Talk:Victorian Football League

Dubious comments about VFL's strength vis-a-vis the SANFL
"The VFL is regarded as Australia's second most competitive league after the AFL and the most competitive regional league in front of the South Australian National Football League"

Based on what? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.90.206.65 (talk) 18:09, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

Very good question, and "regarded" by whom?

References to AFL listed players and club affiliations, crowd sizes (particularly finals), relative salary caps, club turnovers (financial and player), "State" match results, etc, etc, have been used by devotees of the respective leagues as de facto measures of their league's superiority.

So what parameters do we use?

The truth is the SANFL and current VFL competitions operate in unique - in Aussie Rules terms - environments with different structures with (at this time at least) no competitive, club level interaction other than the occasional trial game. There are, in fact, no indisputable measures nor agreed parameters for determining outright "superiority". In the current structural landscape, simply claiming one competition as indisputably superior to another is at best anecdotal and speculative, at worse parochial and arrogant.

Plainly, any and all such claims made within this text must be removed until such time (if ever) they are established as indisputable facts.

User:StrayDog125 58.170.110.141 (talk) 16:36, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Now corrected.

User:StrayDog125 144.137.202.63 (talk) 09:36, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

earlier comments
This page is really about two completely different leagues - the VFA which renamed itself VFL, and the VFL which renamed itself AFL. Needs to be clearly separated out. I suggest the main article be under VFA and the VFL be a disambiguation page of sorts pointing to VFA and AFL. Links to VFL would then need fixing too. - David Gerard 08:44, Jan 13, 2004 (UTC)

The competition has changed again in 2006, with Port Melbourne electing not to continue their alliance with AFL club the Kangaroos. The Kangaroos have now established a partnership with both Tasmania Devils and North Ballarat Football clubs in a split-list scenario. - David Lumley 20/12/05

Whilst I can understand the removal of the lists of modern VFL lineup changes from the main VFL article, why the rest of the post-1996 history was removed is beyond me. I've shifted it all to another article. Also, why someone decided to delete the bulk of this article without any talk page consultation is incredibly rash and bad form. matturn 08:45, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

Past VFA/VFL clubs
I have a list of dates that past clubs participated in the league. Would it be worthwhile including this data in the article? -Bricks J. Winzer 14:59, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

SAFL First Aussie Rules Competition?
Under the Port Adelaide Football Club article the point is made that the SAFL was founded first in 1877. Which league is the oldest? Ozdaren 07:31, 15 June 2006 (UTC)


 * Depends on the start date of each. As the VFA started in 1877, the difference could be just a matter of weeks. -- Bricks J. Winzer 09:09, 15 June 2006 (UTC)


 * The Challenge Cup (long deceased) predates both, as do probably other comps I can't think of at the moment... matturn 11:47, 15 June 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes, but the way I looked at the query, I took it to mean the oldest surviving league. -- Bricks J. Winzer 04:42, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

years in sports
In the 'years in sports' pages, you might instead use this cross-reference format.

Compare 1905, which I rearranged and  1906. --P64 16:48, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Geelong on Graph
The graph shows Geelong exiting and going to the VFL/AFL, but it never came back, whereas obviously the Geelong Football Club now fields its reserves in the comp, so the timeline is wrong ... --Rulesfan 05:02, 20 March 2007 (UTC)


 * If you, or anyone else, can provide the year they re-entered, i'll add it to the timeline. Schem (talk) 00:59, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Resurgence in the early 1990's
It's quite evident the early 1990's was not a good time for the VFA, so that is why i changed it. It continued to suffer club casualties, and was perhaps only saved by the AFL affiliations. Blackmissionary 10:10, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Changes to site on 13-06-07
I've made a few changes to the VFA history. In particular, the notes on broadcasters and the history of radio/TV coverage of the VFA.

Some changes have also been made to the listing for South Williamstown Football Club, and to the timeline for this club. South Williamstown was forced by the VFA to amalgamate with Williamstown FC in 1888, not 1916 as previously shown. This means that South Williamstown only existed for a couple of seasons. My reference for this information is the book, Seagulls over Williamstown (2003) by Marc Fiddian, arguably the most respected and knowledgable journalist on the subject of the VFA. (I have proof-read most of Marc's books on the subject of Transport, and know how meticulous he is in checking his facts.)

The forced amalgamation of Williamstown and South Williamstown appears to be most interesting. The new club took the name of the former and the home ground of the latter. The new jumper was (and still is) blue and gold - the blue coming from South Williamstown's blue and white; and the gold from Williamstown's former black and gold.

Albert Isaacs


 * Fixed. Schem (talk) 01:20, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

VFL Page / VFA Page
The VFA Wikipedia page has recently been rewritten by "Portman 111" (that's not me). Whereas in the past, anyone searching for "Victorian Football Association" was automatically redirected to this VFL page, that no longer happens.

The VFA page now includes a little bit of information that's duplicated on this VFL page, along with some very interesting detail on the Liston Trophy and on a 1940s attempt to amlagamte the VFL & VFA. Unfortunately, much of the information now on the VFA page needs careful scrutiny, particularly the side-box containing the list of clubs which is incomplete and contains some peculiar anomolies.

I suspect that "Portman 111" doesn't know of the existance of this VFL page which, frankly, contains more of the history of the VFA than the updated VFA page. Some of the history on this page was provided by me. However, there are many others who have helped to make it a fascinating and valuable VFA history. I particularly like the timeline showing when clubs were actually in the VFA. This is fascinating, particularly when it comes to the little-known early VFA clubs like South Williamstown, Heidelberg, Inglewood and Castlemaine.

I have edited the VFA page so as to provide a link to this VFL page that explains that this page contains the fuller VFA history. However, it really needs someone with more time than me to properly amalgamate the information on these two pages. ANY VOLUNTEERS?

Albert Isaacs. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.2.88.132 (talk) 08:26, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Radio Coverage
In the History and Radio Coverage section I have re-added 3XX 1611 AM. This was in here prior to September, but someone for, on behalf of or fan of Casey Radio deleted all references to 3XX. I have re-added the 3XX contribution and slightly edited Casey radio to give a more FAIR and BALANCED view of the media coverage of the VFA/VFL.

You'll note my mention about VFL matchday podcasts. These use to be online at the 3XX website during and slightly after the season. They have now been taken down, but will return at the start of the 2008 season.

Though there is no article about to say that the 3XX coverage began on Round 3 2007, I can confirm it as I was one of the commentators for that brodacst (and continued broadcasting with 3XX up until Round 18). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.178.240.183 (talk) 16:58, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

I have cleaned up this section so that it now includes a balanced coverage for all stations, without any biases for any particular boradcaster.Albert Isaacs (talk) 02:30, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Heidelberg and the VFA.
I would dispute that Heidelberg ever played in the VFA. There appears to be no record of this in any of the recognised histories, including Marc Fiddian's definative VFA history. The only references to Heidelberg and the VFA are on this Wikipedia page and the Heidelberg Football Club's Wikepedia page. Can anyone provide proper references for this information? If not it will have to be removed from both sites.Albert Isaacs (talk) 02:28, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Timeline graph
The interesting timeline graph needs to be cleaned up. This will need to be done by someone with a better knowledge of Wikipedia knowledge than me. Albert Isaacs (talk) 22:45, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

I've reverted most changes to a state that is workable. Please list any updates required here and i'll put them in. Cheers Schem (talk) 22:43, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

Dear Schem, Help! I've tried to reapply the following clubs, 1877-78 - Hawthorn, Northcote, Standard, Victorian Railways, Victoria United. All these clubs were Junior Clubs 1877-78, and, hopefully, notes can be added to this effect. Of course, I shouldn't have tried to make these changes myself but should have left it to someone who knows what they're doing. Regards,122.105.194.20 (talk) 00:34, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

Dear Schem, Looks great! Goodonya! Albert Isaacs (talk) 03:47, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Vfl logo.jpg
Image:Vfl logo.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 02:51, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Split proposed
I agree that there needs to be a separate article for the VFL Women's, one that will share a lot of similarities to the Australian Football League article. To achieve this, I think that the content from the VFL Women's section here should be moved to the Victorian Women's Football League article, and that article in turn be moved to VFL Women's (mentioning the previous name and name change, like at the AFL article). This should take a bit of work, but I can spend some time putting it together and then change the links at some player articles accordingly when it is finished.

I also think – though I don't expect this idea to be as popular – that a List of VFL Women's premiers list should be created for the VWFL/VFLW premiers, sharing similarities with AFL and AFLW premiers lists. This way, what was considered the premier women's football competition until the AFLW came along can have the coverage that it deserves. This can then also branch off into articles for other related things, such as the Helen Lambert Medal and leading goalkickers; this is because the competition has been around long enough for both to deserve their own articles (a separate point to creating similar articles for the AFLW, which I already plan on doing just as I did for the competition's All-Australian team and Rising Star).  4TheWynne (talk) (contribs) 11:50, 3 February 2018 (UTC)

Yes, split it so it is easier to link to! Jack N. Stock (talk) 11:47, 13 February 2018 (UTC)
 * Hawthorn are paying their VFLW players, so it's only a matter of time before other teams follow. That will make VFL Women's more notable, thus easier to build a separate article. Jack N. Stock (talk) 00:53, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

VFL founded
Got a date for the foundation? VFA’s is cited. MBG02 (talk) 18:23, 8 January 2019 (UTC)