2004 AFL Season - Notable Events

Notable Events

• The St Kilda Saints recorded a 10-match winning streak between rounds 1–10 inclusive, thus making it their best winning streak in the history of the club at this stage; the club also won all four of its preseason games. The streak was ended by bitter rivals the Sydney Swans in round 11. This record was broken in 2009 when the Saints won their first 19 games of the Premiership season.
• A five minute bench-clearing brawl broke out between rivals Hawthorn and Essendon in the round 11 match, after which one Bomber (Justin Murphy) and four Hawks players received suspensions totalling 16 matches, and a combined total of $70,700 of fines were handed out. The game is widely known as the "Line in the Sand Match," as the brawls were sparked in the third quarter after Hawthorn players were urged at a half-time address by club legend Dermott Brereton to metaphorically draw such a line; Brereton thought the young Hawks were being physically intimidated by the more experienced Bombers.
• On Saturday, 28 August 2004 (round 22), the Brisbane Lions set a most unusual VFL/AFL record. On that day, the 22-man Brisbane Lions squad had collectively played 3,718 senior career games, and had collectively scored 3,373 senior career goals.
  • The 22 players were Jason Akermanis, Simon Black, Daniel Bradshaw, Jonathan Brown, Blake Caracella, Robert Copeland. Richard Hadley, Shaun Hart, Chris Johnson, Clark Keating, Nigel Lappin, Justin Leppitsch, Alastair Lynch, Dylan McLaren, Craig McRae, Mal Michael, Tim Notting, Martin Pike, Luke Power, Chris Scott, Michael Voss, and Darryl White.
• Essendon played Melbourne in a finals match for the first time since the 2000 AFL Grand Final.
• Sydney and West Coast began a five-match finals streak lasting three years, starting with the second elimination final at Telstra Stadium. The Swans won comfortably by 41 points in driving rain.