AS ONE of the most thrilling home-and-away seasons in memory reached its white-knuckle conclusion, we presented you with the challenge of selecting the season's standout individuals, matches, performances and moments.

More than 240,000 votes were cast in the inaugural AFL.com.au Fan Awards, and yet several awards went to the wire.

They included Breakout Player of the Year, where just 208 votes separated GWS hot property Josh Kelly from flying Bomber Joe Daniher. Hawthorn's boom recruit Tom Mitchell was a further 400 votes back in third.

Power duo Paddy Ryder and Robbie Gray took out Best Moment for their tag-team destruction of St Kilda, edging Hawk champ Jarryd Roughead's emotional return to the game in round one.

Here are those awards and the rest of 2017's winners, as voted by you.

The Footy Personality of the Year award is the people's champion - the superstar showman who brings the crowd to its feet. And in 2017, there was no greater entertainer than Eddie Betts. Nominated three times this season for the Coates Hire AFL Goal of the Year, Betts has also played a critical role in the Crows' rise to the minor premiership, contributing 49 goals as a small forward.

How you voted

Eddie Betts 39 per cent

Dustin Martin 32 per cent

Patrick Dangerfield 23 per cent

Marcus Bontempelli 6 per cent

It happened like this: Ryder brilliantly tapped the ball from a boundary throw-in over his shoulder into the path of Gray, who sprinted just inside 50. With seven seconds on the clock, Gray kicked the match-winning goal over St Kilda. The year's best moment was a narrow winner over Jarryd Roughead's round one return from his long layoff for cancer treatment.

How you voted

Paddy Ryder and Robbie Gray combine to break Saint hearts 26 per cent

Roughead returns 25 per cent

Rohan on the siren 18 per cent

Mitch McGovern's miracle 15 per cent

Mundy's match-winner 8 per cent

Howe heads for the clouds 8 per cent

Competition was fierce for the title of the rising young gun who made the leap to join footy's elite. Josh Kelly's form has made him the target of frenzied trade interest, and he took out the award by barely 200 votes. Runner-up Joe Daniher went close to a Coleman Medal, chalking up 62 goals to help haul the Bombers into the finals and finishing just seven goals behind Coleman winner Lance Franklin.

How you voted

Josh Kelly 23 per cent

Joe Daniher 23 per cent

Tom Mitchell 22 per cent

Clayton Oliver 14 per cent

Matt Crouch 13 per cent

Elliot Yeo 5 per cent

Lance Franklin can consider himself unlucky here, choosing round 23 to unleash a devastating 10-goal game against the hapless Blues, days after the nominations closed for this category. Still, Dangerfield's freak display against the Hawks would have taken some toppling. A foot injury looked to have ended the Cats champion's day at quarter-time. But after gingerly limping deep forward after the first break he went berserk in the second and third quarters, kicking 5.4 and ending the day with 5.6. He took nine marks, had 13 disposals and two score assists in that time in an unforgettable performance.

How you voted

Patrick Dangerfield v Hawthorn 33 per cent

Dustin Martin v Carlton 20 per cent

Michael Walters v St Kilda 16 per cent

Dayne Zorko v Geelong 14 per cent

Lance Franklin v Brisbane Lions 9 per cent

Robbie Gray v Fremantle 8 per cent

Rance's selection as captain of the 2017 Virgin Australia AFL All Australian team raised eyebrows, but few fans will have been surprised. Over a third of voters judged the Tiger the season's best defender. His unbreachable form at full-back earned him a fourth straight All Australian guernsey, and has done nothing to dent his growing reputation as the finest defender of his generation.

How you voted

Alex Rance 35 per cent

Sam Docherty 22 per cent

Michael Hurley 18 per cent

Michael Hibberd 11 per cent

Rory Laird 11 per cent

Phil Davis 3 per cent

No surprises here. Fans agreed with the bookies in crowning overwhelming Brownlow favourite Dustin Martin the season's best midfielder. Beaten contenders Patrick Dangerfield, Zach Merrett, Tom Mitchell and Dayne Zorko were all named All Australians, with only Crow Rory Sloane missing out.

How you voted

Dustin Martin 35 per cent

Patrick Dangerfield 28 per cent

Zach Merrett 11 per cent

Tom Mitchell 12 per cent

Rory Sloane 9 per cent

Dayne Zorko 5 per cent

Any doubts that Paddy Ryder could return to his best after a season-long suspension were quickly buried this year. His ability to give his Port Adelaide midfielders first use earned him the ruck spot in the All Australian team and fans agreed, naming Ryder the year's standout ruckman ahead of Carlton's Matt Kreuzer.

How you voted

Paddy Ryder 35 per cent

Matthew Kreuzer 23 per cent

Sam Jacobs 19 per cent

Brodie Grundy 9 per cent

Ben McEvoy 8 per cent

Shane Mumford 6 per cent

Lance Franklin's storming 10-goal finish earned him a fourth Coleman Medal, but it was Josh Kennedy who took the choccies as the fans' best forward following a rollercoaster season. After Kennedy missed five matches through injury, columnists not a million miles from AFL.com.au said his Coleman Medal chances were over. And so it proved, but not before a storming finish in which Kennedy briefly looked Coleman-bound after 27 goals in five matches.

How you voted

Josh Kennedy 37 per cent

Joe Daniher 20 per cent

Lance Franklin 19 per cent

Eddie Betts 12 per cent

Ben Brown 7 per cent

Robbie Gray 5 per cent

In a season crammed with barnstorming comebacks and nail-gnawing finishes, this was one of the toughest awards for fans to judge. Beaten into second place was a drawn match featuring a 50-point turnaround, an incredible mark and an after-the-siren goal. Hey, welcome to 2017. In the match you judged the year's best, the Bombers led by 17 points at the 24-minute mark of the last term, before their ghosts returned and Gary Rohan delivered the home side an incredible win.

How you voted

Sydney Swans v Essendon 30 per cent

Collingwood v Adelaide 23 per cent

Geelong v Hawthorn 19 per cent

GWS v Richmond 13 per cent

Sydney v Hawthorn 12 per cent

West Coast v GWS 3 per cent

Damien Hardwick began the year as one of the coaches widely tipped for the sack if Richmond endured another disappointing year. Of course, the Tigers and Dimma had other ideas, and six months on Hardwick went within a whisker of taking out the fans' vote for coach of the year. Just over 400 votes separated Hardwick from Don Pyke, who earned your nod for guiding the Crows to a minor premiership.

How you voted

Don Pyke 28 per cent

Damien Hardwick 27 per cent

John Longmire 21 per cent

John Worsfold 15 per cent

Chris Scott 5 per cent

Leon Cameron 4 per cent

Read more

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