2019 AFL season

Rule changes

• Starting positions were mandated at centre bounces, with each team required to have six players inside each 50m arc – including one in each goal square – four players in the centre square and two along the wings. A team guilty of the 6-6-6 rule, as it became known, received one warning per game, then conceded a free kick on subsequent infractions.
• At kick-ins after behinds, the full back was no longer required to kick to himself to play on from the goal square, and the man on the mark was positioned 10m from the kick-off line instead of 5m.
• The spot of any mark or free kick received within nine metres of a player's defensive goal line would be brought back to the nine-metre line, rather than remaining at the spot of the mark or free kick.
• Team runners were no longer permitted to enter the playing surface except for the break in play after a goal had been kicked; water carriers were also forbidden from entering during live play.
• The protocol for a 50-metre penalty was amended, allowing the player with the ball to advance to the new mark at his own pace without being interfered with by an opponent, and with the right to play on at any time while the 50m penalty was being measured out. Previously, measuring out a 50m penalty was done with time off.
• The push-in-the-back rule was relaxed, allowing a player to place his hands on the back of his opponent to protect his position in a marking contest, provided he does not push. This removed the more stringent interpretation added in 2007 which saw a free kick to penalised any use of hands on an opponent's back in a marking contest.
• The concept of prior opportunity as it applied to holding the ball was formally defined for the first time as part of a copyedit of the rule. The only change to the intent of the rule was that a ruckman who takes direct possession of the ball in a ruck contest was no longer considered to have had prior opportunity – removing a provision which had existed since 2003.

Pre-season

Premiership season

• replacing in hosting in Shanghai.
• Tony Ireland Stadium in Townsville hosted an AFL premiership match for the first time, when played in round 13. The fixture replaced the game held in Cairns between 2011 and 2018.
• hosted for the Queen's Birthday match for the first time since 1999.

Round 8

Round 16

Win/loss table

Ladder

Ladder progression

• Numbers highlighted in green indicates the team finished the round inside the top 8.
• Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished in first place on the ladder in that round.
• Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished in last place on the ladder in that round.
• Underlined numbers indicates the team had a bye during that round.
• Subscript numbers indicate ladder position at round's end.

Awards

Major awards

• The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to 's Dustin Martin.
• The Brownlow Medal was awarded to 's Nat Fyfe.
• The Leigh Matthews Trophy was awarded to 's Patrick Cripps.
• The Coleman Medal was awarded to 's Jeremy Cameron.
• The Goal of the Year was awarded to 's Eddie Betts.
• The Mark of the Year was awarded to 's Liam Ryan.
• The AFL Rising Star was awarded to Carlton's Sam Walsh.

Coleman Medal

• Larger numbers indicate number of goals scored in each round. Subscript numbers indicate total cumulative goals scored through that round.
• Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the player led the Coleman Medal at the end of that round.
• Numbers underlined indicates the player did not play in that round.

Player milestones