page_title: History of the Australian Football League
section_title: 21st century
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Australian Football League / AFL / 21st century
caption_attribution_description: English: AAMI Stadium during an AFL game between Adelaide and Essendon under clear skies. April 1 2007.
context_page_description: The AFL Australian Football League is the top professional Australian rules football league in the world. The league consists of eighteen teams: nine based in the city of Melbourne, one from regional Victoria, and eight based in other Australian states. The reason for this unbalanced geographic distribution lies in the history of the league, which was based solely within Victoria from the time it was established in 1897, until the time the league expanded through the addition of clubs from interstate to the existing teams starting in the 1980s; until this expansion, the league was known as the VFL.
context_section_description: The AFL logo was again changed in 2000, with a new look intended to coincide with the new millennium. Rivals Collingwood and Carlton, played a pre-season match known as the 'Millennium Match' on New Year's Eve 1999. The new Docklands Stadium hosted its first match in Round 1, 2000, and it was the first AFL match played under a retractable roof. After Victorian State Football League ceased operation at the end of 1999, the Victorian-based AFL clubs established connections with the Victorian Football League (a rebranding of the former VFA), with clubs either fielding reserves teams in the VFL, or entering into affiliations with existing senior VFL clubs to serve as feeder teams.
  The early 2000s were dominated by Essendon, Brisbane and Port Adelaide, who shared the five flags from 2000–2004. Essendon won minor premierships in 1999–2001, but converted only the 2000 season into a premiership; Essendon's 2000 season set an enduring record, with a win-loss record of 24–1 across the home and away season and finals, the best ever recorded. Brisbane contested four consecutive grand finals, winning three from 2001–2003. Port Adelaide won minor premierships in 2002–2004, and broke through for its first premiership in the 2004 season. The dominance of interstate clubs continued to six consecutive flags, with Sydney and West Coast facing each other in 2005 and 2006 grand finals for one flag each, with both matches decided by less than a goal.
  The 2002 season saw the Carlton Football Club finish last, becoming the last of the twelve VFL clubs to win its first wooden spoon, before being heavily penalised for cheating the salary cap a few years earlier; the penalties saw Carlton stay near the bottom of the ladder in most of the subsequent seasons.
  A series of new rule changes were introduced for the 2006 season intended to speed up the game, allowing full-backs to kick in more quickly after a behind, and limiting the length of time that a player was allowed to hold the ball after a mark to 8  seconds for a mark in general play, and 30 seconds for a set shot.
  Several teams established a regular presence in other parts of Australasia during the 21st century, generally by playing between one and four home matches in the alternative location. Among the notable contracts were including Hawthorn (Launceston), St Kilda (Launceston and Wellington), North Melbourne (Gold Coast, Canberra and Hobart), Richmond (Cairns), Port Adelaide (Darwin) and the Western Bulldogs (Darwin).
  In 2007 Geelong beat Port Adelaide by a record 119 points in the grand final. In 2008 Hawthorn beat the dominant team, Geelong, to win the flag. In 2009 Geelong claimed vindication from their 2008 premiership loss, by being the only team of the modern era to overcome a three-quarter-time deficit to defeat St. Kilda in the 2009 grand final. In 2010 Collingwood and St. Kilda contested the first drawn grand final of the modern era. The AFL faced much scrutiny, with the current rule at the time having the grand final being replayed the following week. The rule now currently has a period of extra-time being played. Collingwood won the grand final replay. In 2011 Collingwood played Geelong in the grand final. Collingwood had only lost to one team all year, Geelong, and now faced them to win back-to-back premierships. The game was in the balance until the final quarter where Geelong pulled away to win their third flag in five years.
  In the late 2000s, the AFL looked to establish a permanent presence on the Gold Coast, which was fast-developing as a major population centre. North Melbourne, who was in financial difficulty and had played a few home games on the Gold Coast in previous years, was offered significant subsidies to relocate to the Gold Coast, but the club declined. The AFL then began work to establish a club on the Gold Coast as a new expansion team; the Gold Coast Suns were established, and joined the AFL in 2011 as the 17th team. The Greater Western Sydney Giants, based on both Western Sydney and Canberra, were then established and entered the league as the 18th team in 
caption: An AFL match at Football Park in Adelaide
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