The 2023 AFL season is the 127th season of the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL), the highest level senior men's

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season will feature eighteen clubs and is scheduled to run from 16 March until 30 September, comprising a 23-game home-and-away season, the longest in league history, followed by a

finals series Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

featuring the top eight clubs.

Background

The fixture was extended to 23 matches per club, the longest in history. This was to accommodate the introduction of the 'Gather Round' – known in full as 'Gather Round... a festival of footy' – a special round featuring all eighteen clubs playing in the same city; this was modelled on the Magic Round, which the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

had scheduled annually since

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. South Australia won the bid for the event, beating a bid from New South Wales. Six of the nine matches will take place at

Adelaide Oval Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the city centre and North Adelaide. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby ...

, with

Norwood Oval Norwood Oval (currently known as Coopers Stadium due to sponsorship from the Adelaide-based Coopers Brewery) is a suburban oval in the western end of Norwood, an inner eastern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is owned by Norwood, Payn ...

(two) and Summit Oval, Mount Barker (one) each to host their first AFL matches; and the Saturday and Sunday fixtures at Adelaide Oval were staged as ticketed double-headers, with a single ticket granting access to both matches. For all practical purposes – including distribution of gate receipts, benefits and reserved seating for club members, and clash uniform colours – the round is considered a neutral AFL event, and clubs will be considered neither home nor away, meaning each club still plays eleven home games and eleven away games for the season (clubs below are listed alphabetically). All club members were given priority access to Gather Round tickets. The following rule changes were made for the 2023 season: * The number of field umpires in control of each match was increased from three to four. * The medical substitute position, which had been introduced in 2021, was replaced with a general substitute. Prior rules had allowed for the medical substitute to be used only if the player being substituted from the had a medical reason to do so, but this stipulation was removed allowing for the substitute to be used for any reason.

Coach appointments

Club leadership

Pre-season

All starting times are

local time Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with daylight s ...

. Source
afl.com.au

Home-and-away season

All starting times are

. Source
AFL Tables

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Round 22

Round 23

Round 24

Ladder

Progression by round

Updated to match(es) played on 19 March 2023. Source

/p>

Home matches and membership

Updated to match(es) played on 19 March 2023. Source

/p>

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 (i.e. the lowest-scoring winning team is ranked highest and the lowest-scoring losing team is ranked lowest). Home matches are in bold, and opponents are listed above the margins.

Updated to match(es) played on 19 March 2023. Source

/p>

Season notes

* The total round 1 attendance of 392,248 is the third-highest attendance for a round in VFL/AFL history.

Milestones

Updated to match(es) played on 19 March 2023. Source

/p>

Leading goalkickers

! rowspan=2 style=width:2em , # ! rowspan=2 , Player ! rowspan=2 , Team ! colspan=24 , Home-and-away season (

Coleman Medal The Coleman Medal is an Australian rules football award given annually to the Australian Football League (AFL) player who kicks the most goals in the home-and-away season. It is named after Essendon full-forward John Coleman, one of the most ...

) ! colspan=4 , Finals ! rowspan=2 , Total ! rowspan=2 , Games ! rowspan=2 , Average , - ! 1 !! 2 !! 3 !! 4 !! 5 !! 6 !! 7 !! 8 !! 9 !! 10 !! 11 !! 12 !! 13 !! 14 !! 15 !! 16 !! 17 !! 18 !! 19 !! 20 !! 21 !! 22 !! 23 !! 24 !! F1 !! F2 !! F3 !! GF , - ! scope=row style=text-align:center , 1 , align=left , Nick Larkey , , align=left , , , bgcolor=C9F0FF , 6₆ , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 6 , , 1 , , 6.00 , - ! scope=row style=text-align:center rowspan=4 , 2 , align=left , Ben Brown , , align=left , , , 4₄ , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 4 , , 1 , , 4.00 , - , align=left ,

Toby Greene Toby Greene (born 27 December 1993) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Greater Western Sydney Giants in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was recruited by the Greater Western Sydney Giants with the 11th overa ...

, , align=left , , , 4₄ , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 4 , , 1 , , 4.00 , - , align=left ,

Todd Marshall Todd Marshall (born 8 October 1998) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is a tall key-position player. Early life Marshall grew up in Deniliquin, New Sou ...

, , align=left , , , 4₄ , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 4 , , 1 , , 4.00 , - , align=left ,

Kysaiah Pickett Kysaiah Pickett ( ; born 2 June 2001) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A forward, he is tall and weighs . Pickett is the nephew of former Demons ...

, , align=left , , , 4₄ , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 4 , , 1 , , 4.00

Updated to the end of round 1. Source
AFL Tables
/p>

References

Sources

2023 AFL season
at afl.com.au
2023 AFL season
at AustralianFootball.com {{Australian Football League 2023 Australian Football League season Australian Football League seasons A