No one word or phrase could possibly sum up the 2015 AFL season.

A coach was killed and his son charged with murder. Some of the great plays of antiquity were written out of those sorts of dynamics. The Walsh family tragedy is still playing out in the courts, but, after a week's break and an immense outpouring of public grief, Adelaide played on.

That they did so was understood to be in the spirit of Phil Walsh and the most emotionally compelling moment of the season was when his daughter Quinn appeared on the field to award the Phil Walsh Medal after Showdown 39. Her pain and pride were nakedly on show. Everyone was watching. It was a reverent moment.

Then, by way of contrast, there was the booing of Adam Goodes. Goodes' presence at today's grand final may well be marked by his absence. He reportedly declined the offer of the pre-match lap of honour that was his due as a retiring champion. Goodes being booed at the grand final would be the final insult. That it has come to this is a major embarrassment for the game.

James Hird's tenure as Essendon coach came to a painful end. For well over a year, Hird's conduct was minutely dissected in public. The air was thick with judgments. As I wrote at the time, if Australians were as diligent in their scrutiny of politics as they are of sport, we'd have a different government – the same parties in government perhaps, but with a higher standard of representatives and debate. If Tony Abbott had been judged like an AFL coach, he would've been gone a whole year earlier. James Hird only made one mistake.

Dual Brownlow medallist Chris Judd retired. He was a great player to the end but if you want to see how good he was before he lost his electrifying speed watch the 2005 grand final. And Stevie J went from the Cats, but not quietly, attempting a scissor kick while lying horizontal on the edge of the goal square. Stevie J was the showman who told you how good he was and then proved he was a man of his word on the field.

In 2007, he was nearly delisted after a pre-season drinking adventure . By the end of 2007, he was the Norm Smith medallist in a premiership side. That year, I inaugurated my own football award, the Tom Wills Award, and gave it to Stevie J. Until this year, there has only been one other recipient - Gerard Neesham, former Freo coach and founder of the Clontarf scheme that uses football to keep young Aboriginal men at school.

On the local front, the excitement came from the Dogs. They ran like water runs before it goes over the edge of a waterfall. They took every risk and got away with most of them. They backed their skills and played quicker than anyone else dared. Bob Murphy was like the conductor of the band, setting and maintaining the tempo.

I believed that only the players could stop the booing of Adam Goodes or, at least, make the booers stop and think. History will record that Bob Murphy led the way. The AFL players voted Murphy captain of the year and by a big margin. The All-Australian selectors concurred. Bob Murphy is the winner of the 2015 Tom Wills Award. History will also record that women's football took a giant step forward in 2015 when the Melbourne v Bulldogs' women's game was telecast on Channel Seven.

And Nat Fyfe won the Brownlow. Has there been a more charismatic winner? Fyfe is a young brumby of a footballer. He gallops about the field; he is both quick and incredibly strong. Those big legs thrust him high into the air and he ascends vertically. Yet he is also fearless when the ball is at his feet and he runs with his hands extended before him like he's feeling for something in the grass. Fyfe has boy band good looks and an impish manner. He's like a leprechaun with the power of a small truck and he's footy's biggest star right now.

I wrote in July that only West Coast could stop Hawthorn. The Eagles have got real talent but are only just finding their way as a team. Hawthorn is smooth and balanced. Their coach, Alastair Clarkson, has been with them 11 years and may be on his way to proving that he's the best coach since Melbourne's Norm Smith. If you're seriously interested in Clarkson, read Michael Gordon's book, Playing to Win. If you're seriously interested in Norm Smith, read Ben Collins' book, The Red Fox.

Who'll win today? It depends on Naitanui, Kennedy and Priddis. Naitanui has football destiny written all over him. Name some element of the game performed two metres or more above ground level and he's done it spectacularly well. He's pretty damaging on the ground also. Kennedy, the player people once noticed only for the stutter in his run-up, has height, reach, pace and courage. He can leap and has strong hands. He is the 2015 Coleman medallist. Does Hawthorn have a defender who can go with him?

Priddis has to meet Hawthorn where they're strongest, in the centre square where their squadron of champions regulate the run and flow of big matches like highly trained mechanics. Clearly, the odds are with Hawthorn but, as a team, the Eagles are about where Essendon were in 1993. Everyone knew the young Bombers were exciting; no one knew quite how exciting. The space was open for something to happen and Essendon's Michael Long filled it unforgettably.