2003 AFL season

The 2003 AFL season was the 107th season of the Australian Football League, the highest level of senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured sixteen clubs, ran from 28 March until 27 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a 2003 [AFL finals series|finals series] featuring the top eight clubs.
The premiership was won by the Brisbane Lions for the third time and third time consecutively, after they defeated by 50 points in the AFL Grand Final.

AFL Draft

''See 2003 AFL draft.''

Wizard Home Loans Cup

The 2003 Wizard Home Loans Cup saw defeat 15.14 to 10.13 in the final.

Premiership season

Round 11

The Kangaroos-Richmond game was especially notable for being the comeback of Kangaroos player Jason McCartney from life-threatening burns suffered in the 2002 Bali bombings. McCartney retired immediately after the match.

Round 21

The Sydney-Collingwood game is notable as it is the highest attended Australian rules football match ever played outside of Victoria.

Ladder

Match attendance

Total match attendance for all games was 5,872,352 people. Attendance at the grand final was 79,451 people. The largest non-finals attendance was 72,393 people for the vs game in round 21.

Awards

The Brownlow Medal was awarded to Mark Ricciuto of Adelaide, Nathan Buckley of Collingwood, and Adam Goodes of Sydney.
The Leigh Matthews Trophy was awarded to Michael Voss of the Brisbane Lions.
The Coleman Medal was awarded to Matthew Lloyd of Essendon.
The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Simon Black of the Brisbane Lions.
The AFL [Rising Star award] was awarded to Sam Mitchell of Hawthorn.
The Wooden Spoon was "awarded" to the Western Bulldogs for coming last.

Notable events

captain Chris Grant suffered a season-ending knee injury in his side's round one win over. His absence in the team was severely felt as the Bulldogs ended up finishing last on the AFL ladder.
forward Matthew Lloyd would kick 11 goals in his side's 67-point win in Round 19 over the to surpass Simon Madden as the record holder for most goals kicked by an Essendon player in the club's history.