2016 VFL season

The 2016 VFL season was the 135th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), a second-tier Australian rules football competition played in the state of Victoria.

There were 15 teams competing in the league. The season started on Saturday 9 April and concluded Sunday 25 September with the VFL Grand Final, won by the Footscray reserves, who defeated the Casey Scorpions by 31 points at Etihad Stadium. It was the Footscray reserves' second VFL premiership, won in just its third season in the competition.

League membership and affiliations

At the end of the 2015 season, North Melbourne ended its ten-year partial reserves affiliation with North Ballarat. The move was in part motivated by a burgeoning partnership between the City of Ballarat and North Melbourne's AFL rivals Western Bulldogs, with North Melbourne not wishing to continue its investment in the Ballarat area if the rewards were to be reaped by another club. North Melbourne's existing partial affiliation with Werribee was upgraded to a full affiliation, and North Ballarat continued to contest the VFL as a stand-alone senior club.^[1]

Beginning in the 2016 season, a new statewide women's football league known as VFL Women's was established by AFL Victoria. The competition was formed from clubs previously established in the Victorian Women's Football League, and was aligned and co-branded with the VFL to improve market penetration.^[2]

Premiership season

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Ladder

Source: Fox Sports Pulse
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) percentage; 3) number of points for.

Finals series

Qualifying and Elimination Finals

Semi-finals

Preliminary Finals

Grand Final

Awards

The Frosty Miller Medal was won by Ahmed Saad (Coburg), who kicked 49 goals during the home-and-away season.^[5]
The J. J. Liston Trophy was won by Michael Gibbons (Williamstown), who polled 17 votes. George Horlin-Smith (Geelong reserves) finished second with 15 votes, and Ben Jolley (Williamstown) and Toby Pinwill (Port Melbourne) were equal third with 14 votes.^[6]
The Fothergill–Round Medal was won by Luke Ryan (Coburg).^[6]
The Development League premiership was won by Box Hill. Box Hill 26.16 (172) defeated Casey 10.7 (67) in the Grand Final, played at North Port Oval on 18 September as a curtain-raiser to the seniors first preliminary final.^[7]

Notable events

In August, the Frankston Football Club, struggling with debts in excess of $1,000,000 and a downturn in the profitability of its poker machine licence, went into voluntary administration.^[9] The club's VFL licence was terminated the following month, in the week after the VFL Grand Final,^[10]^[11] resulting in the club missing the 2017 season before being readmitted in 2018 after resolving its financial issues.

References

^ Glen McFarlane (21 November 2014). "North Melbourne is set to end its partnership with Ballarat as Western Bulldogs move in". Herald Sun. Melbourne, VIC. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
^ "Season Previews - VFL Women's". SportsTG. Archived from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
^ "VFL Saturday recap: Round 3". Fox Sports Pulse. 24 April 2016. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
^ "VFL Grand Final match umpires". SportsTG. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
^ "Peter Jackson VFL 2016". Fox Sports Pulse. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
^ a b Brent Diamond (12 September 2016). "VFL season 2016: Williamstown ball-magnet wins Liston Trophy". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
^ "Hawthorn Earn More Premiership Success". Triple M. 18 September 2016. Retrieved 18 September 2016.
^ "2016 VFL Team of the Year". mygameday.app. 13 September 2016. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
^ Paul Amy (27 August 2016). "Frankston Dolphins VFL club forced into administration with debts of more than $500,000". Frankston Standard Leader. Frankston, VIC. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
^ "AFL Victoria terminates Frankston Dolphins' VFL licence". Frankston Standard Leader. Frankston, VIC. 26 September 2016. Retrieved 26 September 2016.
^ "Frankston FC decision". SportsTG. 30 September 2016. Retrieved 30 September 2016.