Topic summary

Australian Football League reserves affiliations

Australian Football League reserves affiliations

The Australian Football League (AFL) stages the highest-level senior Australian rules football competition in the country. However, there has not been a league-wide reserves competition since 1987, when the then-Victorian Football League expanded interstate to become the modern Australian Football League, with the AFL reserves competition being shut down at the end of the 1999 season.

Since that time, AFL-listed players who have not been selected in their senior teams are made eligible to play in one of three state leagues: the Victorian Football League (VFL), the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) and the West Australian Football League (WAFL). The system used to accommodate AFL-listed players within these leagues varies considerably from state to state. A fourth state league, the North East Australian Football League (NEAFL), was disbanded in 2020.

Clubs that compete in the VFL, SANFL and WAFL (and formerly the NEAFL) without an AFL reserves affiliation are often called standalone clubs. The term is also sometimes used to describe AFL clubs that field their own reserves teams.