The 2015
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 134th season of the
Victorian Football Association/Victorian Football League Australian rules football competition.
Fifteen teams competing in the league. The season commenced on Friday 17 April and concluded Sunday 27 September with the VFL Grand Final, won by , who defeated by 54 points at
Etihad Stadium
The City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England, also known as the Etihad Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is the home of Premier League club Manchester City F.C., with a domestic football capacity of 53,400, making it the 6th-largest ...
. It was Williamstown's 14th top division premiership.
League membership
The size of the league reduced from sixteen teams to fifteen for the 2015 season, following the withdrawal and disbanding of the
Bendigo Football Club
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 ...
. Bendigo had enjoyed stability from 2003 until 2012 in a
reserves affiliation with the
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...
's , but following Essendon's establishment of a stand-alone reserves team in 2013, Bendigo had struggled to remain competitive as a stand-alone club. In June 2014, half-way through what would finish as its second consecutive winless season, the club concluded that it was not financially viable in the long term and announced it would play out the 2014 season before folding.
Premiership season
Specific feature of the fixture included:
* A Grand Final replay between
Footscray and
Box Hill Hawks
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 ...
headlining the opening round of a twenty-round season.
* At least two
AFL
AFL may refer to:
Sports
* American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues:
** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...
curtain raiser games to be played, with the
Northern Blues
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 O ...
to face
North Ballarat
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 Lea ...
in Round 5 and
Frankston in Round 11 as curtain raisers to matches.
* Four night matches will be a feature of the season.
* Two matches, each between two AFL reserves teams, will be played in Bendigo at
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 ...
.
* The
Seven Network
The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...
to broadcast one match of the round live in Victoria, midday or 11.30am each weekend.
Source
VFL season 2015 Results and Fixtures''
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
Round 8
Round 9
Round 10
Round 11
Round 12
Round 13
Round 14
Round 15
Round 16
Round 17
Round 18
Round 19
Round 20
Ladder
Finals series
Qualifying and Elimination Finals
Semi-finals
Preliminary Finals
Grand Final
Awards
* 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 jointly by
Sam Grimley
Sam Grimley (born 3 January 1991) is a former Australian rules football player who played for the Hawthorn Football Club and Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League.
After Hawthorn won the 2008 premiership, the Hawthorn rec ...
(),
Jordan Lisle (
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 ...
) and
Liam McBean (
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
), who each kicked 42 goals during the home-and-away season. It was Grimley's second consecutive joint Frosty Miller Medal, and the most players ever to tie for the award. Across the completed season including finals, Grimley was the leading goalkicker with 46.
*The
J. J. Liston Trophy was won by Nick Rippon (
North Ballarat
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 Lea ...
), who polled 15 votes. Four players – Myles Sewell (North Ballarat),
Clint Jones (
Sandringham Sandringham can refer to:
Places
* Sandringham, New South Wales, Australia
* Sandringham, Queensland, Australia
* Sandringham, Victoria, Australia
**Sandringham railway line
**Sandringham railway station
**Electoral district of Sandringham
* Sand ...
),
Matt Thomas (
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
) and
Sam Dunell (
Williamstown) – finished equal second with 14 votes.
*The
Fothergill–Round Medal was won by
Adam Marcon (
Williamstown).
*The Development League premiership was won by
Williamstown. In the Grand Final, played at
North Port Oval
North Port Oval, also known as the Port Melbourne Cricket Ground or by the sponsored name ETU Stadium, is an Australian rules football and cricket stadium located in Port Melbourne, Australia. The capacity of the venue is 6,000 people. It is ho ...
on 19 September as a curtain-raiser to the senior first preliminary final, Williamstown 8.13 (61) defeated
Box Hill 8.12 (60) by one point; scores were level at 60 apiece when time expired, and Williamstown scored the winning behind after three minutes of golden point extra time. It was the third consecutive year that Williamstown defeated Box Hill in the Development League Grand Final, and the second time out of those three years that the final margin was one golden point.
Notable events
*After having televised VFA/VFL matches weekly since the 1987 finals series, the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...
ended its broadcasting arrangement with the VFL. A new broadcast deal covering the 2015 and 2016 seasons was signed with the
Seven Network
The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...
, which televised the match of the round live into Melbourne as a lead-in to its AFL coverage.
See also
*
List of VFA/VFL premiers
This page is a complete chronological listing of the premiers of the Australian rules football competition known as the Victorian Football Association until 1995 and as the Victorian Football League since 1996. The Victorian Football Association ...
*
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 ...
*
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 ...
*
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...
*
2015 AFL season
The 2015 AFL season was the 119th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured eigh ...
References
External links
2015 VFL FixtureAFL Victoria websiteOfficial VFL website
{{VFA/VFL seasons
Victorian Football League seasons
VFL