2016 SANFL season

The 2016 South Australian National Football League season was the 137th season of the South Australian National Football League Australian rules football competition.
Two key new rules to be introduced for the 2016 season are:

Interchange rotations to be restricted to a total of fifty per team per game.
A free kick to be awarded against a player who kicks or handpasses the ball if it goes out of bounds without being touched by another player.

Both rules were more aggressive variants of similar rule changes later made in the AFL in 2016: the AFL limited interchanges to ninety per game, and adopted a stricter interpretation of deliberate out of bounds without automatically applying it to all untouched disposals out of bounds.
The season commenced on 24 March and concluded with the Grand Final on 25 September.
won their 14th premiership and first in 14 years, defeating minor premiers by 27 points in the Grand Final at Adelaide Oval.

Premiership season

Round 8

Round 16

Awards and premiers

Awards

The Magarey Medal was won by Zane Kirkwood of Sturt, who polled 24 votes. It was Kirkwood's second Magarey Medal having previously won in 2014.
The Ken Farmer Medal was won by Brett Eddy of South Adelaide. He kicked 68 goals in the 2016 home and away season.
The Stanley H. Lewis Memorial Trophy was won by Woodville West-Torrens, with 2975 points, which was 775 points ahead of second-place South Adelaide. It was the Eagles' 5th trophy having previously won in 1993, 2000, 2013 and 2015.
The R.O. Shearman Medal was won by Jared Petrenko of Woodville West-Torrens.Woodville-West Torrens were the league minor premiers, finishing top of the ladder at the end of the home and away season with 14 wins and 4 losses. It is the club's 6th minor premiership in the SANFL and their 2nd in succession.

Premiers

were the League premiers, defeating by 27 points.
were the Reserves premiers, defeating by 20 points.
were the Under 18 premiers, defeating by 1 point.