# 2025 VFL season

The 2025 VFL season is the upcoming 143rd season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), a second-tier Australian rules football competition played in the states of Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland. The season is scheduled to begin on 21 March and conclude on either 20 September or 21 September, featuring 21 clubs.

## Background
### Death of Dale Tapping

On 4 February 2025, Essendon coach Dale Tapping died, two years after he was diagnosed with myeloma, an aggressive form of blood cancer. Essendon had appointed Tapping as its VFL coach for the 2025 season only several months prior on 11 October 2024. He had previously served as Collingwood's VFL coach from 2013 until the end of the 2016 season, and was named VFL Coach of the Year in 2016.
Cameron Joyce, who coached Gold Coast in the AFL Women's (AFLW) from 2022 season 6 until he was dismissed at the end of the 2024 season, was announced as Essendon's new VFL coach on 24 February 2025.

### Practice matches

Clubs have held practice matches beginning on 15 February 2025. There was speculation that the Tasmania Football Club would enter the VFL in 2025, but it is expected that they will instead join the competition in 2026. Instead, AFL Tasmania will manage a Senior Talent Academy, which will include representative games against Frankston and Sandringham on 22 March 2025 and 4 May 2025 respectively.

### Broadcast rights

In September 2022, the Australian Football League (AFL) announced a seven-year, $4.5 billion broadcast rights deal with the Seven Network, Foxtel and Telstra, effective from the 2025 season. This included Saturday matches (outside of marquee matches) becoming exclusive to Foxtel and Kayo for the first eight rounds of the season, while all Saturday night matches in the last eight rounds of the season would be exclusive to Seven.
As a result, Seven moved its VFL coverage from Sunday afternoon to 7pm on Saturdays, airing in Victoria on 7mate. On 17 March 2025, the VFL announced that one game per round (between rounds 1 and 13) would be broadcast on Saturday nights, with fixture changes implemented accordingly.

## Coach appointments

| New coach | Club | Date of appointment | Previous coach |
| Matthew Primus | Southport | 7 August 2024 | Steve Daniel |
| Andy Otten | Collingwood | 19 August 2024 | Josh Fraser |
| Brendan McCartney | Port Melbourne | 19 August 2024 | Adam Skrobalak |
| Jake Batchelor | Richmond | 23 September 2024 | Steven Morris |
| Dale Tapping | Essendon | 11 October 2024 | Blake Caracella |
| Brendon Goddard | Sandringham | 11 October 2024 | Jake Batchelor |
| Jarrad McVeigh | Sydney | 21 October 2024 | Damian Truslove |
| Cameron Joyce | Essendon | 24 February 2025 | Dale Tapping |

## Club leadership

| Club | Coach | Leadership group | Leadership group | Leadership group | Ref |
| Club | Coach | Captain(s) | Vice-captain(s) | Other leader(s) | Ref |
| Box Hill | Zane Littlejohn | Callum Porter | | | |
| Brisbane | Ben Hudson | | | | |
| Carlton | Luke Power | Liam McMahon, Heath Ramshaw | | | |
| Casey | Taylor Whitford | Deakyn Smith | Riley Baldi, Paddy Cross | Charlie Peters, Tom Freeman, Max Gregory, Kai Windsor | |
| Coburg | Jamie Cassidy-McNamara | Jesse Corigliano | Flynn Gentile, Lachlan Walker, Mitch Podhajski | Ryan Sturgess, Braedyn Gillard, Daniel Johnson, Joel Trudgeon, Jack Bytel | |
| Collingwood | Andy Otten | | | | |
| Essendon | Cameron Joyce | Xavier O'Neill | Jackson Hately | | |
| Footscray | Stewart Edge | Dan Orgill | Cooper Craig-Peters | David Cuningham, Josh Kellett, Jarrod Gilbee | |
| Frankston | Jackson Kornberg | | | | |
| Geelong | Mark Corrigan | | | | |
| Gold Coast | Tate Kaeslar | | | | |
| Greater Western Sydney | Wayne Cripps | | | | |
| North Melbourne | Tom Lynch | | | | |
| Northern Bullants | Rohan Welsh | | | | |
| Port Melbourne | Brendan McCartney | Harvey Hooper | | Tom Hird, Matt Signorello, Jimmy Miller, Fraser Rosman, Tom Highmore | |
| Richmond | Jake Batchelor | Lachlan Street | Mutaz El Nour, Joel Garner | Liam George, Nick 'Bob' Girolami | |
| Sandringham | Brendon Goddard | Blake Watson | Misilifi Faimalo | Andrew Mathieson, Liam Purcell, Mitch Ryan, Ethan Williams | |
| Southport | Matthew Primus | | | | |
| Sydney | Jarrad McVeigh | | | | |
| Werribee | James Allan | Jesse Clark | Dom Brew (vc), Louis Pinnuck (dvc) | Angus Hicks, Jay Dahlhaus | |
| Williamstown | Justin Plapp | Finn O'Dwyer, Cameron Polson | | | |

## Home-and-away season
### Round 1

| | Round 1 | Round 1 | Round 1 | |
| Friday, 21 March (7:05pm) | Carlton | v | Box Hill | Ikon Park |
| Saturday, 22 March (12:05pm) | Brisbane | v | Port Melbourne | Brighton Homes Arena |
| Saturday, 22 March (12:05pm) | Collingwood | v | Sydney | Victoria Park |
| Saturday, 22 March (1:05pm) | Southport | v | Werribee | Fankhauser Reserve |
| Saturday, 22 March (3:05pm) | Essendon | v | Williamstown | NEC Hangar |
| Saturday, 22 March (7:10pm) | Footscray | v | Northern Bullants | Mission Whitten Oval |
| Sunday, 23 March (11:05am) | Casey | v | North Melbourne | Casey Fields |
| Sunday, 23 March (11:05am) | Richmond | v | Coburg | Holm Park |
| Sunday, 23 March (2:05pm) | Sandringham | v | Geelong | Trevor Barker Beach Oval |
| | Bye Frankston, Gold Coast, Greater Western Sydney | Bye Frankston, Gold Coast, Greater Western Sydney | Bye Frankston, Gold Coast, Greater Western Sydney | |

## Ladder

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | D | PF | PA | PP | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Box Hill | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | Finals series |
| 2 | Brisbane (R) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | Finals series |
| 3 | Carlton (R) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | Finals series |
| 4 | Casey | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | Finals series |
| 5 | Coburg | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | Finals series |
| 6 | Collingwood (R) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | Finals series |
| 7 | Essendon (R) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | Wildcard Round |
| 8 | Footscray (R) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | Wildcard Round |
| 9 | Frankston | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | Wildcard Round |
| 10 | Geelong (R) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | Wildcard Round |
| 11 | Gold Coast (R) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | |
| 12 | Greater Western Sydney (R) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | |
| 13 | North Melbourne (R) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | |
| 14 | Northern Bullants | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | |
| 15 | Port Melbourne | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | |
| 16 | Richmond (R) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | |
| 17 | Sandringham | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | |
| 18 | Southport | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | |
| 19 | Sydney (R) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | |
| 20 | Werribee | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | |
| 21 | Williamstown | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | |

### Progression by round

* Team ╲ Round
* Box Hill
* Brisbane
* Carlton
* Casey
* Coburg
* Collingwood
* Essendon
* Footscray
* Frankston
* Geelong
* Gold Coast
* Greater Western Sydney
* North Melbourne
* Northern Bullants
* Port Melbourne
* Richmond
* Sandringham
* Southport
* Sydney
* Werribee
* Williamstown

## Season notes

* Because of redevelopment at Swinburne Centre, Richmond will play a number of its home games at Holm Park Recreation Reserve in Beaconsfield, where it has an agreement with Cardinia Shire Council. Additionally, Richmond will also be officially designated as the home team in its round 7 match against Casey at Casey Fields, as well as its round 9 match against Essendon at Windy Hill.

### Representative match

An interstate football representative match returned for the second consecutive season, with the AFL announcing in February a men's contest between the SANFL and VFL would take place in Tanunda in the Barossa Valley region, during the AFL's Gather Round fixtures in South Australia. The previous year's interstate representative match was won by the SANFL, who defeated the VFL by 14 points.
| | 2025 AAMI State Game | 2025 AAMI State Game | 2025 AAMI State Game | | |
| Saturday, 12 April (14:45 ACST) | SANFL | v | VFL | Tanunda Recreation Park, Barossa Valley | |
| | | Q1 Q2 Q3 Final | | Television broadcast: Seven Network | Television broadcast: Seven Network |