturday in September.
Due to the Sydney Royal Easter Show, Greater Western Sydney's primary home ground was unavailable until round 6, therefore the club's first two home games were at its secondary home ground, StarTrack Oval, in rounds 2 and 4.
Mother's Day Round saw six matches played on Saturday instead of the usual five, with only two matches played on Mother's Day itself. This was repeated in [|round 23], with no twilight game on the Sunday.
The Friday before the Grand Final became a public holiday in Victoria, following an election promise by the incoming state government, under the premiership of Daniel Andrews.
All starting times are local.
Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Round 22

Round 23

Season notes

secured the minor premiership for the first time in its history.
and finished first and second on the ladder respectively, the first time two teams from the same state outside of Victoria had finished in the top two positions.
missed the finals for the first time since 2006.
was the first minor premier to fail to reach the Grand Final since in 2005.
became the first team in history to finish the home-and-away season in eighth position and qualify for a preliminary final.
's score of 27.11 against in [|round 17] was the highest score posted by any side, while 's score of 4.6 against in round 23 was the lowest.
Matt Priddis set a new record for most handpasses in a season. Priddis reached a total of 472 handpasses, surpassing the previous record of 445 set by Gary Ablett, Jr. in 2009.
Todd Goldstein set a new record for most hit-outs in a season. Goldstein's final tally of 1,058 surpassed the previous record of 952 set by Gary Dempsey in 1982. Aaron Sandilands, who had 998 hit-outs for the season, also passed Dempsey's old record.
Win/loss table

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	F1	F2	F3	GF	Ladder
											X			Geel C												X	X	7
											X													X	X	X	X	17
											X													X	X	X	X	18
												X												X	X	X	X	12
												X												X	X	X	X	15
												X													X		X	1
													X	Adel C										X	X	X	X	10
												X												X	X	X	X	16
													X											X	X	X	X	11
											X																	3
													X											X	X	X	X	13
													X														X	8
													X											X	X	X	X	9
											X														X	X	X	5
												X												X	X	X	X	14
												X														X	X	4
													X												X			2
											X														X	X	X	6
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	F1	F2	F3	GF	Ladder

Bold – Home game

X – Bye

C – Cancelled

Opponent for round listed above margin