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This page is a complete chronological listing of Australian Football League premiers. The Australian Football League (formerly called the Victorian Football League until 1990) is the elite competition in Australian rules football. The premiership is awarded to the club that wins the AFL Grand Final, with the exception of the league's inaugural season in 1897 and 1924, when a finals series system was used rather than a single Grand Final match.

Since the introduction by the League of equalisation policies of a salary cap and draft in the late 1980s,^[1] every AFL club has played finals football. Since 1998 every club has played in a preliminary final and ten of the sixteen clubs in the league have won a premiership in the past 14 seasons. This contrasts to the 23 seasons between 1967 and 1989 when only five of the then twelve clubs won premierships.

Results

VFL

AFL

• The change from the VFL to the AFL and the introduction of the AFL's equalisation policies of the Salary cap and the AFL Draft^[4] has resulted in a much greater even spread of teams being in contention for the Premiership. Only three teams, Richmond, Fremantle and Western Bulldogs, have not made the Grand Final since 1990, with 11 different premiers in that time, compared to only five clubs winning the previous 23 premierships.^[5]

Premiership tally

* Fremantle entered the league in 1995 and is the only club yet to win a premiership or play in a Grand Final
** Record refers to the success record for each club, calculated by dividing the number of Premierships by number of Grand Final appearances.

Recent history

Following are the most successful teams since the league has comprised the current sixteen teams (1997), with the teams ranked firstly by the number of Premierships won, and secondly by Grand Final appearances.

Premierships at all levels

This table summarises the premierships and silverware won by teams in all forms of the VFL/AFL. The statistics for the Minor Premiership are not included, as it did not attract its own trophy until 1991 (the McClelland Trophy). This incorporates Four competitions:

• VFL/AFL Seniors (1897-present)
• VFL/AFL Reserves (1919-1999) (VFL Seconds prior to 1959)
• VFL/AFL Under-19s (1946-1991) (VFL Thirds prior to 1959)
• Night Series / Pre-Season (1956-1971, 1977-present)

Efficiency of teams

In the interest of interpreting the premiership tallies to compare recently added non-Victorian teams and long-standing Victorian teams, this is the average number of years that each team takes to win a premiership.

• Essendon won premierships in 1897 and 1924 which were not decided by a Grand Final.

Longest premiership droughts

Dates given are the premiership years that started and ended the drought, unless the drought started at entry into the VFL/AFL (ent), or ended at folding/merging (def).

Current premiership droughts

Back To Back Premierships

Fitzroy (1898, 1899)

Collingwood (1902, 1903)

Fitzroy (1904, 1905)

Essendon (1911, 1912)

Carlton (1914, 1915)

Richmond (1920, 1921)

Essendon (1923, 1924)

Collingwood (1935, 1936)

Essendon (1949, 1950)

Geelong (1951, 1952)

Melbourne (1959, 1960)

Richmond (1973, 1974)

Carlton (1981, 1982)

Essendon (1984, 1985)

Hawthorn (1988, 1989)

Adelaide (1997, 1998)

Premiership History (2 out of 3)

Richmond (1932 P, 1933 RU, 1934 P)

Carlton (1968 P, 1969 RU, 1970 P)

North Melbourne (1975 P, 1976 RU, 1977 P)

Geelong (2007 P, 2008 RU, 2009 P)

Premiership Hat-Tricks

Carlton (1906, 1907 and 1908)

Melbourne (1939, 1940 and 1941)

Melbourne (1955, 1956 and 1957)

Brisbane Lions (2001, 2002 and 2003)

4 Premierships In A Row

Collingwood (1927, 1928, 1929 and 1930)

Notes

• From 2000 to 2004 a pattern emerged that the team that won the premiership 100 years earlier, lost the premiership 100 years later. In 1900, Melbourne won the premiership, 100 years later in 2000, Melbourne lost the Grand Final. In 1901, Essendon won the premiership, 100 years later in 2001, Essendon lost the Grand Final. Collingwood won the premierships in 1902 and 1903, but lost the Grand Finals in 2002 and 2003. And in 1904, Fitzroy won the premiership, and in 2004 the Brisbane Lions (made from the merger with Fitzroy and The Bears), lost the Grand Final.

• Collingwood has lost more Grand Finals than any other club: A total of 25, which is 9 more than any other club has won. This included 8 losses and a draw between 1958 and 1990, in a period of time referred to as the Colliwobbles.

• Collingwood holds the record for the most consecutive Premierships won with 4 in a row from 1927 to 1930. Three teams have won three premierships in a row: Carlton (1906-1908); Melbourne (1939-1941) & (1955-1957); Brisbane (2001-2003). All but one of those four teams had the opportunity to extend the streak in the following Grand Final, with Carlton falling two points short of South Melbourne in 1909, Melbourne losing to Collingwood in 1958, and Brisbane losing to Port Adelaide in 2004, while Melbourne did not even make the Finals in 1942.

• Only four teams have won five or more premierships in a decade: Collingwood (six) 1927-1936; Melbourne (six) 1955-1964; Carlton (five) 1906-1915; Hawthorn (five) 1983-1992. Only Melbourne has won five in a single calendar decade (the 1950s).

• In 1916 there were only 4 teams playing in the league due to World War I. Fitzroy ended the season in last place, but because the top 4 finals system was still in place, the Lions found form in the finals to eventually win the 1916 Premiership against Carlton. This is colloquially known as the only time a team has won the wooden spoon and premiership in the same season (although Fitzroy's finals success leads many to argue that Richmond received the spoon instead.)

References

See also

• List of Australian Football League premiership captains and coaches
• List of Australian Football League night premiers
• List of Australian Football League wooden spoons

Sources

• Australian Football League
• Full Points Footy
• AFL Tables