Adelaide 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.

[2] A pre-season start date of 29 May was announced,[2] though AFL Players Association (AFLPA) 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.

[15] 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.

[24] 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:[25] The season's Indigenous Round was held during rounds 7 and 8, with all 18 teams wearing specially-designed guernseys across the two weeks.

[28] The round is held to acknowledge the contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls to Australian football and the wider community.

[34] Sydney 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.

[37] 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,[38] captaining both clubs, and was a three-time AFL Women's All-Australian and two-time grand final best-on-ground winner.

[38] 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,[40] 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".

[180] Among the mechanisms used were an expansion under-18 talent pathway pre-signing period,[181] allowing the four newest teams (Essendon, Hawthorn, Port Adelaide and Sydney) to sign players from their women's academies,[e] and the supplemental selection period, during which clubs could recruit players who nominated for and were overlooked in the national draft,[183] which was held on 18 December 2023.