The 2009

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 ...

(VFL) was the 128th season of the Australian Rules Football competition. The premiership was won by the

North Ballarat Football Club North Ballarat Football & Netball Club, nicknamed ''The Roosters'', is an Australian rules football and netball club based at Mars Stadium in Ballarat. The club currently fields senior, reserve and Under 19 sides in the Ballarat Football Leag ...

, which defeated the

Northern Bullants The Preston Football Club, which trades and plays as the Northern Bullants, is a long-established Australian rules football club based in Preston that plays in the Victorian Football League (VFL). It plays its home games at the Preston City Ov ...

by 23 points in the Grand Final on 25 September. It was North Ballarat's second consecutive premiership, and the second in the club's history.

League membership and affiliations

At the end of the 2008 season, the Tasmanian Devils Football Club withdrew from the VFL and disbanded. AFL Tasmania, which operated the club, was focussed on re-establishing the

Tasmanian Football League The Tasmanian State League (TSL), colloquially known as the "Tasmanian Football League (TFL)" (formerly known as the "Tasmanian Australian National Football League (TANFL)" and several other short-term names) is the highest ranked Australian r ...

as a statewide competition in 2009, after an eight-year hiatus since the original statewide league's collapse at the end of 2000, and having the Tasmanian VFL club competing for attention and players did not fit with this vision. As a result, the VFL was reduced to thirteen clubs. Additionally, two pairs of VFL-AFL reserves affiliations were altered: * ended its nine-year affiliation with Sandringham and entered a new affiliation with the

Casey Scorpions The Casey Football Club, nicknamed the "Demons" and formerly the "Scorpions", is an Australian rules football club based in Cranbourne East, Victoria. The club, which was known until 2005 as the Springvale Football Club and the Casey Scorpions ...

. * ended its eight-year affiliation with the Casey Scorpions and entered a new affiliation with Sandringham. As a result, the size of the VFL was reduced to thirteen teams: nine VFL-AFL affiliates, two AFL reserves team, and two stand-alone VFL teams.

Ladder

Finals series

Awards

*The Jim 'Frosty' Miller Medal was won by Nick Sautner ( Sandringham) for the ninth time in his career. Sautner kicked 71 goals for the season. *The J. J. Liston Trophy was by Myles Sewell ( North Ballarat), who polled 18 votes. Sewell finished ahead of

Michael Barlow Michael Barlow (born 18 December 1987) is a former professional Australian rules football who played for the Fremantle and Gold Coast Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Early life Barlow grew up in regional Victoria town ...

(

Werribee Werribee is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Melbourne City Centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Wyndham Local government areas of Victoria, local government a ...

), who was second with 16 votes, and

James Podsiadly James Podsiadly (born 10 September 1981) is a former professional Australian rules football player who played for the Geelong Football Club and the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was drafted by as a matu ...

( Geelong) and

Sam Iles Sam Iles (born 19 June 1987) is an Australian rules footballer who played for Collingwood and Gold Coast in the Australian Football League (AFL). Football career Iles was picked up in the 2006 Pre-Season draft by Collingwood after he was ...

( Box Hill), who were equal third with 15 votes. *The Fothergill-Round Medal was won by

(

). * Box Hill won the reserves premiership. Box Hill 16.18 (114) defeated Sandringham 13.6 (84) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors second preliminary final on 20 September.

Notable events

*The

Bendigo Bombers The Bendigo Gold Football Club was an Australian rules football club based in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia. The club played in the Victorian Football League (VFL) from 1998 until 2014, under the nicknames Diggers, Bombers and Gold at different ti ...

could not play at their home ground

Queen Elizabeth Oval Queen Elizabeth Oval is a sports stadium located in Bendigo, Australia primarily used for Australian rules football and cricket. History Cricket The Oval, originally known as Upper Reserve, hosted touring cricket teams as early as 1897. The g ...

after May because the surface was deemed unfit for VFL football. Bendigo's remaining home games were transferred to Windy Hill, the training ground of its AFL-affiliate . *The VFL introduced the "23rd man rule". Under the rule, the size of the playing squad was increased to twenty-three (still with eighteen players on the field, but increasing the size of the interchange bench from four to five), provided the 23rd player was a top-age player currently in the

TAC Cup The NAB League Boys (also referred to as simply the NAB League and formerly known as the TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition held in Australia. It is based on geographic regions throughout country Vict ...

, or an undrafted player who had played in the TAC Cup during the previous year. The rule was designed to provide additional senior football opportunities to promising juniors, and improve the alignments between VFL clubs and their TAC Cup affiliates.

References

External links

AFL Victoria websiteOfficial VFL websiteUnofficial VFL website
{{DEFAULTSORT:2009 Vfl Season Victorian Football League seasons VFL