We all know which was the best game of AFL football played this year, but what about the best of the rest? Science has the answer.

Not science science. But a science of sorts: the science of an excellent game of Australian rules football.

It exists, and we know this because of games like the 2016 preliminary final between the Greater Western Sydney Giants and the Western Bulldogs. This was the best game of AFL football played in 2016.

The Saturday twilight showdown was between two teams with plenty on the line: for the Giants, their first trip to a grand final in their short history, and for the Dogs, their first in two generations. Footscray had the added pressure of preliminary finals past looming over them like a particularly sharp guillotine.

No matter the winner, a historic story was in the process of being written.

Throw into the mix the Ryan-Griffen-for-Tom-Boyd trade subplot, the relative youth of both sides, and both teams’ unlikely-until-it-happened paths to the penultimate weekend of the year, and there’s little wonder the game was one of the highest rating in AFL history.

The game itself lived up to the billing of the two best ground-ball teams in the competition going hell for leather for two hours. It was intense from minute one, as the opposing midfields collided with no fear of the consequences. At times, patches of poetry broke above the heavy metal as the best users of both teams found space.

Clay Smith’s second quarter was remarkable, both in the moment and in the hours that followed the game, given the significance attached to his play. Marcus Bontempelli had 23 touches, but it might as well have been 230 such was his impact across the ground.

Tom Boyd, former Giant Tom Boyd, was thrust into the role of primary ruckman against a legitimately scary person, and managed to nullify what would have otherwise been a key advantage to his opponents in the contest. There were 98 hit outs, almost 25 per cent more than the average game, such was the congested, ‘hit ’em up’ nature of the contest. Dale Morris lived up to his reputation, getting so far up in Jeremy Cameron’s business that the key forward had his least effective game in more than two years.

On the other side, Dylan Shiel, Josh Kelly and Tom Scully confirmed GWS’s outside game is going to be impossible to stop in the foreseeable future. Toby Greene threatened to steal the game from the Dogs’ grasp with a strong fourth quarter, breaking open the Giants’ forward 50, which had been locked down like a central bank safe.

And to cap it off? Well. From the 22-minute mark of the first quarter through the three-minute mark of the final quarter, the margin between the sides was less than ten points. The Giants broke away to a 14-point lead – a chasm on the day – in the first three minutes of the last quarter, only for the Dogs to play one of their frenetic, murderous, ten-minute patches to re-take the lead.

A Jonathon Patton goal at the 20-minute mark brought the margin back to one point, setting off a 14-minute national heart attack, which culminated in this:

The pinnacle moment of the best game of AFL football played in 2016. Immense on every possible count #AFL pic.twitter.com/hDDuRGJisd

— Ryan Buckland (@RyanBuckland7) December 11, 2016

The best games of football have five key pillars underpinning them; coursing through the 800-odd kicks and handballs disposed of, the 150-odd points scored. A great, all-time great game of football has:

1. High stakes
2. Individual brilliance
3. Significance
4. High-quality football, and
5. A close finish

These are all necessary conditions for the best games of football played. It’s what made the 2016 preliminary final the game of the year. This is beyond dispute; this work of art had everything and more, packed into a 127-minute ethereal experience. It met all five criteria for a great game of football.

There were two other games that met all five criteria in 2016, and can be considered contenders for higher honours like games of the decade, games of the era and the like. Let’s hold the applause for now though, because we have some other games to talk about.

I’ve narrowed down a list with 21 game codes on it to ten – or nine, including the Dogs’ preliminary final win – with most of those games that didn’t make the cut falling down because they met only one or two of the criteria.

Take Round 2, Collingwood versus Richmond as an example. It was a terrible, horrible, almost sickening game of footy right up until the last… maybe ten seconds?

The score was 3.3.21 to 3.8.26 at halftime, and neither the trailing Pies nor the leading Tigers were playing football as we know it to be in 2016. There was no individual brilliance and nothing at all at stake. The only point of significance was it can be viewed as the game which killed off the Big Four Friday night oligopoly in 2017. But it had a close finish.

It was Brodie Grundy, doing what all good ruckman should do at the top of the goal square with 20 seconds left on the clock: waiting on the ground to crumb a match-winning goal. Close finish, terrible game.

Games needn’t be close to be great. Adelaide’s 138-point kerb-stomping of Brisbane in Round 20 was of high quality, chock full of individual brilliance, and was significant in that it gave the Crows a percentage boost of seven or so points, which was massive in the context of the season. But the stench of a travelling Brisbane side cannot be covered by three 4-goal hauls to Eddie Betts, Taylor Walker and Tom Lynch alone.

Here are the best the AFL had to offer us in the season just passed.

10. Round 5: Hawthorn vs Adelaide
Why: Individual brilliance, high-quality football, a close finish

The third, and final, game in Hawthorn’s most unlikely three-point victory streak was the most unlikely of the lot.

Adelaide got off to a hot start, playing football at a pace most teams could only dream about. It was a high-scoring game, but it came down to the final minute where both sides had a chance to win it.

Sam Mitchell executed a totally bonkers around-the-corner kick to Paul Puopolo for what ended up being the win, before this happened.

#10 – Round 5: Adelaide v Hawthorn #AFL pic.twitter.com/gNkj3RXkOU

— Ryan Buckland (@RyanBuckland7) December 13, 2016

The Hawks were dead three weeks in a row, until they weren’t.

9. Round 1: Hawthorn vs Geelong
Why: Stakes, individual brilliance, high-quality football

Easter Monday between the Hawks and Cats has become a tradition the ilk of Carlton and Richmond on opening night, except it rarely disappoints.

This year’s edition delivered on a lot of fronts: the start of the Dangerfield era saw Patrick Dangerfield go off in a manner we later became accustomed to, it was a quality physical contest with a tonne of lead changes and surges, and both teams had a heap on the line.

It’s hard to describe Dangerfield’s game as anything but prolific. He seemed to be everywhere, gathering in defence and up forward in equal measure, and owning the centre square. Wayward kicking – he kicked three behinds, two of them back-to-back at a critical point – stopped this from being talked about as one of the best individual performances of the past however many years.

He did take this mark though.

#9 – Round 1: Hawthorn v Geelong #AFL pic.twitter.com/3C7x2lXwUQ

— Ryan Buckland (@RyanBuckland7) December 13, 2016

8. Round 3: Western Bulldogs vs Hawthorn
Why: Significance, high stakes, a close finish

Another Hawthorn game, another game of the year candidate (this stops soon, I promise).

At the time, the Round 3 game between the Dogs and Hawks was significant, given the Dogs had started the year 2-0 and looked like they were making good on their 2015 rise, while the Hawks were a more mixed 1-1 and looked mortal for the first time in a while.

It was another early season game that was close all day, until the Dogs pulled away at the end of the third. Hawthorn swiftly reeled in the deficit in the first five minutes of the last, setting the stage for a thrilling finish.

#8 – Round 3: Western Bulldogs v Hawthorn #AFL pic.twitter.com/RQfDkLUkB0

— Ryan Buckland (@RyanBuckland7) December 13, 2016

At the time it meant plenty. Bulldogs captain Robert Murphy’s ACL injury was the first in a series of major, season-disrupting injuries for the team. It was also the game where the Dogs’ narrative changed: “ok, they’re the real deal”. As the season grew longer, its mystique grew.

7. Round 3: North Melbourne v Melbourne
Why: Significance, a high-quality game, a close finish

The half second and 50-millimetres which separated Demon Billy Stretch’s final disposal of the game from a goal that counted to a behind that didn’t was, in the end, the difference between North Melbourne making and missing the final eight in 2016.

We didn’t know at the time, but that single moment, those milliseconds, shaped the pointy end of the season immensely.

#7 – Round 3: North Melbourne v Melbourne #AFL pic.twitter.com/6G9RBn63Ok

— Ryan Buckland (@RyanBuckland7) December 13, 2016

The Tasmania showdown was easily the highest-scoring game of the year, although not necessarily in aggregate terms. North Melbourne’s 136 was the 24th biggest total of the year, and Melbourne’s 131 the 36th, but it was the only game where both teams scored more than 130 points. The highest single-game points total came in Round 1, where the Eagles and Lions scored 268 points – one more than the Dees and Roos.

A howling breeze meant North got off to a flying eight goals to two start, only to be chased by Melbourne’s nine-goals-to-two second quarter. It was a thoroughly entertaining, if bizarre, exhibition of our game.

To top it off, Brent Harvey kicked six goals, running through the Melbourne defence like it wasn’t even there. Todd Goldstein was bested in the ruck by Max Gawn, but kicked five goals himself. The individual brilliance was there.

6. Round 4: Adelaide vs Sydney
Why: Individual brilliance, a high-quality game, a close finish

As a pure football spectacle, it’s hard to go past Sydney’s trip to Adelaide in Round 4. The biggest margin of the evening was 17 points – the Crows built it in a quick burst at the 24-minute mark of the third quarter, only for Sydney to counter with their own five-minute patch to end up taking the lead by a point at the final siren.

Neither side had a stand-out player on the stats sheet, such was the even excellence expounded by both teams. The lone exception was Sydney’s Dan Hannebery, whose 38 touches, and role in the late third-quarter spurt helped keep the Swans in touch.

It was also the first time Lance Franklin and Isaac Heeney had gone off in the same game, both kicking four goals. Heeney, in particular, was everywhere inside the forward 50 arc, winning the ball on the ground and in the air.

For the Crows, Rory Sloane threw himself at Sydney midfielders all evening in his all-ground rover role, while Eddie Betts kicked four and won 13 contested possessions.

#6 – Round 4: Adelaide v Sydney #AFL pic.twitter.com/23NmLVeAWR

— Ryan Buckland (@RyanBuckland7) December 13, 2016

In the end, it was a ten-point victory to Adelaide, but almost every stat you’d care to count was split right down the middle. Disposals were 372-all, the Crows won the contested possession count by 3 (167 to 164) and the inside 50 count by four (61 to 57). As a pure footballing experience, it was hard to top.

5. Round 6: Greater Western Sydney vs Hawthorn
Why: Significance, individual brilliance, a high-quality game

This seems like a strange pick at face value, but here’s why the Giants’ desolation of the Hawks was one of the best games of the year. It’s all about the significance of it after the fact.

Coming into the game, the Hawks were an utterly unconvincing 4-1, following their three straight three-point wins in the previous three weeks. The wolves were baying at their doors; it’s the end of their era, or at least, the end of their period of outright dominance.

GWS were 3-2 and looked like a sustainably good football team for the first time in their short history. They were hosting the Hawks, whom they’d improbably beaten at home last season too, on the back of a crushing man-to-man defensive performance.

After some short-arm jabs were landed by both teams in the first half of the first quarter, the Giants flicked their switch. You know the one. The switch that puts them into overdrive and turns their team into an 18-man transition football machine.

By the end of Q1 the margin was 32, then it was 45, then it was 64, and then it was 75. The scores don’t do it justice. It was a statement of intent: here we are, everyone.

That Saturday afternoon was one of the most significant of the season; the Giants blowing out the three-time premiers, blasting their brains into the Showground’s turf, playing their pace-and-space style and shattering their glass ceiling.

#5 – Round 6: Greater Western Sydney v Hawthorn (come at me) #AFL pic.twitter.com/Ia3noy5wnm

— Ryan Buckland (@RyanBuckland7) December 13, 2016

To top it all off, it was a really fun game. The Giants were in full Harlem Globetrotters mode, findings creative avenues to goal and punking the Hawks midfield with their cannon-esque long handballs. It is the kind of performance we must condition ourselves to seeing over the next two or three years. At least.

4. Round 17: Sydney vs Hawthorn
Why: High stakes, individual brilliance, significance, a close finish

These two teams have played a series of very tight home-and-away games in recent years. This was another.

This time, it was a Thursday night game at the SCG, with the home team in second on the ladder and the Hawks on top. The winner would end the round on top, with six games to play. Sydney led at the final change, but the Hawks managed to close the deficit and scrape their way to a win in the final moments.

There were highlights aplenty: excellent work in tight, high marks, and plenty of excellent team goals.

#4 – Round 17: Sydney v Hawthorn #AFL pic.twitter.com/m1B7eAGAjW

— Ryan Buckland (@RyanBuckland7) December 13, 2016

If Hawthorn’s Round 6 capitulation to the Giants was significant, then this win – away from home and in these circumstances – was as significant the other way.

We’re into the all-timer territory. These three games, all finals, met all five criteria for an excellent game of football.

3. Grand final: Sydney vs Western Bulldogs
Why: High stakes, individual brilliance, significance, a high-quality game, a close finish

Jay Croucher summarised this game better than I can in his outstanding feature.

It was simultaneously a moment of catharsis for Bulldogs fans, and a moment of pride for the rest of the AFL. As I’ve written elsewhere, it was visceral proof that clubs big and small can be competitive, can build an identity, and so long as they are committed to it, can make it big.

The game itself was worthy of the occasion. In the Hawthorn era – which might be over, but let’s see – we had become so accustomed to the Hawks’ ruthless, professional executions of opponents in big games that we forgot what grand finals could be.

Sydney’s Josh Kennedy played one of the great losing grand finals in the modern era; his second quarter probably the best single quarter in a losing grand final, period. Tom Boyd emerged as a cold-blooded killer, and to lean on Jay’s piece for a moment, exorcising his demons in the process.

#3 – Grand Final: Sydney v Western Bulldogs #AFL pic.twitter.com/SnQcqE9IVB

— Ryan Buckland (@RyanBuckland7) December 13, 2016

There were individual moments every few minutes: Kieran Jack’s first-quarter mark, Easton Wood’s bravery, Dale Morris’ takedown of Lance Franklin to create the match winner, Nick Smith kicking a goal – the 10th of his career and first since 2013.

But it wasn’t the most significant game of the season. It was in that it decided the premier, but in the scheme of the AFL universe, the cosmic implications of one other game were greater.

2. Qualifying final: Geelong vs Hawthorn
Why: High stakes, individual brilliance, significance, a high-quality game, a close finish

Surprisingly, the AFL had only fixtured Geelong and Hawthorn in one home-and-away game in 2016. It was the first time since 2005, and given the established tradition of the two facing off in Round 1, an entire season’s worth of narrative had been spun leading into an era-defining qualifying final.

The Hawks were caught by the Angel of Mean Regression as the season went on, unable to continue to significantly outperform their percentage. A lucky escape against the Pies in Round 23 – sneakily, I think this is the reason the Hawks re-rookied Jack Fitzpatrick, as a reward – meant Hawthorn finished in third rather than sixth.

Their chance at winning through to another grand final, their real chance – or at least what we thought a real chance looked like until the Dogs destroyed that – hinged on a first-up win against the Cats.

For Geelong, it was the Dangerfield effect. The Cats missed the finals for the first time in almost a decade last year, and proceeded to blow the team up. It was working; they finished the year with a 17-5 record, second spot on the ladder, and premiership favouritism.

So, they went at it. Both Chris Scott and Alastair Clarkson played their way and forced their style of play on their opponent; they both let each other get away with it too. Geelong played Smashmouth to Hawthorn’s Beethoven. The Cats had 52 more contested possession wins than the Hawks. The Hawks had 84 more uncontested possessions than the Cats. It was marvellous, a football nerd’s dreams come to life.

Such was the flow of the game, the sides were separated by less than a goal from the 20-minute mark of the third quarter through to the end. As five of Hawthorn’s matches had done this year, it came down to the final play.

#2 – Qualifying Final: Geelong v Hawthorn #AFL pic.twitter.com/zx5ITy22lr

— Ryan Buckland (@RyanBuckland7) December 13, 2016

Hawthorn’s quest for a fourth straight flag effectively ended with Isaac Smith’s missed kick after the siren. Hawthorn ran headlong into the Little Engine That Could, who beat them in the same way the Cats tried. If Smith’s kick went for six points rather than one, Hawthorn would have had a week off and a date with the Swans on the MCG. Now, they could have very well lost that, but one would have given them a much greater chance of beating Sydney than the Bulldogs.

We all know what happened next. Alastair Clarkson talked openly at his organisation’s annual general meeting over the weekend: about what it takes to be successful, framing the decisions made over the off-season, and those to come, as the price of being the best at your craft. Their arc will be one of the stories of the 2017 season, as it has been for the past few years.

1. Preliminary final: Greater Western Sydney vs Western Bulldogs
Why: High stakes, individual brilliance, significance, a high-quality game, a close finish

We’ve covered this one already. The Giants-Dogs preliminary final was far and away the best game of the year, and will be remembered as one of the great games of the era when all is said and done.

#1 – Preliminary Final: Greater Western Sydney v Western Bulldogs #AFL pic.twitter.com/6bN530CbEY

— Ryan Buckland (@RyanBuckland7) December 13, 2016

If you haven’t DVR’d this game, be on the lookout for it over the next month or so. It’s better the second time you watch it.

Honourable mentions go to Round 23: Hawthorn vs Collingwood, Round 14: Geelong vs St Kilda, Round 12: Port Adelaide vs Western Bulldogs, Round 23: Adelaide vs West Coast, Round 15: Sydney vs Western Bulldogs, and Round 8: Richmond vs Sydney.

That last game will be remembered for Sam Lloyd’s kick after the siren, but it should be remembered for Jedi Knight Alex Rance’s final few minutes of play, which undoubtedly won Richmond the game. Fortunately, his key moments will live on in my Twitter feed forever.

Rance was everywhere in the closing stages last night. Four plays, starting with his signature move #AFLTigersSwans pic.twitter.com/f9xsE5mBsX

— Ryan Buckland (@RyanBuckland7) May 15, 2016

Followed that with a tough spoil on Sinclair, creating a stoppage that allowed Tigers to flood back #AFLTigersSwans pic.twitter.com/g7nXOFqm9h

— Ryan Buckland (@RyanBuckland7) May 15, 2016

Swans got a fast break from Richmond 50. Rance outmarks Sinclair, but then turns over kicking out #AFLTigersSwans pic.twitter.com/3V7FMs3B0V

— Ryan Buckland (@RyanBuckland7) May 15, 2016

Finally, there's the overhead kick. Had to keep the ball moving, and did. Was gassed after that #AFLTigersSwans pic.twitter.com/YdTkNDexFq

— Ryan Buckland (@RyanBuckland7) May 15, 2016

Our year in review is almost complete. Next week, we’ll look at who won the AFL in 2016. Not who won the premiership, or even which team won; no, which ‘thing’, a player, a coach, a media figure, a tactic, a fan, won it all.

Last year’s was really fun, and after the year we’ve just had, 2016 will be fun too.