2023 AFL Women's season

The 2023 AFL Women's season was the eighth season of the AFL Women's competition, the highest-level senior women's Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season featured 18 clubs and ran from 1 September to 3 December, comprising a ten-round home-and-away season followed by a four-week finals series featuring the top eight clubs.
won the premiership, defeating by 17 points in the 2023 AFL Women's Grand Final. won the minor premiership by finishing atop the home-and-away ladder with a 9–1 win–loss record, but was eliminated by North Melbourne in the preliminary finals. 's Monique Conti won the AFL Women's best and fairest award as the league's best and fairest player, and teammates Kate Hore and Eden Zanker tied for the AFL Women's leading goalkicker award as the league's leading goalkickers.

Background

In March 2023, Australian Football League general manager of football operations Andrew Dillon announced that the season would begin on the first weekend of September, coinciding with the AFL's pre-finals bye weekend, though neither the season length nor a specific start date was confirmed. A pre-season start date of 29 May was announced, though AFL Players Association chief executive officer Paul Marsh stated that AFLW players and the AFL were "a long way apart" on agreeing to the 2023 season's length and structure as part of a joint AFL-AFLW collective bargaining agreement.
Following the end of season 7, the AFL announced that female players would be exempt from wearing white shorts as part of their away uniforms in the AFL Women's, VFL Women's and other AFL-managed female talent pathways from 2023 onwards to ease anxiety and reduce barriers for players who are menstruating. For away matches, teams would instead wear home shorts or an AFL-approved alternate coloured set for clash uniforms. In June, several other rules and rule adjustments were announced for the upcoming season:

Quarter lengths were increased to 15 minutes plus time-on for goals or major injuries only, with time-on in the final two minutes also allowed for stoppages.
The quarter-time and three-quarter-time intervals were reduced in length from six minutes and 30 seconds to six minutes, and the half-time interval was reduced in length from 16 minutes to 14 minutes.
Boundary throw-ins between the 50-metre arcs were moved ten metres inwards from the boundary line.
An interchange cap of 60 player rotations per team per match was introduced, with clubs permitted to use interchange boards to convey messages, as was commonplace in the AFL.
Runners were only permitted to enter the field three times per quarter, for a maximum of 90 seconds on each occasion, until the last three minutes of each quarter.
A two-year rollover period was introduced for reportable and fixed-financial offences committed by players, resulting in fine amounts increasing if a player commits the same offence more than once in the previous two years, rather than only within the current season.

The 2023 season fixture was released in July. Leading into the season, reigning premier was the favourite to win the premiership, with publications such as Fox Sports and ESPN predicting that Melbourne would win its second consecutive premiership, and 14 of the 18 club captains tipping Melbourne as the team most likely to reach the grand final outside of their own. In August, the AFL announced that the AFLW's prize money would rise from $623,922 to $1.1 million for the upcoming season, matching the prize money for the men's competition, however the money would be split across the season's top eight teams, while the AFL's would be split between its top four teams. The league had announced earlier in the year that the McClelland Trophy, which was first awarded in 1951 and had been awarded to the AFL's minor premiers since 1991, would be revamped to incorporate both AFL and AFLW results, with an additional $1 million prize money awarded to the winning club.

Overview

The season began on 1 September with a match between Melbourne and, where Melbourne unveiled its season 7 premiership flag, and concluded on 3 December with the 2023 AFL Women's Grand Final. All matches throughout the season were broadcast live on the Seven Network and Fox Footy, and could be streamed via Kayo and the official AFLW website and app. The season featured ten home-and-away rounds and four weeks of finals, as was the case in season 7, with the final round released as a floating fixture to be determined later in the season. won the minor premiership, while Melbourne won the McClelland Trophy as the best-performed club across the AFL and AFLW seasons despite neither of its teams reaching a grand final.
With several larger-capacity venues unavailable in December due to cricket, potential grand final venues were finalised for all 18 clubs at the time of the fixture release in July, unlike in season 7 when potential venues were only finalised nine days before the grand final. went on to win hosting rights for the grand final as the highest-seeded preliminary final winner, meaning that the grand final would be held in Victoria for the first time since 2018; the grand final was held at Ikon Park, with tickets selling out within three hours. Marvel Stadium, which could accommodate an additional 40,000 spectators, was overlooked after its turf was deemed unsuitable for matches. defeated North Melbourne by 17 points in the grand final to win its second AFL Women's premiership.
During the season, the AFL and AFLPA agreed to a five-year, $2.26 billion collective bargaining agreement through to the end of 2027, marking the first joint agreement between AFL and AFLW players; 99.7% of AFLW players agreed to the deal, which included the following changes:

AFLW player payments would increase by 29% for the current season, with the average wage to increase to $82,000 by 2027.
Clubs would play eleven home-and-away matches in 2024, with further increases dependent on the competition reaching certain performance metrics.
A twelve-month pregnancy policy which would commence from six weeks before a player's due date.
A $60 million investment into injury hardship allowances and concussion funds over the length of the agreement.

The season's Indigenous Round was held during rounds 7 and 8, with all 18 teams wearing specially designed guernseys across the two weeks. The round is held to acknowledge the contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls to Australian football and the wider community. Former player, umpire and Northern Territory women's football pioneer Ebony Abbott-McCormack was the 2023 edition's honoree. Three clubs rebranded themselves as Indigenous names across the two weeks of Indigenous Round: as Walyalup, the traditional name for the Noongar country around Fremantle; Melbourne as Narrm, the traditional name for Melbourne in the Woiwurrung language; and as Yartapuulti, the traditional name the Kaurna people gave the land around the Port River.
Leading into the season, the AFL announced its intention to focus on "heartland venues", preferring to fill smaller venues rather than struggle to fill larger ones, despite recording a decline of 60% in attendance figures from the inaugural season in 2017 to season 7. The league recorded a cumulative attendance of 43,431 in round 1 at an average audience of 4,781 per match, a record for a single round since matches became ticketed in 2021, with the attendance of 8,412 for the match between Melbourne and Collingwood the highest for a season-opening match since 2020. However, the average attendance dropped to 2,589 per match by the end of the season, falling short of the minimum attendance required to increase to twelve home-and-away rounds for the 2024 season. recorded the highest average attendance of any club for the season with 4,637, with its biggest crowd of 5,722 coming in its final home match against Collingwood. After going winless in season 7, the club's first season in the competition, Sydney would go on to make finals in 2023 and win its first AFLW final in an elimination final against, before being eliminated by Adelaide in the semi-finals.
Among the playing retirements in 2023 was three-time premiership player and two-time AFL Women's best and fairest winner Erin Phillips, who played 66 matches for Adelaide and Port Adelaide, captaining both clubs, and was a three-time AFL Women's All-Australian and two-time grand final best-on-ground winner. Phillips' first coach at Adelaide, Bec Goddard, who coached Adelaide to the inaugural AFL Women's premiership in 2017 and had more recently coached for its first two seasons, announced her retirement from coaching in November. Goddard was one of four coaches to depart their respective coaching roles in 2023, with coach Michael Prior ending his tenure mid-season, coach Nathan Burke leaving after a one-win season and coach Stephen Symonds parting ways after failing to lead his club to the finals. During the season, Burke questioned the fitness and professionalism of his players after his team lost its first five matches and criticised AFLW list sizes as too small, while Prior criticised the AFLW fixturing process after West Coast was fixtured to play against reigning premier Melbourne despite the former's 16th-place finish the previous season and lost by 70 points, before later acknowledging his comments as "unacceptable". Later in November, AFL general manager of women's football Nicole Livingstone announced her departure from the league following that weekend's grand final after seven seasons in the position; her achievements included the competition's expansion from eight clubs in 2017 to 18 clubs, and the growth of the competition to become the largest employer of female athletes in Australia, with 540 AFLW players on club lists in 2023.

Pre-season

All starting times are local time. Source: afl.com.au

Home-and-away season

All starting times are local time. Source:

Round 8

Ladder

Progression by round

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
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Source:

Home match attendance

The following table includes all home match attendance figures from the home-and-away season.
Source:

Finals series

All starting times are local time. Source:

Win–loss table

The following table can be sorted from biggest winning margin to biggest losing margin for each round. If two or more matches in a round are decided by the same margin, these margins are sorted by percentage. Home matches are in bold, and opponents are listed above the margins.
Source:

Season notes

Round 3 was the highest-scoring round in AFLW history.
and the recorded their worst ever starts to an AFLW season, losing their first five and eight matches, respectively.
teammates Eden Zanker and Kate Hore became the first players to kick 20 goals in an AFLW home-and-away season; both players finished with 20 goals to lead the league goalkicking for the home-and-away season, becoming the first shared winners of the award.
Despite averaging the highest score in AFLW history during the season, Melbourne was eliminated from the finals in straight sets, losing three consecutive matches for the first time in its history in the process.

Awards

Major awards

The AFL Women's best and fairest was awarded to 's Monique Conti.
The AFLPA AFLW most valuable player was awarded to 's Jasmine Garner; captain Kate Hore was voted as best captain, 's Courtney Hodder was voted as most courageous player, and Geelong's Aishling Moloney was voted as best first-year player.
The AFLCA AFLW champion player of the year was awarded to North Melbourne's Jasmine Garner; Brisbane coach Craig Starcevich and coach Scott Gowans tied for coach of the year.
The AFL Women's Grand Final best-on-ground medal was awarded to Brisbane captain Breanna Koenen.
The AFL Women's All-Australian team was announced on 27 November; Melbourne captain Kate Hore was named captain and co-captain Bonnie Toogood was named vice-captain, while North Melbourne captain Emma Kearney was selected for the eighth consecutive season.
The AFL Women's leading goalkicker was awarded to Melbourne's Kate Hore and Eden Zanker.
The AFL Women's Rising Star was awarded to 's Zarlie Goldsworthy.
The Goal of the Year was awarded to Richmond's Caitlin Greiser.
The Mark of the Year was awarded to Brisbane's Courtney Hodder.

Leading goalkickers

Player movement and draft

The player movement period ran from November 2023 to March 2024. Among the mechanisms used were an expansion under-18 talent pathway pre-signing period, allowing the four newest teams to sign players from their women's academies, and the supplemental selection period, during which clubs could recruit players who nominated for and were overlooked in the national draft, which was held on 18 December 2023.