2015 AFL season
The 2015 AFL season was the 119th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured eighteen clubs, ran from 2 April until 3 October, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top eight clubs. The premiership was won by the Hawthorn Football Club for the 13th time and third time consecutively, after it defeated by 46 points in the 2015 AFL Grand Final. The season was  marred by the mid-season death of senior coach Phil Walsh, who was killed by his son in a domestic incident. Adelaide's following match was cancelled. Pre-season. All Stars game. The biennial All Stars game, this year played in Western Australia, featuring an AFL team and the Indigenous All Stars team made up of some of the best Indigenous players in the game, returned for the 2015 pre-season. The West Coast Eagles were selected as the AFL team to play in the game, which was played at Medibank Stadium in Perth. NAB Challenge. For the second consecutive  year, the NAB Challenge series took place, featuring 27 practice matches played over 25 days, beginning 26 February and ending 22 March. The matches were stand-alone in nature, with no overall winner crowned for the series. Each team played three pre-season games, many of which were played at suburban or regional venues, with most games televised on Fox Footy. The Super Goal was retained for these matches. Premiership season. Notable features of the draw include: Win/loss table. Bold – Home game X – Bye C – Cancelled Opponent for round listed above margin Ladder. <onlyinclude></onlyinclude> Post-season. International  Rules Series. The International Rules Series returned in November 2015, with Ireland entitled to the hosting rights. The match was played on Saturday, 21 November 2015 at Dublin's Croke Park. A highly qualified Australian side, who were looking for back-to-back series wins, fell to a classy Irish team by 4 points. Notable events and controversies. Doping and drugs. The AFL suffered significant bad publicity during 2015 related to four cases of illicit substance abuse in AFL clubs – three related to doping and one related to recreational drugs: Death of Phil Walsh. In the early hours of Friday  3 July 2015, coach Phil Walsh was found dead at his Adelaide residency following a domestic violence incident; he was killed by his son, Cy, who was charged with his murder, and ultimately found not guilty due to mental incompetence, meaning he is now subject to a lifetime psychiatric supervision order and is permanently detained at the James Nash House forensic Mental Health Facility. Walsh's wife Meredith also suffered injuries in the incident. In the immediate aftermath, the match between Adelaide and Geelong, which was to have been played on Sunday 5 July, was cancelled, with the clubs sharing  two premiership points each. At the remaining seven matches of the round ( and had already played on Thursday night), respect was paid to Walsh by observing moments of silence both before and after the match; and pre- and post-match celebrations or promotions, including the playing of club songs and running through banners, were not carried out.