Looking fit and composed, Jobe Watson returned from exile at Etihad Stadium on Thursday night. The former Essendon skipper was one of six Bombers returned to face arch-rivals Collingwood in the first game of the AFL pre-season, after serving a season-long ban in 2016 for doping.
Join us for live coverage of the first game in the 2017 AFL pre-season competition.
The women's revolution that has engulfed the AFL over the summer has broken another barrier with the appointment of Emma Quayle as the game's first female club recruiter.
St Kilda great Danny Frawley says Jake Carlisle has the capability of quickly being in contention for All-Australian selection in his return to football after a year-long anti-doping suspension.
Ins and outs for this weekend's AFL Women's matches.
One season to the next the change at Hawthorn has been seismic though for all the change one thing Hawthorn expects not to alter is the strike at the top four.
A club push for AFLW lists to expand – one side has proposed jumping from 27 to 40 – comes with the current cap proving problematic just two weeks into season one.
With a new Hawthorn star in the middle, a new coach in the box and different looking players on the ground, Melbourne have got as strong a side as possible for the first JLT series match.
When you haven't played an AFL game in more than 29 months, it might be unwise to predict what will happen in five weeks' time. So while Jaeger O'Meara is excited ahead of his return to big-time footy, he doesn't want to speculate on whether he'll play in round one.
To set the scene, it's 3.16am on Sunday, I've got my foot in a bucket of ice at the kitchen table and after trying all my tricks for trying to get to sleep (eat, meditate, stretch, read book, repeat) I've decided to put the post-match buzz to good use and get some words down. These night games are a killer!
After a tumultuous AFL off-season, Richmond's second intra-club game went off without a hitch.
A preseason intra-club game could provide an major insight into Dockers coach Ross Lyon's starting line-up for round one of the AFL season.
Melbourne midfielder Jake Melksham will make his long-awaited return to senior footy on Saturday after sitting a year out of the game.
Mike Fitzpatrick raised eyebrows when he once accused the AFL Commission he joined 14 years ago of suffering from a lack of bravery. He did not back away from that after announcing his departure from the game's top job.
St Kilda ruckman Tom Hickey and midfielder Luke Dunstan will remain at the club at least until the end of 2019.
Incoming AFL chairman Richard Goyder, who takes over the game's top job on April 4, is one of Australia's most prominent and respected businessmen.
Melbourne lawyer Jackson Taylor has lodged a writ against outgoing AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick and chief executive Gillon McLachlan, alleging acts of deceptive or misleading conduct during Essendon's supplements saga.
Friday night is the great Hawthorn comeback.
WAtoday football writers Brendan Foster and Justin Rake give 'Fyfe reasons' why the Dockers new captain choice was the right call or not.
It's more than 500 days since their last match and a tick over four years since the Essendon drugs scandal was thrust into the public spotlight, but for up to seven of the banned players, Thursday is business as usual.
With the AFL pre-season competition set to get under way, we take a look at what the footy public can look forward to.
Essendon star Brendon Goddard and James Hird's former advisor have taken a swipe at Mike Fitzpatrick on a day the departing AFL chairman said he had no regrets over how the league had handled the Bombers' supplements scandal.
New Hawthorn captain Jarryd Roughead is set to play his first AFL game since being declared cancer-free.
Essendon defender Michael Hurley is confident his body can handle the rigours of AFL competition after more than 12 months out of the game.
Outgoing AFL Commission chairman Mike Fitzpatrick says his one regret during his decade-long tenure is not reducing interchange to a sensible number.
Essendon and rookie Yestin Eades have parted ways by mutual agreement.
Western Bulldogs captain Bob Murphy says he's confident the premiership club would embrace any player who came out as gay, adding that sort of leadership must also be shown by the nation's politicians.
The AFL has announced that Mike Fitzpatrick, the chairman of the league, is retiring.
Greater Western Sydney rising defender Adam Tomlinson says while the club's depth kept him out of the team for the first half of last year, Giants players are also aware that it is a vital element that could lead to a premiership.
Early on Tuesday, Melbourne women's team captain Daisy Pearce posted a message on Twitter. Shortly after, the number of Mithen's follower's began to tick upwards. It was a timely example of the power of social media, the Demons star congratulating Mithen's Rising Star nomination.
Collingwood boss shrugs off doubts and a difficult 2016 to seek re-election unopposed.
The punishment for a deliberate rushed behind could be changed to a ball-up 14 metres out from goal, rather than a free kick from the goal line, before round one.
Carlton midfielder Dale Thomas will be playing for his future this year but a little-known trigger clause will give him the option of a fifth season.
Jack Riewoldt's three-year omission from the Richmond leadership group presents as one in a long series of missteps which have accompanied the club's dismal on-field fortunes in recent times.
The game just changed, again.
Brendon Lade is returning to Port Adelaide after seven years as an assistant coach at AFL rivals Richmond.
The Western Bulldogs won't look back at their painful history of preliminary final losses in the lead up to their Saturday night clash with GWS Giants.
Melbourne great David Schwarz says the potential defection of Jesse Hogan would not be "as catastrophic" now as it would have been last year.
There’s two very contrasting narratives developing heading into the penultimate weekend of the AFL season. And sentimentally, they’re at opposite ends of the spectrum.
The thing that AFL fans love about the game is risk and the unknown outcome accompanying it: the risk players take when they commit to a physical contest, when they launch three deep in a pack to stand on someone's shoulders in a marking contest, when they have a shot from the boundary. All are weekly features on highlights reels.
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