The 2023 AFL season will go down as one of the all-time greatest years of footy seen in our code, with countless high-profile storylines generated on the field and off the field.
On the field, we saw controversy, comebacks, clutch moments, big games and maybe the greatest Grand Final ever.
Off the field we saw drama, sackings, major acquisitions and a Brownlow Medal count out of a fantasy novel.
With endless headlines to pick from, see below what we picked as the top 10 AFL stories of the 2023 calendar year.
In an unexpectedly controversial Saturday afternoon at Marvel, the Kangaroos faced the Swans in their first match of the year without Alastair Clarkson at the helm. As promised by recent footy folklore, the club playing their first match under the interim coach played gallantly and the young shin-boners looked set to defend a 3-point lead to victory with 59 seconds remaining.
In a shocking twist, the Swans were awarded a free-kick and 50m penalty from a forward 50 stoppage after North Melbourne breached the interchange count of 75 when Liam Shiels rotated with Tom Powell for the 76th rotation.
Swans forward Hayden McLean was sent to the top of the goal-square to give Sydney the lead and eventually, the win.
The Swans would eventually land 8th on the home and away ladder, scraping into the finals by just two premiership points over the Western Bulldogs, thanks in large part to the Kangaroos' mismanagement as well as the AFL's score review system flaws which stole headlines many weeks later.
For North, it was yet another profound and heartbreaking moment for their coach and for the club, which faced scrutiny and informal questioning about an alleged tank-job being enacted to maintain a hold on the number one pick and the prospect in question, Harley Reid.
West Coast entered this match having won four of its past 47 games and an established reputation as the worst side to grace an AFL field since the inaugural season's of Gold Coast and GWS in 2011 & 2012.
The Bulldogs, fresh off an upset loss to 16th placed Hawthorn, were expected to respond emphatically with a blow-out victory to entrench their spot in the eight.
Expectations were tempered pre-match, however, when coach Luke Beveridge strangely admitted to a feeling of "trepidation" before the opening bounce, essentially succumbing to the pressure that had pounded the Bulldogs all season long.
That pressure was about to explode as the Eagles piled on three early goals before breaking out beyond a four-goal lead in the first quarter. As play progressed, Beveridge's comments seemed to be manifesting on the football field.
Stars Marcus Bontempelli, Tim English and Adam Treloar were forced to play out of their skin to claw their side back into the contest, eventually taking the lead and extending it to double digits late in the third term.
But the underdog Eagles side sensed the angst of Beveridge's troops and, led by Tim Kelly's 32 disposals, Jamie Cripps' five goals and Oscar Allen's forward presence, shocked the Marvel Stadium crowd with a flurry of fourth quarter majors to steal back a 16-point lead.
By this stage, the morning's headlines were being prepped and Beveridge watched on as the travesty unfolded in front of him.
Bontempelli bravely flew the flag in the dying stages with some astonishing individual efforts, but the damage had been done and the Bulldogs finals hopes were officially out of their hands.
Those who thought the concussion debate in the AFL was beginning to settle at the end of the home and away season were in for a roller-coaster of a week to kick off September footy in 2023.
The opening stages of Collingwood's qualifying final clash with Melbourne saw the single most heated discussion over a bump ever seen in footy be launched by Brayden Maynard's collision with Angus Brayshaw.
For over a week, the footy world was divided by disputes over Maynard's eligibility to play out the remainder of the finals series, Brayshaw's own history with head-knocks, the suitability of the act of smothering in our sport and continued debate over the status of the bump.
While the casual observer witnessed a clear moment of desperation leading to an accidental collision, the finer details of Maynard's launch were dissected, the heated home-visit in the aftermath was analysed, and family members were questioned by the media.
But the marathon four-hour tribunal hearing found Maynard was not guilty of rough conduct and free to play on preliminary final weekend.
The incident sparked outrage from all angles of the argument and has lifted what is already one of the most iconic, historical rivalries in Australian Rules football, with the 2024 King's Birthday clash already being touted as the most anticipated home and away match of the season.
No team was under more pressure entering Round 3 than the Western Bulldogs and no player had been subjected to the viscous harassment we saw face their former No.1 draft pick, Jamarra Ugle-Hagan.
0-2 on the year, the Bulldogs needed a victory against flag-fancy Brisbane and importantly, needed a spark from one of their big-name players. Early in the first, it was Jamarra who marked the ball in the pocket, went back and nailed a snap on his non-preferred before he turned to the crowd, lifted his jumper and pointed to his skin in a touching ode to the great Nicky Winmar, 30 years on from his iconic stand.
He finished the game with five goals and proved to be the difference in a 14-point win for the Dogs, capped off by a goal on the siren as teammates flocked to celebrate the performance of Jamarra Ugle-Hagan.
By Round 21, 2023 the race for Charlie was all but decided. The 20-year old phenom from Collingwood, Nick Daicos, had pulled off the greatest start to a career in AFL history and would simply need to be on the field for the final home and away matches to claim his first Brownlow Medal.
Sam Mitchell and his Hawks put the story to a grinding halt as, not for the first time, tagging machine Finn Maginness was sent to the opposition's best player and this time around, was able to quell Daicos to his clear career-worst performance.
Beyond being nowhere near polling votes for the game, matters were made dramatically glum by a forward 50 contest in which Daicos was targetted and sandwiched between two Hawks, cracking his knee in the process and leaving the entire footy world in disbelief.
A hairline fracture was the diagnosis and a six-week stint on the sidelines was the result for Daicos in an incident that retroactively led to the most dramatic Brownlow medal count you'll ever see.
Daicos, left stranded on 28 votes by his final home and away appearance, stunningly held onto the lead until the deciding Round 24, where favourite Marcus Bontempelli took the lead with three votes against Geelong, taking his tally to 29.
In an astonishing twist, the final votes of the night were awarded to Brisbane's Lachie Neale, taking his tally to a winning total of 31, giving him dual-Brownlow medallist honours, a feat which only Nat Fyfe has replicated among today's crop of players.
Bontempelli was left to suffer yet another runner-up, while Daicos was left to respond to the heartbreak on the field just five days later in the big dance.
Clayton Oliver's downward media spiral began on a wet and slippery Round 10 Friday night match on the Adelaide Oval. While it will forever be remembered as the Zak Butters break-out party, where he torched the Dees for 41 touches and two goals, folks may forget this was also Clayton Oliver's final game before a rather mysterious hamstring injury kept him out of action for the following 12 weeks.
Typically a 3-4 week sideline stint, fans and media were left perplexed by Oliver's lengthy absence, amplified by Melbourne's intriguingly ambiguous updates on the matter, providing little-to-no indication of his return, details of the injury, or comments on any circulating rumours.
His return to football in Round 22 seemingly spelt the end of the controversy, until Melbourne's shock semi-final exit, prefacing discussions over the club's recent finals performances record under Simon Goodwin and a deeper analysis of it's culture within.
Discussions continued well into the off-season before exploding completely with the sudden trade rumours involving Oliver and a potential move to the Adelaide Crows, where he would re-connect with high performance manager Darren Burgess.
Just as these rumours began a decline of sorts, news broke of Oliver being rushed to hospital by teammate Joel Smith after suffering a seizure.
Melbourne remained transparent, allowing rumours of all varieties to swirl through the media, most of which involved potential drug use.
It was the revelation of a positive drug test on Joel Smith, who was found to have consumed cocaine the week of Melbourne's Round 23 clash with Hawthorn, which finally forced Melbourne to front the media in an interview between Garry Lyon, Simon Goodwin and CEO Gary Pert on SEN.
Among a plethora of topical discussions, Goodwin and Pert were able to confirm the retention of Oliver as a contracted player for well beyond 2024, while denying allegations of any cultural issues infecting the club.
Extensive speculation declined, before returning to the fold once again last Friday with the superstar Demon found driving under a license which was suspended with regard to his recent medical episode.
Oliver will attend a court hearing in January where this seemingly perpetual story will continue.
Another story which spanned multiple months, this competition-altering event begins with perhaps the best finish to a Dreamtime clash in that match's history, as the Bombers clawed home to a dramatic victory after a Sam Durham goal, virtually on the siren.
While the result clearly dented Richmond's finals hopes for 2023, no one could have predicted what would transpire the following Wednesday, when SEN's Tom Morris broke the news that three-time premiership coach Damien Hardwick would step down from his role at Richmond, effective immediately.
Without a definitive explanation as to why, the insinuation of 'burn-out' became the the prominent narrative behind Hardwick's departure, leaving the AFL world perplexed as to if and when he would return to coaching fold.
On the 'Dyl & friends' podcast only weeks later, Hardwick confirmed his intention to coach again while delving into his decision to step away from Richmond, believing he could no longer get the utmost out of his players.
A change of scenery for Hardwick seemed imminent and rumours began swirling.
A pub pint with Dustin Martin on the Gold Coast after a reported meeting with Sun's CEO Mark Evans and chairman Bob Easton drew major speculation as reports of a five-year deal being fronted to Hardwick made headlines.
Just over two months after stepping down, Hardwick's hunger was replenished enough for a hefty six-year deal with Gold Coast, locking him in as Suns' senior coach until the end of 2029.
Hardwick will now look to enhance his legacy as the coach who finally takes the Gold Coast to the promised land.
While officiating errors are obviously a blight on the game we watch, the impact and controversy generated by a multitude of score review fiascos in 2023 lands the AFL Review Centre (ARC) in the top three stories of the year.
The first of the two major season-altering decisions came in Melbourne's Round 22 clash with Carlton where, with 41 seconds remaining, a Christian Petracca bomb from outside 50 looked to give Melbourne a one-point lead.
The soft call of a rushed behind led to a score review which provided three embarrassingly unclear camera angles to decide the fate of the match. The ARC left it to the umpires call and Carlton brought home their eighth win in a row.
Had this result been flipped to a Demons victory, the finals series would have changed drastically.
Melbourne would have risen to second on the ladder and hosted Brisbane in a qualifying final at the MCG while Carlton would have potentially fallen to seventh and faced an elimination final against the Giants away from home.
The more outrageous controversy however, comes in the following week's clash between Adelaide and Sydney, where a Ben Keays set-shot snap from the boundary squeezed past the post before Crows players flocked to celebrate what should have been a four-point lead with under 80 seconds remaining.
Stunningly, the kick was definitively called a behind and was not sent upstairs for further investigation, Sydney kicked out immediately and the match continued.
Goal-line footage of the kick showed a clear gap between the post and the ball as it sailed over the line, confirming the Adelaide robbery.
Again, the ramifications of this result were huge. Sydney squeaked into eighth place by two premiership points, while Adelaide's finals hopes were extinguished.
The Western Bulldogs and Essendon were mathematically eliminated from finals contention, reducing the stakes of a whopping five matches in Round 24 to close the home and away season.
Essendon vs Collingwood, Geelong vs Bulldogs and West Coast vs Adelaide all became dead rubbers, while Sydney vs Melbourne and Carlton vs GWS were reduced to placement games for only one team in either match.
The thrill generated by Carlton's winning run from Round 14 onwards, culminating in their famous semi-final victory over Melbourne, must land the Blues at the top-end of the 2023 AFL storylines.
The narrative flip over the course of their nine-game win streak through the back-half of the season saw Michael Voss leap from near sacking to near coach-of-the-year contention.
Locked in to fifth place at the home and away season's conclusion, the next step for Carlton was to prove that this group wouldn't falter under finals pressure, and the first test would come on a Friday night elimination final against Sydney.
In typical Carlton fashion, the Blues controlled majority of proceedings yet found themselves at risk of choking the game away in the dying stages.
A Blake Acres goal in time-on seemingly put the low-scoring affair out of reach, until Hayden McLean pegged one back with 25 seconds remaining and a six-point margin to chase. Carlton scrapped out the victory and moved on to a Friday night semi against the Demons.
In one of the greatest semi-finals this century, Carlton trailed by five points when Blake Acres stepped up again to kick the decider with less than a minute remaining, as Carlton fans shook the foundations of the stadium.
The final siren queued the loudest crowd roar of the season, cementing Carlton's best win since 1999 and a preliminary final berth against Brisbane.
Despite the Blues' red-hot first quarter, the eventual runner-up Lions took control and fought out a comfortable victory, halting Carlton's campaign one game short of the big one.
Love them or hate them, not a single football supporter could take their eyes off what they were witnessing as Carlton charged toward a finals berth and two finals victories.
They will enter 2024 as the most discussed and most exciting team of the year, with newfound hopes of premiership success.
The romance of this premiership victory is almost unmatched in AFL history.
Craig McRae himself could top this list with his galvanising impact and magnetic character on display all season long.
No one has experienced a Grand Final day quite as special as Collingwood's coach, beginning with the birth of his daughter, the aptly-named Maggie, and ending in yet another close-game victory to secure Collingwood's 16th flag, tying Essendon and Carlton atop the all-time ledger.
Bobby Hill's Norm Smith winning performance is also its own story, given the circumstances leading to his year at Collingwood, fighting cancer before rising to become one of the games most electric small forwards in just one season with at the Pies.
The Daicos brothers continuing Peter's premiership legacy of 1990, with Nick playing a near best-on-ground Grand Final in his second game back from injury also steals much of the show.
So too Darcy Moore being handed the premiership cup by his father, another former Pies skipper, Peter.
But the game itself, littered with acrobatic and skilfull highlights from the top shelf, mark and goal-of-the-year contenders, momentum swings throughout, clutch set shots and moments of leadership, culminating in one of the best finishes you'll ever see, raises the moment emphatically.
It may have been the greatest display of Aussie-rules football in the AFL era if not the history of the sport, up there with the Grand Finals of 1970 and 1989 and in one of the most exciting years of AFL footy, it lands clearly as the top story of 2023.