The 2001

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

season was the 120th season of the

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

competition. The premiership was won by the

Box Hill Football Club Box Hill Hawks Football Club is an Australian rules football club playing in the Victorian Football League. It has an alliance with the Hawthorn Football Club, which plays in the Australian Football League. Early Australian rules football in B ...

, after defeating

Werribee Werribee is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Wyndham local government area. Werribee recorded a population of 50,027 at the 2021 census. Werribee i ...

by 37 points in the Grand Final on 23 September. It was the first top division premiership won by Box Hill in its 51 seasons in the VFA/VFL.

League membership and affiliations

In a continuation of the VFL's amalgamation with the AFL reserves, which had begun in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, there were several changes to the VFL-AFL reserves affiliations in 2001.Fiddian, Marc (2004); ''The VFA; A History of the Victorian Football Association 1877-1995''; p. 188 * affiliated with Coburg-Fitzroy. Under the affiliation, the team's nickname was changed from Lions to Tigers to match Richmond's nickname, and the partnership with

Fitzroy Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to: People As a given name *Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name: **FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855) ** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...

came to an end, resulting in the team becoming known as the Coburg Tigers. The financial stability brought by the affiliation saved Coburg from extinction, as the club had been in administration since July 2000 and would have been wound up if it had not entered an AFL affiliation. *, which had been jointly affiliated with Williamstown and

, became fully affiliated with Werribee. * affiliated with Williamstown * affiliated with Springvale In addition to these changes, a new team from

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

was admitted to the VFL; the admission was initially on a one-year trial basis, and a permanent licence was ultimately granted. Created and administered by

Football Tasmania Football Tasmania (FT) is the governing body for soccer in the Australian state of Tasmania. The federation oversees competitions across Tasmania, Tasmanian representative teams, and development of the sport in the state. The federation was kn ...

(later

AFL Tasmania AFL Tasmania is the Australian Football League (AFL) subsidiary in Tasmania and it’s governing body for Australian rules football in Tasmania. The organisation is responsible for AFL-linked Australian rules football development in the state. ...

), the Tasmanian VFL club was designed to provide an opportunity for state level football in Tasmania to fill the void left by the collapse of the Tasmanian Statewide Football League at the end of the 2000 season. The club came to be known as the Tasmanian Devils, and played its home games throughout Tasmania, with five games at

York Park York Park is a sports ground in the Inveresk and York Park Precinct, Launceston, Australia. Holding 19,000 people – the largest capacity stadium in Tasmania, York Park is known commercially as University of Tasmania Stadium and was formerly ...

in Launceston, four games at

North Hobart Oval North Hobart Oval is a Stadium, sports venue in North Hobart, Tasmania, used for Australian rules football. History North Hobart Oval started its existence as Hobart Town's brickfields in 1844 before becoming a Brickfields Hiring Depot, convi ...

in Hobart, and one game at

Devonport Oval Devonport Oval is an Australian rules football, cricket and athletics stadium in Devonport, Tasmania. It is the home stadium for the Devonport Football Club in the Tasmanian State League (TSL) and for the Devonport Cricket Club in the NWTCA comp ...

in Devonport in its first season. Consequently, there were sixteen teams in the VFL in 2001: eight clubs with VFL-AFL affiliations, three AFL reserves teams, and five stand-alone VFL clubs.

Premiership season

Ladder

Finals Series

Grand Final

Awards

*The

Jim 'Frosty' Miller Medal The Jim 'Frosty' Miller Medal is awarded to the Victorian Football League player who kicks the most goals in home-and-away matches in that year. The is named in honour of Jim 'Frosty' Miller, who was the leading goalkicker of the Victorian Footba ...

was won for the third consecutive year by Nick Sautner ( Frankston), who kicked 73 goals. *The J. J. Liston Trophy was jointly won by

Brett Backwell Brett William Backwell (born 18 May 1980) is a former Australian rules football player who achieved some international notoriety in 2005 when he had a finger amputated to enable him to continue his chosen sport. Backwell played for in the Au ...

( Carlton reserves) and

Ezra Poyas Ezra Poyas (born 24 March 1981) is an Australian rules footballer who played in the Australian Football League (AFL) and is a former captain of Victorian Football League (VFL) club Sandringham. Poyas is a former captain of the Victoria Metrop ...

(

Coburg Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it was ...

), who each polled 19 votes. Backwell and Poyas finished ahead of

Simon Feast Simon Feast (born 1 December 1974) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL) and for much longer with Sturt in the South Australian National Football League. Early lif ...

(

Port Melbourne Port Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Port Phillip local government areas. Port Melbourne recorded a populatio ...

), who was third with 15 votes. *The Fothergill-Round Medal was won by Kristian DePasquale (

). *

won the reserves premiership. Werribee 17.12 (114) defeated Williamstown 12.15 (87) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the Seniors Grand Final on 23 September.

Notable events

*In Round 12, 5.11 (41) trailed 13.14 (92) by 51 points at three-quarter time, before kicking ten goals to one to win the game by five points, 15.13 (103) d. 14.14 (98). It was the largest three-quarter time deficit overcome in a VFA/VFL game since 1949.

References

{{VFA/VFL seasons Victorian Football League seasons VFL