The 2014 VFL season was the 133rd season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), a second-tier Australian rules football competition played in the state of Victoria.
Footscray reserves won the premiership for the first time, defeating Box Hill by 22 points in the 2014 VFL Grand Final.
League membership
The VFL increased from fourteen teams to sixteen teams in 2014, following the end of two VFL-AFL affiliations:
- AFL club Richmond and VFL club Coburg ended their alignment, which had been in place since 2001. Richmond re-entered a stand-alone reserves team in the VFL, having previously fielded one in the 2000 season. Coburg continued as a stand-alone VFL club, and returned to using 'the Lions' as its mascot, having been known by Richmond's nickname of 'the Tigers' during the affiliation.
- AFL club Western Bulldogs and VFL club Williamstown ended their alignment. The Bulldogs entered its stand-alone reserves team in the VFL for the first time, playing under the club's traditional name of Footscray. Williamstown continued as a stand-alone VFL club.
The Development League was reduced from ten teams to nine, with North Ballarat withdrawing its team; this left only the nine metropolitan VFL clubs competing in the seconds competition, with all five AFL clubs and both regional VFL clubs (North Ballarat and Bendigo) absent.
Home-and-away season
Features of the fixture included:
- A Good Friday game between previously aligned teams Bendigo Gold and Essendon reserves.
- Three matches in once-off regional Victorian locations: Echuca, Morwell and Swan Hill.
Source: VFL season 2014 Results and Fixtures (*Note that only at some games are attendances recorded)
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
Round 8
State Game
Round 9
Round 10
Round 11
Round 12
Round 13
Round 14
Round 15
Round 16
Round 17
Round 18
Round 19
Round 20
Ladder
Finals series
Qualifying and elimination finals
Semi-finals
Preliminary finals
Grand Final
Foxtel Cup
The two highest ranked non-AFL exclusive teams from the 2013 season (premiers Box Hill and third placed Williamstown) were invited to compete in the Foxtel Cup knockout competition for 2014. Box Hill was eliminated in the first round of the tournament, and Williamstown recorded comfortable victories in all three fixtures, earning a second Foxtel Cup title in club history.
Round 1
Semi-finals
Grand final
Awards
- The J. J. Liston Trophy was won by Alex Woodward (Box Hill), who polled 20 votes. Woodward finished ahead of Liam Anthony (North Ballarat), who finished second with 17 votes, and Tom Campbell (Footscray), who finished third with 15 votes.
- The Frosty Miller Medal was won jointly by Daniel Connors (Port Melbourne) and Sam Grimley (Box Hill), who each kicked 38 goals during the home-and-away season; it was the fewest goals kicked to win the VFA/VFL goalkicking since 1900, when Footscray's L. Daly won with 32 goals. Including finals, the leading goalkicker was Grimley, who finished with 45 goals to Connors' 40.
- The Fothergill–Round Medal was won by Nic Newman (Frankston).
- The Development League premiership was won by Williamstown. Williamstown 18.18 (126) defeated Box Hill 13.13 (91) in the Grand Final, played at North Port Oval on 13 September as a curtain-raiser to the seniors first preliminary final.
See also
- List of VFA/VFL premiers
- Australian rules football
- Victorian Football League
- Australian Football League
- 2014 AFL season
References
External links
- AFL Victoria website
- Official VFL website
