Formerly | Victorian Junior Football League VFL seconds/reserves |
---|---|
Sport | Australian rules football |
Founded | 1919 |
First season | 1919 |
Ceased | 1999 |
Country | Australia |
Most titles | Geelong (13) |
Related competitions |
The AFL reserve grade competition, commonly known simply as the AFL reserves, was an Australian rules football competition that operated as a second-tier competition to the Australian Football League from 1919 until 1999.
Prior to 1990, it was known as the VFL reserve grade competition, VFL reserves or VFL seconds. [1]
In its final season, the competition was made up of the reserves teams of all Victorian senior AFL clubs, plus that of the Sydney Swans. [2] [3]
Since 2000, the Victorian Football League has operated as a hybrid second-tier senior competition and reserves competition for most of the AFL clubs.
In 1919, a new football competition known as the Victorian Junior Football League (VJFL) was established – at this time, junior was the term used for open age football of a lower standard than senior football, rather than for under age football. [4] The league was intended to bring a junior club affiliated with each of the Victorian Football League (VFL) senior clubs into a single competition, and to adopt the same district eligibility scheme which the VFL had introduced in 1916. [5] Player permit rules allowed for automatic transfers between the junior and senior clubs until July, allowing the juniors to serve as second eighteens for the seniors. The junior and senior clubs shared a home ground, with the juniors playing home when the seniors played away. [6] For the inaugural season, four existing junior clubs – the Fitzroy Juniors, Collingwood District (also known as Collingwood Juniors) and Leopold (affiliated with South Melbourne) and Caulfield (affiliated with Melbourne) – initially crossed to the new league from the Metropolitan Amateur Association; West Melbourne was affiliated with Essendon; and new junior clubs were formed in Carlton, Richmond and St Kilda. [5] University, which had left the VFL senior competition after 1914, also entered a stand-alone junior team in the competition.
Shortly before the season, Caulfield withdrew, and a second University team was quickly arranged to take its place for the 1919 season. [7] The two University teams were known as University A and University B, later becoming the modern day 'University Blues' and 'University Blacks'. University B contested only the 1919 season, with a Melbourne Juniors team established for 1920; University A contested the 1919 and 1920 seasons, reaching the grand final both years before dropping out.
West Melbourne faced multiple heavy losses in 1920, including a 197-point loss against Carlton District and a 229-point loss against St Kilda District The club left the competition at the end of the season and were replaced by Essendon Juniors. [8]
In 1925, the VJFL was renamed as the VFL seconds, later known more commonly as the VFL reserves. [9] Following the change, the seconds clubs still operated as distinct stand-alone clubs at this time, rather than coming directly under the influence of their senior clubs. This changed over the following decades, with all of the seconds teams gradually being subsumed by their senior counterparts. [10] [11]
Melbourne won the 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934 and 1935 premierships - the only time in VFL/AFL history (seniors or reserves) that a club has won five grand finals in a row. [12]
Following their Round 1 match in 1989, both St Kilda and Brisbane were found to have fielded unregistered players. As a result, the VFL fined both clubs and ordered that they receive zero premiership points for the match. [13]
Local players were primarily recruited via the league's metropolitan and country zoning rules, and the clubs had full ability to develop its players through its Under-19s and reserves teams: the same basic structure was also used consistently in the other two elite leagues, the SANFL and the WAFL.
The Victorian State Football League was established at the end of 1991 to take over administration of football in Victoria from the Australian Football League, which was now becoming preoccupied with administration of the game nationally.
The VSFL ran the AFL reserves competition from 1992 until 1999, which was also known as the VSFL in its first few years. [14] At the end of 1994, the VSFL also took over administration of the Victorian Football Association competition (which it renamed the Victorian Football League in 1996). [15]
Following the 1999 season, the AFL reserves was merged into the Victorian Football League. Such a merger had first been proposed as early as 1980, and a formal attempt to enact the merger for the 1995 season was defeated after strong opposition from the clubs. [16] [17]
After South Melbourne was relocated to Sydney at the end of the 1981 VFL season, the club continued to play in the VFL reserves. [2]
The Brisbane Bears competed for four years between 1989 and 1992, winning their only premiership at any grade in 1991. After their merger with the Fitzroy at the end of 1996, the Brisbane Lions did not compete in the competition.
No teams from South Australia or Western Australia ever competed in the VFL/AFL reserves.
Club | Colours | Moniker | First season | Last season | Premierships | Year(s) of premierships |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Brisbane | Bears | 1989 | 1992 | 1 | 1991 | |
Carlton (Carlton District) | Blues | 1919 | 1999 | 8 | 1926, 1927, 1928, 1951, 1953, 1986, 1987, 1990 | |
Coburg | Lions | 1921 | 1924 | 0 | ||
Collingwood (Collingwood District) | Magpies | 1919 | 1999 | 7 | 1919, 1920, 1922, 1925, 1940, 1965, 1976 | |
Essendon (Essendon Juniors) | Bombers | 1921 | 1999 | 8 | 1921, 1941, 1950, 1952, 1968, 1983, 1992, 1999 | |
Fitzroy (Fitzroy Juniors) | Lions | 1919 | 1996 | 3 | 1944, 1974, 1989 | |
Geelong | Cats | 1922 | 1999 | 13 | 1923, 1924, 1930, 1937, 1938, 1948, 1960, 1963, 1964, 1975, 1980, 1981, 1982 | |
Hawthorn | Hawks | 1925 | 1999 | 4 | 1958, 1959, 1972, 1985 | |
Leopold | Redlegs | 1919 | 1924 | 0 | ||
Melbourne | Demons | 1920 | 1999 | 12 | 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1939, 1949, 1956, 1969, 1970, 1984, 1993 | |
North Melbourne (Kangaroos) [lower-alpha 1] | Kangaroos | 1925 | 1999 | 7 | 1947, 1957, 1967, 1978, 1979, 1995, 1996 | |
Richmond | Tigers | 1919 | 1999 | 10 | 1929, 1946, 1954, 1955, 1966, 1967, 1971, 1973, 1977, 1997 | |
St Kilda (St Kilda District) | Saints | 1919 | 1999 | 3 | 1942, 1943, 1961 | |
Sydney (South Melbourne) [lower-alpha 2] | Swans | 1925 | 1999 | 0 | ||
University A | Blues | 1919 | 1920 | 0 | ||
University B | Blacks | 1919 | 1919 | 0 | ||
West Melbourne | 1919 | 1920 | 0 | |||
Western Bulldogs (Footscray) [lower-alpha 3] | Bulldogs | 1925 | 1999 | 6 | 1936, 1945, 1962, 1988, 1994, 1998 |
A number of notable players competed solely in the reserves competition.
Shane Warne, considered to be one of the greatest bowlers in the history of cricket, played a single game for St Kilda in 1988: he was erroneously listed in the Record as Trevor Warne, and played in the Under-19s for the remainder of the season. [18] Former St Kilda number one ticket holder John Moran also played for the reserves side. [19]
John Bourke, a Collingwood forward, infamously shoved an umpire and then attacked a fan among other incidents during a 1985 game, leading to a suspension of ten years plus 16 games, equivalent to 240 matches. [20]
Geelong won the most reserves premierships, with a total of 13. [21]
The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in eastern states of Australia: Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, including reserves teams for the eastern state AFL clubs. It succeeded and continues the competition of the former Victorian Football Association (VFA) which began in 1877. The name of the competition was changed to the Victorian Football League in 1996. Under its VFL brand, the AFL also operates a women's football competition known as VFL Women's, which was established in 2016.
Melbourne University Football Club, often known simply as University, is an Australian rules football club based at the University of Melbourne. The club fields two teams, known as the "Blacks" and "Blues", who both compete in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) in the William Buck Premier Division.
The 1899 VFL season was the third season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured eight clubs, ran from 13 May until 16 September, and comprised a 14-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring all eight clubs.
The 1907 VFL season was the eleventh season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured eight clubs, ran from 27 April until 21 September, and comprised a 17-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.
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The 1920 VFL season was the 24th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured nine clubs, ran from 1 May until 2 October, and comprised a 16-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.
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The 1923 VFL season was the 27th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured nine clubs, ran from 5 May until 20 October, and comprised a 16-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.
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The 1981 VFL season was the 85th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 28 March until 26 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top five clubs.
The Australian Football League stages the highest-level senior Australian rules football competition in the country.
The Leopold Football Club was an Australian rules football club that competed in junior competitions in Melbourne from the late 1890s until 1924. The club was affiliated with Victorian Football League senior club South Melbourne.
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This page is a collection of VFL/AFL premiership and grand final statistics. The Australian Football League (AFL), known as the Victorian Football League (VFL) until 1990, is the elite national competition in men's Australian rules football. Each year, the premiership is awarded to the club that wins the AFL Grand Final. The grand final has been played in all VFL/AFL seasons except for 1897 and 1924, and has been an annual tradition in its current format since 1931.
The 1919 VJFL season was the 1st season of the Victorian Junior Football League (VJFL), the Australian rules football competition operating as the second-tier competition to the Victorian Football League (VFL).
The 1920 VJFL season was the 2nd season of the Victorian Junior Football League (VJFL), the Australian rules football competition operating as the second-tier competition to the Victorian Football League (VFL).
The 1925 VFL seconds season was the 7th season of the VFL seconds competition, the Australian rules football competition operating as the second-tier competition to the Victorian Football League (VFL). This was the first season under this name, having been renamed from the Victorian Junior Football League (VJFL) at the end of the previous season.