The Victorian Football League is Australia's second-tier competition — the direct feeder to the AFL. 22 clubs, four states, a Final Ten finals system, and 150 years of continuous football history.
The Victorian Football League traces its origins to the formation of the Victorian Football Association in 1877 — the world's first organised Australian rules football competition. When eight clubs broke away to form the VFL in 1897, the surviving VFA continued for another century before being rebranded as the modern VFL in 1996. Today the VFL is the primary development league for the AFL, with 14 clubs operating as AFL reserves or AFL-aligned teams alongside eight fully standalone clubs — some of which, like Williamstown and Port Melbourne, predate the codification of Australian rules football itself.
The VFL is a mix of AFL clubs running their own reserves, AFL-aligned clubs operating under their own identity, and fully independent community clubs — some of which have been around since the 1860s.
A century and a half of premierships, awards and standalone clubs — plus the rules and finals system that make the VFL its own thing.
The 144th season of VFA/VFL football. 22 teams, 22 rounds of home and away matches, and a top-ten finals series running through to the VFL Grand Final in late September.