Fair enough, too.

Collingwood has worked hard to restore its public image, has been a leader for diversity and inclusion in recent times, and has two of the most liked and respected coaches and captains in the business in Craig McRae and Darcy Moore.

It seems quite remarkable now that the Magpies actually finished 2021 in apparent disarray and a dismal 17th on the ladder, ahead only of North Melbourne.

Last Saturday's classic, nail-biting four-point win over the Lions was appropriate reward for an amazing turnaround.

But this was also a premiership - and indeed an AFL season, in my view - which was a big victory for the football purists, the game shown to be in rude health, even if sometimes its administration left a little to be desired.

I like it when the culmination of a season is reflective of the five or six months which preceded it, and that's what happened in 2023, one of the better years, if not the best, the modern era of AFL football has seen.

Collingwood and Brisbane had finished top two on the ladder after the home and away rounds.

Curiously, this was the first time since 2014 the top two had ended up playing off against each other for a premiership.

And we saw on Saturday just why the Pies and Lions ranked Nos. 1 and 2.

If this wasn't the best grand final of the modern era, it was damn close.

I'd have it behind only the 2012 playoff between Sydney and Hawthorn, which featured three separate comebacks.

But I certainly can't remember a first half of a grand final as chock full of great goals and highlights as this one.

And how exciting was the whole finals series this year?

Nine finals games, five of them decided by a total of just 20 points.

Three of the other four were hardly blowouts, either, won by four goals or less.

Collingwood, incredibly, won its three finals games by a combined 12 points.

And if you want evidence of how an amazing September was a microcosm of the whole season, look no further than that statistic.

The Magpies' capacity to hang tough and win the close ones has been one of the highlights of the past couple of years.

Initially viewed as some sort of footballing curio, then as an unusual amount of luck, Collingwood's love of the tight finish is now the stuff of legend.

Saturday's four-point grand final win was the Magpies' 17th victory from the 21 of its games determined by single-figure margins since the start of 2022.

Even when Joe Daniher's last goal for Brisbane made the difference just a kick with 93 seconds left on the clock, you somehow knew the Pies would prevail.

But that, too, is simply reflecting the entire 2023 season.

Because the close finish these days across the competition is far more the norm than the exception.

We had 216 games including finals this year.

No fewer than 53 of them, 24.5 per cent, just on one-quarter, were determined by margins of less than 10 points.

That's more than a couple of thrilling finishes each week.

There's fewer blowouts these days, too.

Even with West Coast being ritually thrashed each week (the Eagles lost five games by more than 100 points), all up there were only 14 games with margins larger than 75 points, about half as many as was often the case a decade or so ago.

The trend to closer finishes has been going on for a few years now, admittedly, and was being trotted out by the AFL as evidence of a healthy game even when scores were at their lowest for 50-odd years and congestion threatening to turn the spectacle into an ugly slog a few years back.

But while a close game doesn't necessarily make a good game, a close game with just a little more scoring than we were getting a few years ago plus a bit more end-to-end play has changed the aesthetics considerably.

Collingwood and Brisbane both ranked high in 2023 for ball movement from the defensive 50 to the forward zone, and both ranked top four for points scored this season.

And both those elements were on display in a grand final first half which yielded 18 goals, the most we've seen since the famous 1989 VFL playoff between Hawthorn and Geelong.

Sure, the scoring dried up in the second half as the unseasonal heat and fatigue took its toll, but even then, the ball never stopped moving.

And it's becoming increasingly obvious that the 6-6-6 and "stand" rules, while much derided at the time of their introduction, have played significant parts in opening up the game once again.

I thought last year, purely as a spectacle, was the best season of AFL football we'd seen since as far back as 2009.

But I reckon 2023 has exceeded even that.

It's been superb to watch, and from that point of view, it's a football year which ends not just with Collingwood victorious, but, really, anyone who considers themselves a fan of our indigenous game.