Contenders for the game of the year began on the opening night of the season when a Tom Lynch contested clunk and goal tied up the Richmond vs Carlton opener, setting the scene for one of the greatest home & away seasons in the AFL era.

Nearly every round after produced thrillers, comebacks, upsets and big crowds that make our game so special and have led us to yet another premiership race to not miss a second of.

Last season's Round 23 Carlton vs Collingwood clash saw the home & away season reach heights never before seen in our sport, as the grim reaper in Collingwood stormed home to secure a top four spot, eliminating the Blues in the clear-cut game of the year.

This season saw one side eliminated from contention in even more heartbreaking fashion, while others claimed statement wins throughout the season via comebacks, individual brilliance and close-game artistry.

With a plethora of thrilling battles to choose from, here is the list of the 10 best matches of the 2023 home & away season.

Honourable mentions

7. Port Adelaide (80 vs 76) Melbourne - Round 10

Adelaide Oval
Crowd: 37,565

By Round 10, Port Adelaide had shown their worth as a potential top four side but were yet to claim the scalp to prove it definitively.

The Power, coming off six wins in a row, were in the midst of a fairytale run under storied head coach, Ken Hinkley; winning matches with goal-line spoils on the siren and emotionally charged fourth-quarter bursts to remember.

One particular young gun by the name of Zak Butters had already become a cult hero at the Power, but was about to establish his name into Brownlow contention with a performance from the ages.

Butters' 41 disposals, 2 goals, 12 score involvements and 184 SuperCoach points came in a slick ball-using spectacle matched by none on the night and against perhaps the most credentialed midfield in the competition led by Christian Petracca, Clayton Oliver and Jack Viney.

Not known to Melbourne fans at the time was that this would be Oliver's last match until his long-term hamstring injury sideline stint; the four-time best & fairest led the Demons on the night with 30 disposals and nine marks in wet conditions at a packed Adelaide Oval.

The momentum see-sawed through each quarter, with both teams holding leads in both halves, but a six-goal flurry from the Dees late in the third seemed too much to overcome.

Enter Zak Butters with a 55m metre set shot bomb on the three-quarter time siren to cut the Power deficit to 11.

The usual suspects, Butters, Connor Rozee and Jason Horne-Francis all stood up in the fourth and combined for crucial goals, including Rozee's 23rd-minute matchwinner which saw Port Adelaide take home an 80-76 victory to extend to a six-game winning streak.