2008 AFL season
The 2008 AFL season was the 112th 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 sixteen clubs, ran from 20 March until 27 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top eight clubs. A significant feature of the season was the celebration of the 150th anniversary since the sport of Australian rules football was first established in 1858. The premiership was won by the Hawthorn  Football Club for the tenth time, after it defeated by 26 points in the 2008 AFL Grand Final. Win/loss table. Bold – Home game Ladder. <onlyinclude> </onlyinclude> Statistics. Leading goalkickers. The Coleman Medal was awarded to Lance Franklin for kicking the most goals at the end of the home and away season. Awards. Rising Star Nominees. The AFL Rising Star award for 2008 was awarded to Rhys Palmer from . Umpires. The AFL introduced an additional two boundary umpires in round 21 in order to reduce the error rate and enable the umpires to keep up with  the play. Brett Rosebury was appointed the 2008 All-Australian umpire, the first West Australian umpire to receive that honour. Controversially, however, he was not appointed to umpire the AFL Grand Final, with Scott McLaren, Michael Vozzo and Shaun Ryan selected ahead of Rosebury. Scott McLaren umpired his 300th game, and Shane McInerney umpired his 250-game, in round 4. Experienced field umpires Martin Ellis and Matthew Head both announced their retirements during the year.