The Essendon District Football League (EDFL) is a professional

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 ...

league competition based in

Essendon, Victoria Essendon is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Moonee Valley local government area. Essendon recorded a population of 21,240 at the 2021 census. Essen ...

, consisting of teams based in the north-west suburbs of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. Founded in 1930, the men's competition consists of three leagues: Premier Division, Division 1 and Division 2, with 10 clubs in the Premier Division and Division 1 nine in Division 2.

Promotion and relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

between these divisions occurs, with the lowest-placed clubs in the Premier Division and Division 1 being relegated at the end of each season. Clubs which win the Division 1 and Division 2 premierships are automatically promoted. Each men's team also fields a reserves side and an under-19 side that play a fixture mirroring that of the senior side. Since 2017, the League has also run a competition for

women's Australian rules football Women's Australian rules football (in areas where it is popular, known simply as women's football or women's footy or women's AFL), is the female-only form of Australian rules football, generally with some modification to the laws of the game. ...

. In its inaugural year, this was a joint competition featuring teams from the EDFL as well as the

Western Region Football League The Western Region Football League is an Australian rules football semi-professional league, based in the western suburbs of Melbourne, for both seniors and juniors. History The league was formed in 1931 as the "Footscray District Football L ...

(WRFL). In 2018, 13 teams competed in a single division season, expanding to 19 teams and two divisions in 2019.

Clubs

Current

;Notes : ^{^} denotes that the club's most recent senior premiership was in Division 1 or the B Grade. : ⁺ denotes that the club's most recent senior premiership was in Division 2 or the C Grade. : ¹ Coburg Districts first entered the competition in 1981, before departing after the conclusion of the 1987 EDFL season. The club re-entered the competition from the 2013 EDFL season onwards. : ² Keilor Park did not field a side in the 2018 EDFL season. : ³ East Sunbury did not field a side in the 2022 EDFL season.

Former

Premiers

EDFL Women's

History

In partnership with the

(WRFL), in 2016 the two leagues established the Western Region & Essendon District Women's Football League, an eleven-team open-age competition for women. Five EDFL clubs fielded teams in the competition – , , , and – with prevailing against WRFL side Manor Lakes in the grand final. In 2018, the EDFL established its own Women's competition, consisting of 13 teams. Of those 13 teams, two came from outside of the League – the

Ballarat Football League The Ballarat Football League (BFL) is an Australian rules football competition that operates in the Ballarat region of Victoria, Australia. The competition formed in 1893 as the Ballarat Football Association and was renamed Ballarat Football ...

-side ; and , at the time competing in the

Riddell District Football League The Riddell District Football Netball League (RDFNL) is an Australian rules football and netball league in Victoria, Australia. The RDFNL covers towns in the Macedon Ranges and an area from Rockbank in the south to Broadford in the north. T ...

. , despite competing in the 2017 joint competition, did not field a side, while and fielded a joint team under the Avondale Heights–Taylors Lakes moniker. In 2019, the competition expanded to 19 teams and was split into two divisions – a 10-club Premier Division and a nine-club Division 1. became the first team to field two sides, one in each division.

Clubs

Juniors matches

The juniors consist of: Under 8s, Under 10s, Under 14s, Under 16s and Under 18.5s. There are also youth girls teams in the junior divisions. There are eight junior divisions at this level and each team listed in the senior section has at least one junior team in divisions 1, 2 or 3 for each age group, however many clubs have more in divisions 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.

References

External links

Official website

{{Aussie Rules in Victoria Australian rules football competitions in Victoria (Australia) Sports leagues established in 1930 Essendon, Victoria