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Victorian Football League

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For the former Victorian Football League now known as the Australian Football League, see Australian Football League.
 Victorian Football League
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General Information
Founded 1877, Melbourne
Previous Names Victorian Football Association (VFA)
Current Clubs Bendigo Bombers
Box Hill Hawks
Casey Scorpions (Springvale Football Club)
Coburg Tigers
Frankston Dolphins
Geelong Cats
North Ballarat Roosters
Northern Bullants
Port Melbourne Boroughs
Sandringham Zebras
Tasmanian Devils
Werribee Tigers
Williamstown Seagulls
Former Clubs Ballarat
Ballarat Imperial
Barwon>Beechworth
Bendigo Diggers
Berwick
Brighton
Brunswick
Camberwell
Carlton
Castlemaine
Caulfield
Collingwood
Dandenong
Dandenong Redlegs
East Melbourne
Essendon Association
Essendon
Essendon Town
Fitzroy
Footscray
Frankston
Geelong Association
Geelong West
Hawthorn
Heidelberg
Inglewood
Kilsyth
Melbourne
Melbourne City
Moorabbin
Mordialloc
Murray Kangaroos
Hotham/North Melbourne
Northcote
Oakleigh
Prahran
Richmond
Rochester
St Kilda
South Ballarat
South Melbourne
South Williamstown
Sunshine
Traralgon
University
Waverley
West Melbourne
Yarraville
Stadiums Aurora Stadium
AUSTAR Arena
Australian Motor Finance Oval
Bellerive Oval
Box Hill Football Ground
Burbank Oval
Casey Fields
Chirnside Park
Coburg City Oval
Frankston City Oval
Northern Oval
North Hobart Oval
MC Labour Park
Punt Road Oval
Queen Elizabeth Oval
Skilled Stadium
TEAC Oval
Trevor Barker Beach Oval
Windy Hill
2005 Season
Premiers Sandringham Zebras 11.17 (83) defeated Werribee Tigers 11.8 (74)
Minor Premiers Werribee Tigers
Wooden Spoon Geelong Cats
JJ Liston Trophy Winner(s) Ian Callinan
Paul Johnnson
Highest Goal Kicker James Podsiadly
Total Attendance Unknown
Average Match Attendance Unknown

The Victorian Football League, formerly known as the Victorian Football Association (VFA), is a second-tier Australian rules football league. It should not be confused with the Australian Football League, which was known as the VFL until 1990. The VFA, which was founded in 1877, adopted the VFL name in 1995. It features 13 teams from throughout Victoria and Tasmania, and is widely regarded as Australia's fourth most competitive league after the AFL, South Australian National Football League and the West Australian Football League.

Contents

History

Full Article History of Victorian Football League
The Victorian Football Association (VFA) was the first Australian Rules Football league. It was founded in 1877. Foundation Senior clubs of the VFA were Albert Park, Carlton, East Melbourne, Essendon, Geelong, Hotham, Melbourne, St. Kilda & West Melbourne. After the 1896 season, eight clubs broke away to form the Victorian Football League (VFL). The VFA continued to run independently, although more clubs shifted to the VFL in 1908 (Richmond, University) and 1925 (Footscray, Hawthorn, North Melbourne).

The rules of the VFA sometimes differed slightly to those of the VFL (and later Australian Football League): for example, 16 players afield as opposed to the now typical 18 in the AFL. Also, the VFA pioneered night and Sunday games.

After years of losing ground to the VFL, the VFA's launch of Sunday games in 1960 was a turning point for the better. In 1966 Network Ten began to televise these games. Eventually, most 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 supported the VFA's newfound vigour, and banned the VFL from holding games on Sundays. The VFA grew stronger. In 1982, the dominant sports radio station 3AW broadcast the Grand Final - a huge sign of support.

However, 1982 also saw the beginning of the VFA's demise. In that year the VFL moved the struggling South Melbourne Swans to Sydney. All Swans home games were played on Sunday and televised. This move basically destroyed the VFA's television ratings, and in 1986 Network Ten stopped broadcasting matches. This role was taken on by the ABC, but in a much smaller capacity.

In 1990, the VFL renamed itself the Australian Football League. The VFA renamed itself the Victorian Football League in 1995, after admitting North Ballarat and Traralgon to the competition. The new VFL adopted the original League logo, but featured a gold 'V' and football, to reflect the colours of the VFA logo. The logo reverted to the original blue and white VFL colours a few years later.

In part due to the AFL's greater "interstate" focus, the VFL experienced a resurgence in the early 1990's. In 1989 the ABC increased its television commitment, and eventually matches were rating better than at any time since the Network Ten broadcast matches.

In the 1990s, AFL sides began affiliating with VFL clubs, effectively making the VFL for some a reserves competition for Victorian clubs in the national competition. Some clubs thought of this as a means of not only improving their player list and onfield success, but to attract support from AFL fans and members. More recently, some clubs, such as Frankston and Port Melbourne have resisted or abandoned this trend and seen it as being more advantageous not to affiliate.

These days the VFL is mildly popular in Victoria, although not nearly as popular as the dominant Australian Football League.

Audience

Attendance

Attendances are small by AFL standards, and generally less than the SANFL and WAFL, with an average of between 1,000-2,000 in attendance. The exception is the Tasmanian Devils, which draw an average crowd of around 4,000 in Tasmania.

The VFL does not publish home and away attendance figures, however various sources quote attendances for some games of the stronger clubs that maintain home records of their own.

The official VFL finals series attendance in 2005 was a total of 45,118, which included 2 finals for Tasmania and a Grand Final between Sandringham and Werribee at Optus Oval, where a crowd of 9,000 were in attendance.

Television

ABC Television broadcasts one match a week live on Saturday afternoons during the home and away season, as well as broadcasting most finals matches. In 2006, ABC2 shows replays of VFL matches late on Wednesday nights [link].

Radio

Sports Radio station SEN 1116 broadcasts one game on Saturday afternoons, as well as covering finals matches.

Clubs

Current Clubs

Club City Home Ground AFL Affiliate
Bendigo Bombers Bendigo, Victoria Queen Elizabeth Oval Essendon
Box Hill Hawks Box Hill, Victoria Box Hill Football Ground Hawthorn
Casey Scorpions City of Casey, Victoria Casey Fields, Cranbourne East St Kilda
Coburg Tigers Coburg, Victoria Coburg Football Ground Richmond
Frankston Dolphins Frankston, Victoria Frankston City Oval none
Geelong Cats Geelong, Victoria Skilled Stadium Geelong
North Ballarat Roosters Ballarat, Victoria Northern Oval Kangaroos
Northern Bullants Preston, Victoria Australian Motor Finance Oval (Preston City Oval) Carlton
Port Melbourne Borough Port Melbourne, Victoria TEAC Oval none
Sandringham Zebras Sandringham, Victoria Trevor Barker Beach Oval Melbourne
Tasmanian Devils Tasmania North Hobart Oval and Aurora Stadium Kangaroos
Werribee Tigers Werribee, Victoria Chirnside Park (Werribee) Western Bulldogs
Williamstown Seagulls Williamstown, Victoria Burbank Oval Collingwood

Past Clubs

The VFL has undergone significant format changes since its induction which means several clubs have either left the league or changed identity for different reasons.

External links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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