The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an
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 in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional
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 ...
(AFL). It includes teams from clubs based in the
eastern states of Australia
The eastern states of Australia are the states adjoining the east continental coastline of Australia. These are the mainland states of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, and the island state of Tasmania. The Australian Capital Territory ...
:
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
,
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
and
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
, and includes
reserves teams for the east coast AFL clubs.
The league evolved from the former Victorian Football Association (VFA), and it has been known by its current name since 1996. For historical purposes, the present-day VFL is referred to as the VFA/VFL, to distinguish it from the present-day Australian Football League, which in turn was known until 1990 as the Victorian Football League and is thus referred to as the VFL/AFL.
The VFA was formed in 1877 and is the second-oldest
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, replacing the loose affiliation of clubs that had been the hallmark of the
early years of the game. Initially serving a primarily administrative function, the VFA premiership served as the top level of club competition in Victoria until 1896. The VFA became the secondary level of club competition from 1897 after its eight strongest clubs seceded to form the VFL/AFL. From 1897 until 1994, the VFA remained independent from the VFL as Victoria's secondary senior club competition. Although always much less popular than the VFL/AFL, the VFA enjoyed peaks of popularity in the 1940s with a faster-paced
rival code of rules, and in the 1970s bolstered by playing on Sundays at a time when the VFL was played solely on Saturdays.
Since 1995, the league has been administered by
AFL Victoria
AFL Victoria (formerly Football Victoria) is the state-level sport governing body for Australian rules football in the state of Victoria, Australia. Under the organisation's jurisdiction fall 115 leagues — including the Victorian Football Le ...
(and its predecessors). In 2022, it will comprise 21 teams from throughout the eastern states, nine of which have a continuous VFA heritage. Prior to 2021, the New South Wales- and Queensland-based clubs played 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 ...
until the NEAFL merged into the VFL, expanding the competition to those states.
AFL Victoria also operates a women's football competition under the Victorian Football League brand, known as the VFL Women's, which was established in 2016.
History
Formative years (1877–1896)
![Melbourne fc 1879](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Melbourne_fc_1879.jpg)
The Victorian Football Association (VFA) was founded on 17 May 1877 at the meeting of club secretaries immediately preceding the 1877 season. It was formed out of a desire to provide a formal administrative structure to the governance of the sport, and it had the power to impose binding decisions on its members on matters including the Laws of the Game, player eligibility and other disputes, as well as to facilitate intercolonial football. Decisions were made based on a vote of the Board of Management, which was composed of two delegates from each senior club, a structure which was retained until the late 1980s. It replaced a system under which the secretaries of the senior clubs met at the beginning of each year to decide on matters of mutual interest, but the system was informal and disputes often went unresolved.
![1891 VFA Premiership Match](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/1891_VFA_Premiership_Match.jpg)
The five foundation senior clubs in the Melbourne metropolitan area were
Albert-park,
Carlton
Carlton may refer to:
People
* Carlton (name), a list of those with the given name or surname
* Carlton (singer), English soul singer Carlton McCarthy
* Carlton, a pen name used by Joseph Caldwell (1773–1835), American educator, Presbyterian ...
,
Hotham (later North Melbourne),
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 ...
and
St Kilda. Provincial clubs were also eligible for senior representation on the Association, even though most seldom played matches against the metropolitan teams;
Geelong
Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...
, the nearest provincial club to the metropolis, was the most prominent provincial club, joining the Association in 1877 and playing regularly against metropolitan clubs by 1880. There was no formal system of promotion and relegation between the senior and junior levels, with it largely at a club's discretion whether or not it joined the Association as a paying senior member. The affiliation fee for senior clubs was initially set at one guinea.
Through the first decade of the VFA's existence, the structure of the football season did not change significantly from the informal system which had evolved
over previous years. Setting of fixtures was the responsibility of club secretaries rather than the Association itself, and in a typical season, a club could play against other VFA teams, non-VFA clubs,
at odds against junior teams (usually twenty players against twenty-three), and in some seasons against intercolonial teams; although as the number of senior clubs increased, the number of matches against non-VFA clubs declined. Prior to the 1888 season, there was no formally endorsed system for awarding a VFA premiership: as had been the case since the early 1870s, the premier club was determined by public and press consensus, which by the mid-1880s was conventionally but informally understood to be the senior club which suffered the fewest losses during the season.
Premierships won under this then-informal method are now considered official, and consensus was typically uncontroversial.
In 1888, the VFA first took responsibility for the onfield competition, and introduced its first formal premiership system by adopting a system of premiership points;
it also awarded for the first time a premiership cap in the Association's colours to players of the premier team. The Association's influence over the on-field competition grew, and from 1894, the Association assumed responsibility for centrally setting the fixtures and standardising the number of games played by each team.
After the formal introduction of the premiership, the often-changeable collection of senior clubs in the VFA soon became settled at twelve premiership-eligible clubs: , ,
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 ...
,
Footscray, , , ,
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 ...
, , ,
South Melbourne
South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at t ...
and
Williamstown; they were joined by a thirteenth club, , in 1892. Three Ballarat-based clubs –
Ballarat
Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...
,
Ballarat Imperial and
South Ballarat – were also voting members of the VFA through this time, but were not involved in the onfield premiership.
Split (1897–1937)
![BrunswickFC](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/BrunswickFC.jpg)
During the 1890s, there was an off-field power struggle within the VFA between the stronger and weaker clubs, as the stronger clubs sought greater administrative control commensurate with their relative financial contribution to the game. This came to a head in 1896 when it was proposed that gate profits, which were always lower in matches against the weaker clubs, be shared equally amongst the Association clubs; in response to the threat that this might be endorsed on the votes of the weaker clubs, six of the strongest clubs – , , , , and – seceded from the VFA, inviting and to join them, to form the
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), which became the leading senior football body in Victoria. The remaining VFA clubs – Footscray, North Melbourne, Port Melbourne, Richmond and Williamstown – were given the opportunity to compete as a junior competition under and without representation on the VFL's administration, but rejected the offer and continued as an independent body.
The two new competitions competed in parallel from their respective 1897 seasons.
The VFA rebuilt to ten clubs over its first independent decade, mostly by adding leading junior clubs to its ranks such as
Brunswick,
Prahran,
West Melbourne,
Essendon Town/Association,
Preston
Preston is a place name, surname and given name that may refer to:
Places
England
*Preston, Lancashire, an urban settlement
**The City of Preston, Lancashire, a borough and non-metropolitan district which contains the settlement
**County Boro ...
,
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
,
Northcote and
Hawthorn
Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to:
Plants
* '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae
* ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...
. Because the VFA was independent from the VFL (and, upon its establishment in 1906, the
Australasian Football Council
The Australian National Football Council (ANFC) was the national governing body for Australian rules football in Australia from 1906 until 1995. The council was a body of delegates representing each of the principal leagues which controlled the ...
), the VFA had the power to set its own rules. The VFA reduced the number of on-field players from twenty to eighteen in 1897, a move followed by the VFL two years later. The VFA tried reducing the number of players further to 17 in 1908,
then to 16 in 1912, before reverting to the national standard 18 in 1919.
The VFA went into recess during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, with the 1916 and 1917 seasons cancelled and the 1915 and 1918 seasons shortened.
![Northcote 1929](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Northcote_1929.jpg)
Over the first thirty years of the VFA's independence, its relationship with the VFL was, in general, mutually antagonistic. At different times (1913–1918 and 1923–1925), the two competitions had permit reciprocity agreements in place to prevent one competition from poaching players from the other without a
clearance, but these were sporadic and remained in place only when convenient to both competitions. At the same time, the strongest clubs in the VFA often sought to defect to the VFL, which the VFL was happy to encourage when it expanded, and there were ultimately four defections: in 1908; and , and in 1925. Attempting to defect was seen as treacherous within the VFA, and clubs which attempted to defect but failed were sometimes expelled from the VFA by the remaining clubs: was expelled from the VFA twice (in 1908 and 1921, before reforming and rejoining on both occasions), and
West Melbourne was expelled permanently in 1908.
The loss of the VFA's strongest three clubs to the VFL in 1925 firmly cemented the VFA as the second-tier competition in the state. Between 1925 and 1929, the addition of outer suburban clubs in
Coburg (1925),
Camberwell
Camberwell () is a district of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross.
Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles and a common of which Goose Green is a remnant. This e ...
(1926), a new club from
Preston
Preston is a place name, surname and given name that may refer to:
Places
England
*Preston, Lancashire, an urban settlement
**The City of Preston, Lancashire, a borough and non-metropolitan district which contains the settlement
**County Boro ...
(1926),
Yarraville
Yarraville is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Maribyrnong local government area. Yarraville recorded a population of 15,636 at the .
Yarraville i ...
(1928),
Oakleigh (1929) and
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 ...
(1929) expanded the VFA back to twelve teams. The relationship with the VFL improved, and a new permit reciprocity agreement was established in 1931.
Throw-pass era (1938–1949)
In 1938, the VFA made a bold rule change by legalising throwing of the football in general play, provided the throw was underarm with both hands below shoulder height. The change helped to speed up the game, and introduced more run-and-carry play in an era which had previously been dominated by a long-kicking style, proving popular with many spectators. Additionally, the VFA ended its permit agreement with the VFL, and began to aggressively recruit star players by offering salaries well in excess of the maximum set by VFL player payment laws. This included
Laurie Nash
Laurence John Nash (2 May 1910 – 24 July 1986) was a Test cricketer and Australian rules footballer. An inductee into the Australian Football Hall of Fame, Nash was a member of South Melbourne's 1933 premiership team, captained South Melbo ...
,
Bob Pratt and
Ron Todd, who were in the primes of their careers and were considered amongst the best players in the country. These changes gave the VFA a product which could compete with the VFL for public interest, and it made the late 1930s and 1940s one of the most successful periods in the VFA's history.
The VFA competition went into recess from 1942 until 1944 due to
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, but continued to perform strongly upon returning in 1945.
While the throw-pass was in effect, particularly during the early 1940s, there were talks between the
VFA and
VFL
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 ...
towards re-amalgamating the two bodies. Although the throw-pass had been a great success for the VFA, it was felt that a single controlling body for football in Victoria playing under a uniform set of rules was in the best interests of football as a whole. Negotiations for an amalgamation took place over several years, but broke down several times over a variety of issues, including representation at board level,
Australian National Football Council representation, and a
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. ...
structure between the VFA and VFL.
In the end, the two bodies never amalgamated, but the schism ended in 1949 when the bodies re-established a permit reciprocity agreement and the VFA was granted a non-voting position on the Australian National Football Council, later upgraded to a voting position in 1953; as a condition of joining, it was forced to abandon the throw-pass rule and adopt the national standard rules. These changes benefitted Victorian football as a whole, gave the VFA a say in national administration of the game. It also gave the VFA the right to compete in
interstate matches, and at interstate carnivals over the 1950s and 1960s, the VFA generally competed at a similar standard to
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
as the fourth- or fifth-best team in the competition.
However, joining the ANFC also stripped the VFA of the throw-pass, and therefore of the on-field distinctions which allowed it to compete with the VFL for fans; this, coupled with the increased mobility of suburban Melburnians – who, due to the increased affordability of cars and the lifting in 1950 of wartime travel restrictions, were no longer captive audiences for their local VFA teams – resulted in a significant downturn in most VFA clubs during the 1950s. On-field, the competition became dominated by the few clubs with strong community links such as
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 ...
,
Williamstown,
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 ...
,
Oakleigh and
Moorabbin
Moorabbin is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 15 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Kingston local government area. Moorabbin recorded a population of 6,287 at the .
Most of the ea ...
(who had joined the VFA alongside
Box Hill in 1951); the gap between those clubs and the weaker clubs, many of whom were periodically forced to play as amateurs due to a lack of money, grew large and the popularity of the competition declined.
Gillon era (1954–1980)
Alex Gillon
Alexander George Gillon (23 December 1909 – 25 August 2007) was a civic and sporting administrator in Melbourne, Australia. He was most notable as the longest-serving president of the Victorian Football Association, and as a mayor of the ...
presided over the VFA from 1954 until 1980. During that time, the VFA underwent a series of changes to reinvigorate it after its post-throw pass decline of the 1950s. Major strategic changes were undertaken, including:
*As Melbourne expanded geographically, the VFA embarked on a deliberate plan to establish its presence in new areas by expanding the number of teams into the newer, outer suburbs. Between 1958 and 1966, new clubs were added in
Dandenong
Dandenong is a southeastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, about from the Melbourne CBD. It is the council seat of the City of Greater Dandenong local government area, with a recorded population of 30,127 at the . Situated mainly ...
,
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 ...
,
Mordialloc
Mordialloc is a beachside suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 24 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Kingston local government area. Mordialloc recorded a population of 8,886 at the .
H ...
,
Sunshine
Sunlight is a portion of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun, in particular infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. On Earth, sunlight is scattered and filtered through Earth's atmosphere, and is obvious as daylight when th ...
,
Frankston,
Waverley and
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 ...
.
*In 1961, when the eighteenth club joined, the VFA was split into First and Second Divisions, the First Division having 10 teams, and Second Division holding the balance, with one team promoted and one team relegated between the two divisions each season. This plan was aimed at improving overall competitiveness of the competition and overcoming the huge gap between the strongest and weakest clubs which had led to unentertaining football in the late 1950s.
*In 1959, the VFA again reduced the size of the on-field team to sixteen, eliminating the two wing positions, to result in a more open field than under league rules. The VFA played 16-a-side from 1959 until 1992.
*In 1960, the VFA first began playing premiership matches on Sundays. This allowed VFA matches to be played without competing the VFL for spectators, and within a few years, clubs found that Sunday matches were as much as three to four times more lucrative than Saturday games. By the 1970s, all games were played on a Sunday, while the VFL played its games on Saturdays. This was similar to the College/Pro football day divide still present in the US. The
Victorian Government
The Victoria State Government, also referred to as just the Victorian Government, is the state-level authority for Victoria, Australia. Like all state governments, it is formed by three independent branches: the executive, the judicial, and th ...
supported the VFA's new-found vigour, and rejected requests by the VFL to hold its own games on Sundays until the mid-1980s.
*Finally, the VFA's importance grew significantly after signing a television broadcast deal with
ATV0
ATV is a television station in Melbourne, Australia, part of Network 10 – one of the three major Australian free-to-air commercial television networks. The station is owned by Paramount Networks UK & Australia.
History
In April 1963, the ...
(later
Network Ten
Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of five ...
), which saw a weekly live broadcast (in colour, when the technology became available) of one game from 1967 until 1981, at a time when VFL matches were shown only as partial replays.
All of these changes resulted in the VFA enjoying a successful period during the 1970s. Increased sponsorship, public awareness, and a greater number of former and fringe VFL players joining the VFA gave it a product which allowed it to flourish in the Sunday timeslot. The VFA at this time comprised twenty clubs, ten in each division, with a constant membership between 1966 and 1981. Attendances at matches more than doubled between 1967 and 1975.
The VFA's relationship with the VFL and ANFC again deteriorated during the 1960s. In 1965, the VFA stopped recognising its permit reciprocity agreement in retribution for two takeovers of VFA club grounds by VFL clubs (
St Kilda at Moorabbin and
North Melbourne at Coburg); then in 1967, the VFL stopped recognising the agreement in retribution for the VFA's the introduction of excessive transfer fees on its players. After the VFA refused to comply with an ANFC demand that a new reciprocal permit agreement be established, the VFA was expelled from the ANFC in 1970.
Decline (1981–1994)
The decline of the VFA is often said to have commenced in 1982 when the VFL's struggling South Melbourne Swans moved to Sydney, as all
Sydney Swans
The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a reser ...
home games were played on Sunday and televised, ending the VFA's monopoly on Sunday football; Network Ten ended its weekly VFA coverage in the same year. However, this was not the sole cause for decline, which had started in the late 1970s: changing demographics meant that many traditional clubs had slowly found themselves in areas with high migrant populations, which either made it difficult to compete with soccer for local for fans and players, or simply brought a level of cultural apathy towards the sport in general; VFA historian Marc Fiddian also noted a decline in the number of ex-VFL players signing with VFA clubs through the late 1970s, which reduced the Association's drawing power, and an increasing gulf in quality between the best and worst clubs. Player payments increased through the 1980s, and declining financial support and sponsorship meant that many clubs began to struggle badly. The VFA had also developed a reputation for rough play and violence, and it was not until the late 1980s that it was able to clean up on-field discipline and shake that image.
In 1981, new VFA president
Alan Wickes
Alan Wickes (born 27 July 1939) is a former Australian rules football player and administrator, who played for the Collingwood Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL), and later served as president of the Victorian Football A ...
attempted to rectify the decline with further expansion: the VFA expanded further into the outer suburbs to twenty-four teams in 1983, adding
Springvale,
Moorabbin
Moorabbin is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 15 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Kingston local government area. Moorabbin recorded a population of 6,287 at the .
Most of the ea ...
,
Kilsyth
Kilsyth (; Scottish Gaelic ''Cill Saidhe'') is a town and civil parish in North Lanarkshire, roughly halfway between Glasgow and Stirling in Scotland. The estimated population is 9,860. The town is famous for the Battle of Kilsyth and the relig ...
and
Berwick, and Wickes had a vision of expanding to thirty teams with an additional lower division which could affiliate more directly with the top tiers of suburban football; but (with the exception of Springvale), the new second division teams did little to reinvigorate the competition, and the clubs rejected any further expansion.
The VFA's direction changed dramatically with the election of Brook Andersen as president in 1985. At the time, the VFL was looking at national expansion (ultimately becoming 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 ...
in 1990) and Andersen's executive committee believed that the VFA could fill a new role as top state level league in Victoria when this happened; however, it believed that the VFA would need to be rationalised to a competition of twelve financially stable teams for this to occur.
Andersen attempted but failed to obtain a mandate from the clubs to impose this rationalisation, but the VFA under his guidance nevertheless contracted, as it showed no lenience in suspending clubs who failed to meet minimum requirements. Several long-term second division clubs, struggling with rising costs and foreseeing the dissolution of the second division (which ultimately occurred when fifteen teams remained in the 1989 season), also took the opportunity to return to suburban football before being forced out. The eight-year period between 1984 and 1991 saw twelve clubs exit the VFA:
Mordialloc
Mordialloc is a beachside suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 24 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Kingston local government area. Mordialloc recorded a population of 8,886 at the .
H ...
,
Kilsyth
Kilsyth (; Scottish Gaelic ''Cill Saidhe'') is a town and civil parish in North Lanarkshire, roughly halfway between Glasgow and Stirling in Scotland. The estimated population is 9,860. The town is famous for the Battle of Kilsyth and the relig ...
,
Berwick,
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 ...
and
Camberwell
Camberwell () is a district of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross.
Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles and a common of which Goose Green is a remnant. This e ...
returned to suburban football;
Yarraville
Yarraville is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Maribyrnong local government area. Yarraville recorded a population of 15,636 at the .
Yarraville i ...
,
Moorabbin
Moorabbin is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 15 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Kingston local government area. Moorabbin recorded a population of 6,287 at the .
Most of the ea ...
,
Northcote and
Caulfield were suspended; and
Sunshine
Sunlight is a portion of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun, in particular infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. On Earth, sunlight is scattered and filtered through Earth's atmosphere, and is obvious as daylight when th ...
,
Brunswick-Broadmeadows and
Waverley all folded.
The VFA rejoined the ANFC as a non-voting member in 1987, and replaced the board of club delegates with an independent executive committee in 1988.
It also regained weekly television coverage from the 1988 season onwards, with the
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
broadcasting a match each Saturday. It returned to the standard 18-per-side rules in 1993.
Merger with the VSFL (1994–1999)
Despite the rationalisation to its twelve strongest teams and improved television coverage, the financial position of the competition and the vast majority of its clubs remained perilous into the early 1990s, and it was clear that the VFA was no longer a viable independent body in the long term. At the end of the 1994 season, the VFA was formally disbanded in an administrative capacity, and the on-field competition was turned over to the
Victorian State Football League
The Victorian State Football League is a former Australian rules football governing body.
The VSFL was established at the end of 1991 to take over administration of football in Victoria from the Australian Football League, which was now becomi ...
– a body which had been set up two years earlier by the AFL to manage and oversee football at all levels in Victoria, and also ran the statewide under-18s competition (the present day
NAB League) and the AFL reserves competition in Victoria. This ended the VFA's 97 years of independence from the VFL/AFL, and created for the first time since 1896 a unified structure for state-level football in Victoria.
The VSFL sought to align the VFA with the under-18s competition, with each VFA club affiliated with an under-18s team to provide a developmental pathway from under-18 football into state-level senior football. In doing this, the number of metropolitan teams was cut from twelve to nine in 1995, with Prahran, Oakleigh and Dandenong departing. This left nine clubs with a VFA heritage, coming from different eras: Port Melbourne and Williamstown from the pre-1897 era; Preston, Coburg and Sandringham from the 1920s expansion; Box Hill, Werribee and Frankston from the 1950s/1960s expansion; and Springvale from the 1980s expansion. The VFA name was retained for the on-field competition during its first season under VSFL administration; then, in 1996, the competition was renamed the Victorian Football League (VFL) – the same name which had been used by the rival
VFL/AFL
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 ...
competition until 1990. Despite the change in name and administrative structure, the on-field competition is considered continuous, and VFA records are recognised in the VFL era.
The VSFL intended that each statewide under-18s team would be affiliated with a VFL club, so embarked upon a period of expansion to represent the four under-18s teams from country Victoria, as well as Tasmania (which was represented in the competition for a period of time).
In this expansion, existing powerhouse country clubs
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 ...
and
Traralgon joined the league in 1996, with new clubs established in
Bendigo
Bendigo ( ) is a city in Victoria, Australia, located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital.
As of 2019, Bendigo had an urban population of 100,991, makin ...
, Albury (the
Murray Kangaroos
Murray Kangaroos Football Club, officially nicknamed The Kangaroos, was an Australian rules football club which competed in the Victorian Football League between 2000 and 2002. The football club was a joint venture between the North Melbourne F ...
, representing the
Ovens & Murray region) and
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
between 1998 and 2001. The regional senior clubs struggled to be financially viable in the statewide competition, with Traralgon and Murray lasting only two and three years respectively. Since 2018, no regional clubs have contested the competition.
Merger with the AFL reserves (2000–2019)
From 1995 until 1999, the VSFL operated its two open-age competitions – the VFA/VFL and the Victorian AFL reserves competition – separately; however, its intention had always been to merge the two, and this took place following the 1999 season, after the agreement of the AFL clubs. Under the administration's new name ''Football Victoria'' (later
AFL Victoria
AFL Victoria (formerly Football Victoria) is the state-level sport governing body for Australian rules football in the state of Victoria, Australia. Under the organisation's jurisdiction fall 115 leagues — including the Victorian Football Le ...
), those two competitions were merged into a single competition still known as the Victorian Football League. Since this time, the VFL has been contested by a mixture of three types of clubs:
*VFL clubs, operating on a stand-alone basis and maintaining a complete list of players
*The
reserves teams of AFL clubs, comprised on AFL reserves players and a small list of supplementary players to make up a full team
*VFL clubs operating under an
affiliation arrangements with an AFL clubs, whereby players from the AFL club would join the senior team of the VFL club when not selected to play in the AFL. At times, there were rules limiting the number of AFL-listed players who could play in a VFL team, but these rules no longer exist.
All three models compete to a relatively even standard, with premierships having been won by all three types of team since the merger. An additional reserves affiliation option, under which AFL clubs were allowed to spread their reserves players across all of the league's VFL clubs rather than into a single aligned club, has also existed since 2021 but has not been taken up by any AFL clubs.
The affiliation deals greatly improved the financial viability of the clubs in question, but they diluted their ability to represent their suburb. There have been many changes to the affiliation arrangements in the decade since the VFL and VSFL merged, as well as a shift in the arrangement preferred by the AFL clubs. Initially, only four of the ten Victorian AFL clubs were involved in a VFL affiliation, with the rest fielding reserves teams. At its peak of between 2003 and 2006, nine of the ten Victorian AFL clubs were involved in an affiliation, with only Geelong fielding its own reserves team. Most clubs have since migrated away from this model, and since 2021 seven of the ten Victorian AFL clubs have fielded stand-alone reserves teams in the VFL.
Through the 2000s, the AFL preferred that its Victorian clubs retained VFL-affiliations, and offered a disincentive in the form of an inflated licence fee for fielding a stand-alone team; however, the AFL did not otherwise prevent teams from fielding stand-alone reserves teams if they were willing and able to pay the fee. The total licence and running costs for an AFL club to field its reserves team in the VFL were estimated to be $500,000 per year in 2011.
Through this period, the VFL remained moderately popular in Victoria, although not nearly as well-supported as the dominant
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 ...
. Matches attracted both traditional fans of the VFA/VFL clubs, and fans of affiliated AFL clubs keen to watch their reserves players in action. The match of the week and most finals continued to be televised live in Melbourne by the ABC until 2014,
and since 2015 by 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 ...
as a lead-in to its AFL coverage.
[Live VFL to return to Channel 7 in 2015](_blank)
/ref>
Northeast expansion (2020–present)
The 2020 VFL season
The 2020 Victorian Football League season, which was to have been the 139th season of the Victorian Football Association/Victorian Football League Australian rules football competition, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Impact of the C ...
was cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. Upon the VFL's resumption in 2021, 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 ...
– which had served as the state league in New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory – was wound up and absorbed into the VFL; this resulted in the reserves teams from the New South Wales and Queensland AFL clubs (Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, Greater Western Sydney
Greater Western Sydney (GWS) is a large region of the metropolitan area of Greater Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia that generally embraces the north-west, south-west, central-west, and far western sub-regions within Sydney's metropoli ...
, Brisbane
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...
and Gold Coast
Gold Coast may refer to:
Places Africa
* Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana:
** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642)
** Dutch G ...
) joining the league, and two of the NEAFL's other Queensland-based senior clubs – Aspley and Southport – joining, although Aspley departed after the 2021 season. This brought the league to its largest size since the 1980s, with 22 clubs competing: eight stand-alone VFL clubs, eleven AFL reserves teams, and three traditional VFA/VFL clubs in reserves affiliations with AFL clubs. The league was also revamped to improve its ability to serve as a talent pathway, with each club required to field at least six under-22 players in each game. The 2021 season also saw increased broadcast coverage with Foxtel
Foxtel is an Australian pay television company—operating in cable television, direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV streaming services. It was formed in April 2018, superseding an earlier company from 1995. The service was establi ...
and its streaming service '' Kayo'' showing games in addition to the ongoing deal with Seven Network.
Awards
Best and fairest
The first award for the Association best and fairest player was the Woodham Cup
The J. J. Liston Trophy is awarded annually to the best and fairest senior player in the Victorian Football League (formerly the Victorian Football Association). It is named after J.J. Liston, a businessman, civic leader and sports administrato ...
, first awarded in 1923; this was renamed the Recorder Cup
The J. J. Liston Trophy is awarded annually to the best and fairest senior player in the Victorian Football League (formerly the Victorian Football Association). It is named after J.J. Liston, a businessman, civic leader and sports administrato ...
in 1926. Starting from 1933, a second award, the V.F.A. Medal, was awarded concurrently; the awards were both based on the votes of the umpires, but were based on different voting systems. In 1940, the Association dispensed with the Recorder Cup voting system, and awarded both trophies to the same player based on the same set of votes.
Since 1945, the award for the best and fairest player in each VFA/VFL season has been the J. J. Liston Trophy
The J. J. Liston Trophy is awarded annually to the best and fairest senior player in the Victorian Football League (formerly the Victorian Football Association). It is named after J.J. Liston, a businessman, civic leader and sports administrato ...
, named after long-term Association president John James Liston
John James Liston (21 September 1872 – 12 April 1944) was an Australian businessman, civic leader, and sporting administrator. He served as Mayor of Williamstown and on the Melbourne City Council, and was also a long-serving president of the Vi ...
, who died in 1944.
Other 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 ...
is awarded annually to the leading goal-kicker in the VFL home-and-away season; it was struck in 1999 and named after Jim 'Frosty' Miller
Jim or JIM may refer to:
* Jim (given name), a given name
* Jim, a diminutive form of the given name James
* Jim, a short form of the given name Jimmy
* OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism
* ''Jim'' (comics), a series by Jim Woodring
* ''Jim ...
, who kicked 885 goals for Dandenong
Dandenong is a southeastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, about from the Melbourne CBD. It is the council seat of the City of Greater Dandenong local government area, with a recorded population of 30,127 at the . Situated mainly ...
between 1966 and 1974.
* The Norm Goss Memorial Medal, awarded annually to the player voted best afield in the VFL grand final; it was struck in 1983 in honour of Norm Goss, Sr.
Norman Leslie Goss (6 June 1915 – 17 March 1983) was an Australian rules football administrator who was heavily involved with the Port Melbourne Football Club and Victorian Football Association throughout his career. He was also a player at P ...
, a senior administrator in both the VFA and the Port Melbourne Football Club.
* The Fothergill–Round–Mitchell Medal
The Fothergill–Round–Mitchell Medal is a Victorian Football League (VFL) award that is presented to the most promising young talent in the VFL competition.
The medal has been awarded annually since 1989. It was originally named the Fothergill ...
, awarded annually to the most promising young talent in the VFL competition; it was struck in 1989 and is named after the three players who have won a Brownlow Medal
The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the " best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by ...
s in the VFL/AFL and won a Recorder Cup/Liston Trophy in the VFL: Des Fothergill
Desmond Hugh Fothergill (15 July 1920 – 16 March 1996) was an Australian rules footballer who played for Collingwood Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and for Williamstown Football Club in the Victorian Football Associatio ...
and Barry Round
Barry James Round (26 January 1950 – 24 December 2022) was an Australian rules footballer. He played for and South Melbourne/Sydney in the Victorian Football League (VFL) between 1969 and 1985. He played 328 games (135 for Footscray and 19 ...
, after whom the award was originally named, and Sam Mitchell, whose name was added to the award in 2018.
* The Frank Johnson Medal, awarded to the player voted best afield for the VFL in interstate football games; named after Frank Johnson, the only VFA player ever selected as captain of an All-Australian Team
The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perf ...
.
Salary cap
The VFL is classed as a semi-professional
Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a consid ...
competition. In 2007 the league had a salary cap of $185,000, excluding service payments. There are a significantly higher number of AFL reserves due to affiliations with Victorian clubs, but player payments for these appearances is apparently not included in the VFL's salary cap. Following the 2013 VFL season
The 2013 Victorian Football League season was the 132nd season of the Victorian Football Association/Victorian Football League Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by who defeated by 21 points in the Grand Final.
Le ...
, it was revealed that several clubs were lobbying VFL executives to increase the salary cap in a bid to keep high-level players who had relieved themselves of participating in the league to accept more attractive financial offers in local football competitions, where such caps are far less regulated.
As of the 2022 season, standalone clubs in the league, of which there are eight, have a A$220,000 salary cap, while the 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 ...
reserve and affiliate clubs have a A$110,000 salary cap.
Attendance
Attendances are small by AFL standards, and generally less than the SANFL
The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport.
Originally formed as the ...
and WAFL, with an average of between 500 and 1,000 in attendance. Crowds for many finals matches tend to average in the 2,000–6,000 range, with the Grand Final typically attracting a crowd in the 10,000–14,000 mark.
The VFL does not publish home-and-away attendance figures, as some games are played as AFL curtain raisers; however, various sources quote attendances for some games of the stronger clubs that maintain home records of their own.
Premierships
Recent Grand Finals
Media coverage
Television
Television coverage has been critical to the exposure of the VFA/VFL during its history, and has typically taken the form of the match of the week being televised live into Melbourne, as well as most finals. Television and streaming
Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...
deals during the league's history are as follows:
*1967–1981: weekly broadcasts of Sunday's match of the round on ATV0
ATV is a television station in Melbourne, Australia, part of Network 10 – one of the three major Australian free-to-air commercial television networks. The station is owned by Paramount Networks UK & Australia.
History
In April 1963, the ...
(later Network Ten
Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of five ...
)
*1984–1986: match of the round in the final two rounds, plus finals on Network Ten
*1987: finals only on ABC Victoria
ABV is the name of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television station in Melbourne, Victoria.
History
The station began broadcasting on 19 November 1956 and is transmitted throughout the state via a network of relay transmitters. ABV ...
*1988–2014: weekly broadcasts of match of the round on Saturday afternoons, plus most or all finals, on ABC Victoria.
*2000: in addition to ABC's coverage, one Monday night match televised each week on the Seven Network's C7 Sport
C7 Sport was a pay-TV service in Australia, owned and run by Seven Network. The service was carried on the Austar and Optus Vision pay-TV networks between 1995 and 2002. Seven unsuccessfully pursued court action against competitors, seeking dama ...
subscription channel. At this time, pay TV penetration was low, and this lasted only one year.
*2015–2019: weekly broadcasts of match of the round on Saturday afternoons, plus most finals, on 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 ...
*2021: up to three matches per round available on sports streaming service Kayo Sports, one Sunday "match of the round" game broadcast on Seven, and one Thursday night game broadcast on Fox Footy (only when no AFL Thursday night fixture is scheduled).
*2022–present: one match per round broadcast live on Seven Network and available live and on-demand nationally on 7plus streaming site, and all additional matches live streamed and available on demand on the AFL website and AFL Live app.
The VFA holds the distinction of having the first match to be broadcast live on television in Australia, when the second half of the match between Oakleigh and Preston
Preston is a place name, surname and given name that may refer to:
Places
England
*Preston, Lancashire, an urban settlement
**The City of Preston, Lancashire, a borough and non-metropolitan district which contains the settlement
**County Boro ...
on 25 May 1957 was televised on Channel 2.
Radio
The first regular radio broadcasts of VFA games were made by 3XY
Magic 1278 (official callsign: 3EE) is a commercial radio station in Melbourne, Australia owned by Nine Entertainment Co, and run under a lease agreement by Ace Radio.
History
1935–1991: 3XY
1935–1967
3XY began broadcasting on 8 Sept ...
, a little after the station commenced operations in 1935. The commentator was former Geelong VFL player Wallace "Jumbo" Sharland who had earlier been the first to describe VFL matches, that being on 3AR in 1923. In 1954 3AK
3AK is the call sign of SEN 1116, an earlier the on-air name of a former Melbourne talk-back radio and music station, which, in 2003, leased its licence to sports network SEN 1116. A number of unusual events and precedents throughout the stati ...
began broadcasting VFA games, albeit only for a season or two. The 1970s also saw broadcasts on 3UZ
RSN Racing & Sport (ACMA callsign: 3UZ) is an Australian radio station in Australia. Owned and operated by thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing bodies of Victoria, it broadcasts a sports radio format to Melbourne, and to much of Victor ...
, and local Geelong station, 3GL, broadcast all Geelong West matches. In 1982, the then-dominant Melbourne sports radio station, 3AW
3AW is a talkback radio station based in Melbourne. It broadcasts on 693 kHz AM. It began transmission on 22 February 1932 as Melbourne's fifth commercial radio station.
The station is owned and operated by Nine Entertainment Co.
Hist ...
, broadcast the Grand Final
Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...
. In 2003, 3AK evolved into sports radio station SEN 1116, and provided a coverage of VFL matches, but this was discontinued after they won the rights to broadcast the AFL (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 ...
) from the 2007 season. From 1993 onwards radio's main home for the competition was on Casey Radio where the team, headed up by Ken Moore, did a terrific job bringing games to the wider public. The station gave a start to such broadcasters as Nigel Carmody, Darren Parkin and Tristan Foenander and has proven a terrific breeding ground for emerging sports broadcasters. The station still broadcasts the league today, combined with doing the local league down in Melbourne's southeast.
VFL Radio is produced by BPM Media who broadcast live at least one game a week during the regular season plus each day of the finals series. The coverage is broadcast on the Vision Australia Radio
Vision Australia Radio is a network of eight radio stations in Victoria, amongst some other states in Australia. It is owned by Vision Australia. The stations broadcast a range of programs, generally consisting of readings of newspapers and mag ...
network throughout Victoria on analogue radio, by Aussie digital radio (SEN 2) and on the internet at vfl.com.au or bpmmedia.com.au.
Clubs
Current clubs
Twenty-one clubs formed the VFL in the 2022 season.
Former clubs
The VFA and VFL have undergone significant format changes since its induction which means several clubs have either left the league or changed identity for different reasons. Excluded from this list are provincial clubs who were full administrative members of the VFA in its first decade, but who never played enough games against other clubs to be considered relevant in the premiership.
* (S) - Senior team now in the AFL
Timeline
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bar:Ya text:Yarraville
bar:Wi text:Williamstown
bar:WM text:West Melbourne
bar:We text:Werribee
bar:Wa text:Waverley
bar:Un text:University
bar:Tr text:Traralgon
bar:Ta text:Tasmania
bar:Su text:Sunshine
bar:So text:Southport
bar:SW text:South Williamstown
bar:SM text:South Melbourne/Sydney
bar:SB text:South Ballarat
bar:Sa text:Sandringham
bar:SK text:St Kilda
bar:Ri text:Richmond
bar:Pr text:Prahran
bar:PM text:Port Melbourne
bar:Oa text:Oakleigh
bar:No text:Northcote
bar:PB text:Northern/Preston
bar:NM text:North Melbourne
bar:NB text:North Ballarat
bar:MK text:Murray Kangaroos
bar:Md text:Mordialloc
bar:Mo text:Moorabbin
bar:MC text:Melbourne City
bar:Me text:Melbourne
bar:Ki text:Kilsyth
bar:Ha text:Hawthorn
bar:GS text:GWS
bar:GC text:Gold Coast
bar:GW text:Geelong West
bar:GA text:Geelong A.
bar:Ge text:Geelong
bar:Fr text:Frankston
bar:Fo text:Footscray
bar:Fi text:Fitzroy
bar:EA text:Essendon A.
bar:Es text:Essendon
bar:EM text:East Melbourne
bar:Da text:Dandenong
bar:Co text:Collingwood
bar:Cb text:Coburg
bar:Sp text:Casey/Springvale
bar:Ca text:Carlton
bar:Cm text:Camberwell
bar:Br text:Brunswick
bar:BL text:Brisbane
bar:BC text:Brighton/Caulfield
bar:BH text:Box Hill
bar:Bw text:Berwick
bar:Be text:Bendigo
bar:BI text:Ballarat Imperial
bar:Ba text:Ballarat
bar:As text:Aspley
bar:AP text:Albert Park
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id:lgrey value:gray(0.8)
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color:green width:3
bar:As from:2020 till:2021
bar:AP from:1877 till:1880
at:1880 mark:(line,black) shift:(1,0) text:Merged with South Melbourne
bar:Ba from:1878 till:1897 color:blue
bar:Be from:1998 till:2015
bar:Bw from:1983 till:1988
bar:BC from:1908 till:1916
bar:BC from:1919 till:1988
at:1962 mark:(line,black)
at:1947 text:Merged with Caulfield
at:1965 mark:(line,black) shift:(-4,-10) text:Name change to Caulfield
bar:BH from:1951 till:end
bar:BI from:1885 till:1897 color:blue
bar:Br from:1897 till:1992
at:1990 mark:(line,black) shift:(1,-10) text:Merged with Broadmeadows
bar:Ca from:1877 till:1897
bar:Cb from:1925 till:end
bar:Cm from:1926 till:1991
bar:Co from:1892 till:1897
bar:Da from:1958 till:1995
bar:EA from:1900 till:1916
bar:EA from:1919 till:1922
at:1905 mark:(line,black) shift:(1,-10) text:Name change from Essendon Town
bar:EM from:1880 till:1883
bar:Es from:1878 till:1897
bar:Fi from:1884 till:1897
bar:Fo from:1886 till:1925
bar:Fr from:1966 till:2017
bar:Fr from:2018 till:end
bar:Ge from:1877 till:1897
bar:GA from:1922 till:1928
bar:GC from:2010 till:2011
bar:GW from:1963 till:1989
bar:Ha from:1914 till:1916
bar:Ha from:1919 till:1925
bar:Ki from:1982 till:1985
bar:Me from:1877 till:1897
bar:MC from:1912 till:1914
bar:Mo from:1951 till:1964
bar:Mo from:1983 till:1988
bar:Md from:1958 till:1989
bar:MK from:2001 till:2003
bar:NB from:1996 till:2018
bar:NM from:1877 till:1925
bar:NM at:1888 mark:(line,black) shift:(1,1) text:Name change from Hotham
bar:No from:1908 till:1988
bar:Oa from:1929 till:1995
bar:PB from:1903 till:1912
bar:PB from:1926 till:end
at:2000 mark:(line,black)
at:1979 text:Name change from Preston
bar:PM from:1886 till:end
bar:Pr from:1886 till:1888
bar:Pr from:1960 till:1995
bar:Pr from:1899 till:1959
bar:Ri from:1885 till:1908
bar:Sa from:1929 till:end
bar:SB from:1883 till:1897 color:blue
bar:SK from:1877 till:1880
bar:SK from:1886 till:1897
bar:SM from:1879 till:1897
bar:Sp from:1982 till:end
at:2006 mark:(line,black) shift:(-50,-10) text:Name change to Casey
bar:So from:2020 till:end
bar:Su from:1959 till:1990
bar:SW from:1886 till:1888
bar:Tr from:1996 till:1998
bar:Ta from:2001 till:2009
bar:Un from:1885 till:1889
bar:Wa from:1961 till:1988
bar:We from:1965 till:end
bar:Wi from:1884 till:1916
bar:Wi from:1919 till:end
bar:WM from:1878 till:1881
bar:WM from:1899 till:1908
bar:Ya from:1928 till:1984
color:orange width:3
bar:BL from:2020 till:end
bar:Ca from:2000 till:2003
bar:Ca from:2020 till:end
bar:Co from:2000 till:2001
bar:Co from:2009 till:end
bar:Es from:2000 till:2003
bar:Es from:2013 till:end
bar:Fo from:2014 till:end
bar:GS from:2020 till:end
bar:GC from:2020 till:end
bar:Ge from:2000 till:end
bar:NM from:2018 till:end
bar:Ri from:2000 till:2001
bar:Ri from:2014 till:end
bar:SK from:2000 till:2001
bar:SM from:2020 till:end
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layer:front # all lines in front of bars unless stated otherwise
at:1916 color:grey width:5 # WWI
at:1917 color:grey width:5 # WWI
at:1943 color:grey width:5 # WWII
at:1942 color:grey width:5 # WWII
at:1944 color:grey width:5 # WWII
at:2020 color:grey width:5 # COVID-19
at:1961 color:orange width:0.5 # Divisions introduced
at:1988 color:orange width:0.5 # Divisions abandoned
at:1996 color:red width:0.5 # change to VFL
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tabs:(0-right)
text:^WW2
text:^recess
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tabs:(0-right)
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tabs:(0-right)
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tabs:(0-right)
text:VFL name
text:adopted
pos:(930,775) textcolor:grey fontsize:M
tabs:(0-right)
text:^COVID-19
text:^recess
Map
VFA presidents
The following men served as president of the VFA between its establishment in 1877 and its merger with the VSFL in 1994.
VFL Women's
From the 2016 season, a statewide women's football league aligned with the VFL was established by AFL Victoria. The competition initially comprised the six Premier Division clubs and the top four Division 1 clubs from the now-defunct Victorian Women's Football League
The Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL) was the oldest and largest Australian rules football league for women in the world, consisting of 47 clubs from Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, across seven divisions and a total of ove ...
(VWFL), and was aligned and co-branded with the VFL to improve market penetration. Following the 2017 season, the competition was reconfigured to affiliate teams more closely with AFL clubs. Since 2018, the league has comprised thirteen teams; twelve are based in Victoria (nine of which are affiliated with AFL clubs) and one in the Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...
. The league runs from May to September, running concurrently with the VFL.
Former grades
Seconds/reserves
The VFA/VFL operated a seconds or reserves competition from the 1920s, initially emerging from the Victorian Junior Football Association
The Victorian Junior Football Association (VJFA) was an open age Australian rules football competition and administrative body. It was the first successful junior football competition in Melbourne, and was in existence from 1883 until 1932. For mo ...
. From its inception until 1979, the seconds team played on Saturday afternoons, playing at home when the senior team played away and vice versa. Since 1980, seconds matches have been played as curtain-raisers to senior matches, on Saturdays or Sundays as necessary. The competition was later renamed the reserves, and then from the beginning of the 2012 season it has been known as the AFL Victoria Development League, a move that coincided with the introduction of the AFL Victoria Development Academy which provides development opportunities for up to 25 selected VFL players per year. For most of the VFA's history, fielding a team in the seconds grade was mandatory for all senior teams, but in the state league era many regional clubs – as well as all AFL clubs fielding their reserves teams in the VFL seniors – opted not to contest the minor grade. The Development League was abolished after the 2017 season with all VFL clubs' reserve players now play suburban football when not playing with the VFL seniors. ''( List of VFL Seconds Premiers)''
Thirds/Under-19s
The VFA operated an under-19s competition, initially known as the Thirds, between 1952 and 1994. The Under-19s was disbanded when the VFA merged with the VSFL at the end of 1994, with the statewide under-19s competition (the present day NAB League) replacing its function as an under-18s competition. ''( List of VFA Thirds Premiers)''
Records
Highest Scores
Largest Winning Margins
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 ...
* History of Australian rules football in Victoria (1859–1900)
Australian rules football was first organised in Victoria in 1859 when its rules were codified by the Melbourne Football Club.
First rules: 1859
On 17 May 1859, the first rules for a local code of football were written during a meeting of f ...
References
External links
*
List of VFA/VFL premiers since 1877
VFL Mark of the Year competition
{{Australian rules football in Australia
History of Australian rules football
1
1877 establishments in Australia
Sports competitions in Melbourne
Sports leagues established in 1877
Professional sports leagues in Australia