The 2003 VFL season was the 122nd season of the

Victorian Football League 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 east ...

(VFL), a second-tier

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

competition played in the states of Victoria and

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

. won the premiership for the 13th time, after defeating by 29 points in the 2003 VFL Grand Final.

League membership and affiliations

There were several changes to the VFL–AFL reserves affiliations prior to the 2003 season:Fiddian, Marc (2004); ''The VFA; A History of the Victorian Football Association 1877–1995''; p. 188 *, which had been partially affiliated with

Port Melbourne Port Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of the Melbourne central business district, located within the Cities of City of Melbourne, Melbourne and City of Port Phillip, Port Phillip Local government ...

, withdrew from having any connection with the VFL, instead electing to field a stand-alone reserves team in the

AFL Canberra AFL Canberra is the name of the local governing body for and premier competition of Australian rules football in the Australian Capital Territory (and the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales). It acts as an umbrella to several competitions be ...

competition. Sydney broke off the affiliation with one year left on the contract, prompting a lawsuit from Port Melbourne. *The , after spending the previous three years using the Murray Kangaroos as its VFL-affiliate, became affiliated with Port Melbourne. The Murray Kangaroos club, which had been a joint venture operation between the Kangaroos and the

Ovens & Murray Football League The Ovens and Murray Football Netball League (OMFNL or O&MFNL) is an Australian rules football and netball competition containing ten clubs based in north-eastern Victoria, Australia, Victoria, the southern Riverina region of New South Wales ...

, dropped out of the VFL and folded. *, which had been fielding its

reserves team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

in the VFL, became affiliated with the

Northern Bullants The Northern Bullants are a semi-professional Australian rules football club that currently competes in the Victorian Football League (VFL). The club, which is based in the Melbourne suburb of Preston, plays its home games at Preston City Ov ...

. The Carlton reserves withdrew from the VFL. *, which had been fielding its

in the VFL, became affiliated with

Bendigo Bendigo ( ) is an Australian city in north-central Victoria. The city is located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2022, Bendigo has a popula ...

. Under the affiliation, Bendigo adopted Essendon's black and red guernsey, and changed its nickname from ''Diggers'' to ''Bombers''. The Essendon reserves withdrew from the VFL. As a result of the changes, the VFL was reduced from sixteen teams to thirteen. was now the only one of the ten Victorian AFL clubs left fielding its own reserves team in the VFL, with nine clubs in VFL-AFL affiliations.

Ladder

Finals series

Grand Final

Awards

*The

Jim 'Frosty' Miller Medal The Jim 'Frosty' Miller Medal is awarded to the Victorian Football League player who kicks the most goals in home-and-away matches in that year. The is named in honour of Jim 'Frosty' Miller, who was the leading goalkicker of the Victorian Footbal ...

was won for a record fifth consecutive year by Nick Sautner (

), who kicked 82 goals. *The

J. J. Liston Trophy The J. J. Liston Trophy is awarded annually to the best and fairest senior player in the Victorian Football League (VFL), which was formerly known as the Victorian Football Association (VFA). It is named after J. J. Liston, J.J. Liston, a busine ...

was won by David Robbins (

Sandringham Sandringham can refer to: Places Australia * Sandringham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney * Sandringham, Queensland, a rural locality * Sandringham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne **Sandringham railway line **Sandringham railway station * ...

), who polled 16 votes. It was Robbins' second Liston Trophy, having previously won the award in 2000. Robbins finished ahead of Stephen Jurica ( North Ballarat), who finished second with 15 votes, and Jordan Doering (

) and Adrian Fletcher ( Williamstown), who were equal third with 14 votes.

Jeremy Clayton Jeremy Clayton (born 9 February 1981) is a professional Australian rules footballer who played for the North Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League before enjoying great success in the South Australian National Football Leagu ...

(

) polled the most votes with 20, but was ineligible to win the award due to suspension. *The Fothergill–Round Medal was won by Aaron Davey (

). * Williamstown won the reserves premiership. Williamstown 20.15 (135) defeated the

12.11 (83) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the Seniors Grand Final on 21 September.

Notable events

*The VFL granted a favourable fixture to the three stand-alone VFL clubs,

, North Ballarat and Frankston to try to assist them financially. The clubs were given extra home games (Tasmania had twelve home games for the year, and North Ballarat and Frankston had ten) and they were given extra Sunday matches to avoid clashes with the local competitions which were still mainly played on Saturdays.

References

{{VFA/VFL seasons Victorian Football League seasons VFL