The 130th season of the Victorian Football League/Victorian Football Association was held in 2011.

Teams

The league contracted from fourteen teams to thirteen, after the

Gold Coast Football Club The Gold Coast Suns is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast in the suburb of Carrara. The club has been playing in the AFL since the ...

left and entered the Australian Football League. The fledgling Gold Coast club had used the 2009 TAC Cup season and the 2010 VFL season as preparation for joining the AFL. There was originally speculation that the Greater Western Sydney Giants, which had played TAC Cup in 2010 and was set to join the AFL in 2012, may have spent the 2011 season in the VFL under a similar plan, but instead the club opted to play in the

North East Australian Football League The North East Australian Football League (NEAFL) was an Australian rules football league in New South Wales, Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. The league was formed in November 2010, and its inaugural co ...

. The VFL continued to serve as both the top state-level football league in Victoria, and as a reserves competition for Victorian-based clubs in the Australian Football League, as had been the case since 2000. The affiliation agreements between VFL and AFL clubs were unchanged from 2010. The top three teams from 2010 – North Ballarat, Northern Bullants and Williamstown – competed in the inaugural Foxtel Cup competition, with Williamstown winning the event. Port Melbourne dominated the 2011 season, winning twenty-one games in a row to win the premiership undefeated. In the home-and-away season, the Borough finished with a record of 18–0, finishing four games clear atop the ladder; it was the first time a club had finished the home-and-away season undefeated since

Geelong West Geelong West is a commercial and residential suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia. When Geelong was founded, the area was known as Kildare but its name was changed to Geelong West in 1875. The main street is Pakington Street. At the 2016 c ...

in 1972 Division 2, and the first to do so in the top division since Williamstown in

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...

. The Borough maintained its undefeated record through the finals to claim the premiership, replicating the feat of Geelong West's 1972 team, but becoming the first team to achieve the feat in the top division since

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at ...

in 1918.

Ladder

Finals

Grand Final

Awards

*The J. J. Liston Trophy was won for the second consecutive year by

Shane Valenti Shane Valenti (born 29 January 1987) is an Australian rules footballer, who played for the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Valenti was selected with the 51st selection in the 2007 NAB AFL Rookie Draft, which ...

(

Port Melbourne Port Melbourne is an inner-city List of Melbourne suburbs, suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the Cities of ...

), who polled 25 votes. Valenti finished ahead of

Matthew Bate Matthew Bate, nicknamed “Master” (born 24 May 1987) is an Australian rules footballer and former player for the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). At the conclusion of the 2012 AFL season, he was delisted by ...

(

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 ...

), who was second with 15 votes, and

Ben Jolley Ben Jolley (born 12 February 1986) is a former Australian rules footballer who last played for Williamstown in the Victorian Football League. A midfielder from the Calder Cannons, Jolley was picked up by the Essendon Football Club as a rook ...

( Williamstown), who was third with 13 votes. *The

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 Footbal ...

was won by Patrick Rose (Port Melbourne), who kicked 67 goals for the season. *The Fothergill-Round Medal was won by Ahmed Saad (

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 ...

) *The top three teams,

, Williamstown and

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 ...

, qualified for the 2012 Foxtel Cup tournament. *The reserves premiership was won by Box Hill. Box Hill 18.10 (118) defeated

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 ...

7.11 (53) in the Grand Final, played as a curtain-raiser to the seniors first preliminary final on 17 September at TEAC Oval.

References

External links

AFL Victoria websiteOfficial VFL website
{{VFA/VFL seasons Victorian Football League seasons VFL