Victorian FL (1996)

The Victorian Football League was a name change for the Victorian Football Association for no real reason other than to take advantage of the vacancy of the name created by the change to the Australian Football League for the previous incarnation of the VFL. This coincided with the admission to the competition of two non Melbourne teams for the first time since Geelong West left the VFA; North Ballarat and Traralgon.
==History==
In subsequent years, Traralgon left the competition after just two seasons and in 1998 were replaced by a new team from Bendigo. In 2000, the VFL absorbed the reserve teams from the Victorian AFL clubs with a few clubs joining forces for that season. Sandringham joined forces with Melbourne, Box Hill joined forces with Hawthorn and Werribee joined forces with the Western Bulldogs. The North Melbourne team called themselves the Murray Kangaroos intending to base themselves in the Albury Wodonga region and Preston changed their name to the Northern Bullants.
Coburg joined forces with what was left of Fitzroy, but that only lasted a year and nearly killed Coburg. They were rescued when they joined forces with Richmond. Also in 2001, Williamstown joined forces with Collingwood and Springvale joined forces with St Kilda. A team from Tasmania was also admitted upon the collapse of their state competition, a move that wrecked the game on the Apple Isle.
In 2003 North Melbourne wound up the Murray Kangaroos idea, and joined forces with Port Melbourne. Bendigo joined forces with Essendon in order to rescue their flagging fortunes and the Northern Bullants joined forces with Carlton. That was the end of the mergers as such although North Melbourne and Port Melbourne parted ways in more recent times, and North became in a divided arrangement with both North Ballarat and Tasmania. Since that time some such arrangements concluded with AFL clubs fielding their reserves as stand alone teams while Melbourne and St Kilda swapped partners with Springvale later becoming Casey upon a move to Cranbourne. Collingwood ended it's association with Williamstown for 2008 and ran a stand alone club again as it had in 2000. Tasmania left after the 2008 season to reform the Tasmanian FL and North Ballarat left after the 2017 season due to being accused of "not being focused". Frankston spent 2017 in recess due to financial issues.
After the 2020 season was abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the VFL picked up the reserves from Sydney, West Sydney, Brisbane and Gold Coast as well as Southport and Aspley for the 2021 season upon the demise of the North East AFL. However the pandemic interfered again and the season was abandoned for the second year running with only half the games the played. Aspley made their departure soon after and so ended up without a record. Carlton had also ended their arrangement with the Northern Bullants.
Since the AFL teams joined, the VFL has been using the final eight. The previous two years the final six was used and prior to that the final five.
==Ladders==
1996	SPRI 	FRAN 	WERR 	WILL 	PTME 	SAND 	COBU 	NBAL	PRES	BOXH	TRAR	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
1997	SAND 	FRAN 	SPRI 	PTME 	WERR 	WILL 	PRES 	NBAL	BOXH	TRAR	COBU	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
1998	SPRI 	WERR 	NBAL 	FRAN 	PRES 	SAND 	WILL 	PTME	BOXH	BEND	COBU	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
1999	SPRI 	NBAL 	SAND 	FRAN 	WERR 	PTME 	WILL 	BOXH	COBU	PRES	BEND	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
2000	SAND 	NBAL 	CARL 	GEEL 	STKI 	WILL 	BOXH 	SPRI	WERR	ESSE	COLL	FRAN	PTME	MKAN	CO/F	NBUL	RICH	BEND	 	 	
2001	BOXH 	WERR 	SPRI 	MKAN 	CARL 	FRAN 	COBU 	ESSE	WILL	PTME	SAND	NBAL	GEEL	NBUL	TASM	BEND	 	 	 	 	
2002	GEEL 	PTME 	WERR 	COBU 	MKAN 	SAND 	BOXH 	WILL	CARL	ESSE	SPRI	TASM	NBUL	NBAL	FRAN	BEND	 	 	 	 	
2003	WILL 	BOXH 	SAND 	PTME 	TASM 	WERR 	SPRI 	GEEL	FRAN	BEND	NBUL	COBU	NBAL	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
2004	SAND 	PTME 	TASM 	BOXH 	WERR 	NBAL 	COBU 	BEND	GEEL	WILL	FRAN	NBUL	SPRI	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
2005	SAND 	WERR 	NBUL 	BEND 	PTME 	TASM 	FRAN 	BOXH	WILL	NBAL	SPRI	COBU	GEEL	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
2006	SAND 	GEEL 	NBUL 	WILL 	FRAN 	NBAL 	WERR 	COBU	TASM	BOXH	CASE	BEND	PTME	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
2007	GEEL 	COBU 	WILL 	NBAL 	SAND 	PTME 	CASE 	BEND	NBUL	WERR	FRAN	BOXH	TASM	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
2008	NBAL 	PTME 	WILL 	WERR 	CASE 	FRAN 	COBU 	NBUL	SAND	GEEL	BOXH	COLL	BEND	TASM	 	 	 	 	 	 	
2009	NBAL 	NBUL 	COLL 	PTME 	WILL 	BOXH 	CASE 	GEEL	WERR	SAND	COBU	FRAN	BEND	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
2010	NBAL 	NBUL 	WILL 	BOXH 	CASE 	PTME 	COLL 	BEND	SAND	GCOA	COBU	GEEL	WERR	FRAN	 	 	 	 	 	 	
2011	PTME 	WILL 	WERR 	NBUL 	NBAL 	CASE 	BEND 	BOXH	GEEL	SAND	COBU	COLL	FRAN	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
2012	GEEL 	PTME 	WERR 	WILL 	CASE 	BOXH 	SAND 	BEND	NBAL	NBLU	COBU	COLL	FRAN	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
2013	BOXH 	GEEL 	WILL 	WERR 	CASE 	PTME 	COLL 	ESSE	NBLU	NBAL	SAND	FRAN	COBU	BEND	 	 	 	 	 	 	
2014	FOOT 	BOXH 	PTME 	WILL 	WERR 	SAND 	COLL 	NBAL	GEEL	ESSE	NBLU	RICH	FRAN	COBU	CASE	BEND	 	 	 	 	
2015	WILL 	BOXH 	SAND 	ESSE 	FOOT 	COLL 	WERR 	CASE	NBAL	PTME	GEEL	COBU	RICH	NBLU	FRAN	 	 	 	 	 	
2016	FOOT 	CASE 	COLL 	WILL 	SAND 	ESSE 	GEEL 	PTME	RICH	BOXH	WERR	COBU	NBLU	NBAL	FRAN	 	 	 	 	 	
2017	PTME 	RICH 	WILL 	BOXH 	CASE 	FOOT 	ESSE 	COLL	NBLU	GEEL	SAND	WERR	COBU	NBAL	 	 	 	 	 	 	
2018	BOXH 	CASE 	WILL 	ESSE 	RICH 	GEEL 	COLL 	PTME	FOOT	NMEL	WERR	NBLU	SAND	FRAN	COBU	 	 	 	 	 	
2019	RICH 	WILL 	ESSE 	PTME 	FOOT 	WERR 	GEEL 	BOXH	CASE	NBLU	COLL	SAND	NMEL	COBU	FRAN	 	 	 	 	 	
2020	Season abandoned - COVID-19 pandemic	Season abandoned - COVID-19 pandemic	Season abandoned - COVID-19 pandemic	Season abandoned - COVID-19 pandemic	Season abandoned - COVID-19 pandemic	Season abandoned - COVID-19 pandemic	Season abandoned - COVID-19 pandemic	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
2021	Season abandoned - COVID-19 pandemic	Season abandoned - COVID-19 pandemic	Season abandoned - COVID-19 pandemic	Season abandoned - COVID-19 pandemic	Season abandoned - COVID-19 pandemic	Season abandoned - COVID-19 pandemic	Season abandoned - COVID-19 pandemic	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
2022	CASE 	STHP 	BRIS 	GCOA 	SYDN 	CARL 	COLL 	BOXH	RICH	WERR	FOOT	SAND	WSYD	GEEL	ESSE	PTME	FRAN	NMEL	COBU	WILL	NBUL
2023	GCOA 	WERR 	BOXH 	BRIS 	WILL 	FOOT 	CASE 	COLL	RICH	NMEL	CARL	WSYD	GEEL	STHP	PTME	SAND	ESSE	SYDN	FRAN	NBUL	COBU
==Abbreviations==
BEND - BENDIGO; BOXH - Box Hill; BRIS - Brisbane; CARL - Carlton; CASE - Casey; COBU - Coburg; CO/F - Coburg/Fitzroy; COLL - Collingwood; ESSE - Essendon; FOOT - Footscray; FRAN - Frankston; GEEL - Geelong; GCOA - Gold Coast; MKAN - Murray Kangaroos; NBAL - North Ballarat; NMEL - North Melbourne; NBLU - Northern Blues; NBUL - Northern Bullants; PTME - Port Melbourne; PRES - Preston; RICH - Richmond; SAND - Sandringham; STHP - Southport; SPRI - Springvale; STKI - St.Kilda; SYDN - Sydney; TASM - Tasmania; TRAR - Traralgon ; WERR - Werribee; WSYD - West Sydney; WILL - Williamstown
==Colour Coding==
GREY SHADING - Teams that made the finals
Category:National & State Leagues