The premiership was won by the Richmond Football Club for the eleventh time, after it defeated Adelaide by 48 points in the 2017 AFL Grand Final.

The following amendments were made to the Laws of the Game for the 2017 season:[1] The pre-season series of matches in 2017 was known as the JLT Community Series; its new sponsor was Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT),[5] who replaced National Australia Bank (NAB) after NAB elected to sponsor the inaugural AFL Women's season instead.

[6] The series featured 27 practice matches played over 25 days, beginning on 16 February and ending on 12 March.

The series was played on an aggregate-points basis, with the winner being the team that scores the highest amount over the two test matches.

The Australian team was again composed exclusively of players who have won All-Australian honours in their careers.