2024 AFL season

The 2024 AFL season was the 128th season of the Australian Football League, the highest-level senior men's Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season featured 18 clubs and ran from 7 March to 28 September, comprising a 23-match home-and-away season over 25 rounds, followed by a four-week finals series featuring the top eight clubs.
The won the premiership, defeating by 60 points in the 2024 AFL Grand Final; it was the Lions' fourth AFL premiership. Sydney won the minor premiership by finishing atop the home-and-away ladder with a 17–6 win–loss record. 's Patrick Cripps won his second Brownlow Medal as the league's best and fairest player, breaking the record for most votes polled using the 3–2–1 voting system with 45, and 's Jesse Hogan won the Coleman Medal as the league's leading goalkicker.

Background

In November 2023, the AFL and Seven Network announced that the usual start times for Thursday and Friday night matches would be brought forward by ten minutes to 7:30pm and 7:40pm, respectively, for the upcoming season, in response to feedback from fans.

Club leadership

Caretaker coaches are italicised.

Pre-season

All starting times are local time. Source:

Season events

Andrew Dillon took over as CEO of the AFL from this season, commencing in October 2023. Dillon replaced Gillon McLachlan, who had served in the role since 2014.
On 20 February 2024, goal umpire Jesse Baird was scheduled to officiate a practice match between and, but did not arrive at the match. One day later, New South Wales Police alleged Baird and his partner, Luke Davies, were murdered. Before the start of the and match, both teams formed a minute silence in the middle of the field, along with the umpires, in honoring Jesse Baird.
In an effort to grow the game in the northern states, the season featured an "Opening Round" wherein two matches in Sydney, one in Brisbane and one on the Gold Coast were played, prior to round 1.
Following its successful first iteration in 2023, Gather Round, a special round featuring all 18 clubs playing in the same region, was held for the second time in South Australia; it was held in round 4, from 4 to 7 April.
Following the season, several players were sanctioned by the AFL for inappropriate costumes worn and skits performed at their Wacky Wednesday celebrations. Captain Toby Greene was among seven players fined $5,000 for lack of leadership, Josh Fahey was suspended for four matches, and five other players were each suspended for two matches.

Home-and-away season

All starting times are local time. Source:

Round 7

Round 15

Round 23

Ladder

Progression by round

Team	O	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24
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Source:

Home matches and membership

The following table includes all home match attendance figures from the home-and-away season, excluding neutral matches.
Source:

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 multiple matches in a round are decided by the same margin, these margins are sorted by percentage. Home matches are in bold, neutral matches are underlined and opponents are listed above the margins.
Source:

Season notes

In 2024, the AFL recorded the three highest-attended home-and-away rounds in VFL/AFL history, with cumulative attendances of 413,405 in round 1, 408,433 in round 7 and 403,452 in round 8, after only recording a cumulative attendance of over 400,000 once previously.
For the first time in VFL/AFL history, both reigning grand finalists – and the – lost their first two matches of the following season; both clubs eventually lost their first three matches.
won 13 of its first 14 matches of the season, its best start to a season since 1918.
Charlie Curnow kicked multiple goals in each of his club's first 15 matches of the season, the longest such streak since 2009.
The AFL broke the record club membership tally by the end of July, a month before the cutoff date, eventually setting a new record of 1,319,687; 13 clubs achieved record tallies, with eight clubs recording increases of over 10% on their 2023 figures.
qualified for finals after losing its first five matches of the season, its worst start to a season in which it qualified for finals; its four losses after round 5 were the fewest by any club for the remainder of the home-and-away season.
The AFL recorded a cumulative attendance of 7,756,268 for the home-and-away season, breaking the VFL/AFL home-and-away attendance record set the previous season.

Milestones

Source: ; other milestones sourced individually

Awards

Major awards

The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to the ' Will Ashcroft.
The Brownlow Medal was awarded to 's Patrick Cripps, who broke the record for most votes polled using the 3–2–1 voting system with 45.
The Leigh Matthews Trophy was awarded to the ' Marcus Bontempelli.
The Coleman Medal was awarded to 's Jesse Hogan.
The Goal of the Year was awarded to 's Harley Reid.
The Mark of the Year was awarded to 's Bobby Hill.
The AFL Rising Star was awarded to 's Ollie Dempsey.

Leading goalkickers