The 2009

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) was the 128th season of the

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. The premiership was won by the

North Ballarat Football Club The North Ballarat Football Club, nicknamed the Roosters, is an Australian rules football and netball club based at Mars Stadium in Ballarat. The club was founded in 1882 and has competed in the Ballarat Football Netball League (BFNL), and pr ...

, which defeated 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 ...

by 23 points in the Grand Final on 25 September. It was North Ballarat's second consecutive premiership, and the second in the club's history.

League membership and affiliations

At the end of the 2008 season, the Tasmanian Devils Football Club withdrew from the VFL and disbanded.

AFL Tasmania AFL Tasmania is the Australian Football League (AFL) subsidiary in Tasmania and its Sport governing body, governing body for Australian rules football in Tasmania. The organisation is responsible for AFL-linked Australian rules football developme ...

, which operated the club, was focussed on re-establishing the

Tasmanian Football League The Tasmanian State League (TSL), colloquially known as the Tasmanian Football League (TFL), was the highest-level Australian rules football competition in the state of Tasmania. It disbanded following the end of the 2024 TSL season, 2024 season ...

as a statewide competition in 2009, after an eight-year hiatus since the original statewide league's collapse at the end of 2000, and having the Tasmanian VFL club competing for attention and players did not fit with this vision. As a result, the VFL was reduced to thirteen clubs. Additionally, two pairs of VFL-AFL reserves affiliations were altered: * ended its nine-year affiliation with

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 * ...

and entered a new affiliation with the Casey Scorpions. * ended its eight-year affiliation with the Casey Scorpions and entered a new affiliation with Sandringham. As a result, the size of the VFL was reduced to thirteen teams: nine VFL-AFL affiliates, two AFL reserves team, and two stand-alone VFL teams.

Ladder

Finals series

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 by Nick Sautner (

) for the ninth time in his career. Sautner kicked 71 goals for the season. *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 by Myles Sewell ( North Ballarat), who polled 18 votes. Sewell finished ahead of Michael Barlow (

Werribee Werribee is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the local government area of the City of Wyndham. Werribee recorded a population of 50,027 at the 2021 census. Werrib ...

), who was second with 16 votes, and James Podsiadly (

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...

) and

Sam Iles Sam Iles (born 19 June 1987) is an Australian rules footballer who played for Collingwood and Gold Coast in the Australian Football League (AFL). Football career Iles was picked up in the 2006 Pre-Season draft by Collingwood after he was ...

( Box Hill), who were equal third with 15 votes. *The Fothergill–Round Medal was won by Michael Barlow (

). * Box Hill won the reserves premiership. Box Hill 16.18 (114) defeated

13.6 (84) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors second preliminary final on 20 September.

Notable events

*The Bendigo Bombers could not play at their home ground Queen Elizabeth Oval after May because the surface was deemed unfit for VFL football. Bendigo's remaining home games were transferred to Windy Hill, the training ground of its AFL-affiliate . *The VFL introduced the "23rd man rule". Under the rule, the size of the playing squad was increased to twenty-three (still with eighteen players on the field, but increasing the size of the interchange bench from four to five), provided the 23rd player was a top-age player currently in the

TAC Cup The Talent League (also known as the Coates Talent League under naming rights and previously as the NAB League and TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition based in Melbourne and run by the Australian Foot ...

, or an undrafted player who had played in the TAC Cup during the previous year. The rule was designed to provide additional senior football opportunities to promising juniors, and improve the alignments between VFL clubs and their TAC Cup affiliates.

References

External links

AFL Victoria websiteOfficial VFL websiteUnofficial VFL website
{{DEFAULTSORT:2009 Vfl Season Victorian Football League seasons VFL