1994 AFL season

Essendon 15.12 (102) defeated Adelaide 9.14 (68) in the final.

All teams played 22 games during the home and away season, for a total of 165. An additional 9 games were played during the finals series. It was the first season that the AFL implemented a top 8 team finals series.

• The Brownlow Medal was awarded to Greg Williams of Carlton.
• The Leigh Matthews Trophy was awarded to Greg Williams of Carlton.
• The Coleman Medal was awarded to Gary Ablett of Geelong.
• The Norm Smith Medal was awarded to Dean Kemp of West Coast.
• The AFL Rising Star award was awarded to Chris Scott of Brisbane Bears.
• The Wooden Spoon was "awarded" to Sydney.

• The AFL increased the number of interchange players from two to three which, when added to the "run on" team of 18 on-the-field players, increased the standard team squad size to 21 players.
• The AFL increased the number of field umpires in each game from two to three.
• The size of each club's senior playing list was significantly reduced from 52 to 42 players from the 1994 season (with the exception of the struggling Sydney, which was granted a list of 50 players). Victorian clubs could list ten players on a supplementary list to make up the numbers in their reserves teams, but those players were not eligible for AFL senior selection. The change was part of an AFL Commission plan to completely abolish the Victorian clubs' reserves competition by 1995, but this final stage did not occur until 2000.[1]
• The playing time allocated to each of a match's four-quarters was adjusted for this season. Playing time was reduced from 25 to 20 minutes, but additional stoppages (including all scores and boundary throw-ins) attracted "time-on" allocations; the total reduction of playing time was approximately 10%.[2]
• Advertising was permitted for the first time on the backs of guernseys. Small sponsors' logos had previously been permitted over the breast and on the shorts, but the new regulations allowed for logos 30 cm long and 8 cm high below the number on the back of the guernsey, which has since become the prime advertising location on guernseys. Under the original rules, the logo was required to be consistent with the colour of the guernsey, a stipulation which has since been relaxed.[3]
• Fitzroy moved its match-day home ground from Princes Park (which, due to the first ever ground naming rights deal affecting an AFL venue, became known as Optus Oval from this season) to the Western Oval. However, this left Carlton as the sole tenant of Optus Oval, and an existing arrangement between Carlton and the AFL required eighteen matches to be played there during the year; consequently, Fitzroy and the MCG's four co-tenants (Essendon, Richmond, Melbourne and North Melbourne) were each forced to play one or two home games at Optus Oval to make up the balance.[4]
• Starting from Round 20, the "blood rule" was introduced in order to allay fears raised by the threat of AIDS. Under the rule, any bleeding player would be sent from the field by the umpires until his wound had been covered or closed and any blood-stained gear replaced.[5] The rule, which for the first time ever gave umpires the ability to order players from the ground, was not initially well-received – particularly following a Round 23 incident in which Hawthorn ruckman Stephen Lawrence was unable to return to the field after the third quarter because Hawthorn officials could not find a spare sock to replace his bloodstained one.[6]
• The Second McIntyre "Final Six" system, which had operated in 1992 and 1993, was replaced by the McIntyre "Final Eight" system. The McIntyre "Final Eight" system operated from 1994 to 1999; it was replaced by the AFL’s Amended "Final Eight" system in 2000.
• The third qualifying final between North Melbourne and Hawthorn was the first ever AFL finals match to require extra time, after the scores were level which had North Melbourne 12.19 (91) to Hawthorn 13.13 (91) at the expiration of regular time. The provision for extra time had been introduced after the controversial 1990 finals series, when the qualifying final between Collingwood and West Coast was drawn. North Melbourne dominated extra time, kicking 3.5 to Hawthorn's nil, and won the match by 23 points.

• McIntyre "Final Eight" system

• 1994 Season - AFL Tables