2000 VFL season

The 2000 Victorian Football League season was the 119th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Sandringham Football Club, after defeating North Ballarat by 31 points in the Grand Final on 27 August.

2000 VFL Premiership Season
Teams18
PremiersSandringham
(7th premiership)
Minor premiersSandringham
(5th minor premiership)
← 1999
2001 →

The league underwent significant changes for the 2000 season, being merged with the Australian Football League reserves competition. Since this season, the VFL has served as a state-level senior competition in which reserves players and some reserves teams from the Victorian AFL clubs compete.

Merger with the AFL reserves

The Victorian State Football League had operated two open-age senior competitions during the 1990s: the Victorian Football League, which it took control of in 1995, and the AFL Reserves, which it had operated since 1992. The AFL Reserves competition was contested by the reserves teams of eleven Australian Football League clubs: those of the ten Victorian clubs and that of the Sydney Swans. The VSFL had intended to merge the two into a single competition which would serve as an AFL reserves competition, a state-level senior competition and a development pathway from the 1995 season; however there was such significant opposition from the AFL clubs against abolishing their dedicated reserves competition that they had threatened to use their power to sack the AFL Commission over the changes.[1] Consequently, the two competitions had run in parallel between 1995 and 1999.

Prior to the 1998 season, the AFL again announced plans to amalgamate the VFL and the AFL reserves into a single competition, giving the clubs two years to make arrangements before the combined competition was to begin from the 2000 season. Although most of the AFL clubs were still opposed to the changes, on this occasion they accepted them.[2]

Under the new arrangement, AFL clubs were given two options: they could continue to operate their own reserves teams, fielding them in the VFL; or, they could enter a reserves affiliation with one or more existing VFL clubs. Under the affiliation structure, listed players who were not selected in the senior AFL team would be made available to play for their affiliated VFL club; the VFL club would then make up the balance of the team from its own playing list.

Affiliations and league membership changes

Under the new arrangement, four AFL clubs entered into affiliations with existing VFL clubs. These were:[3][4]

  • Hawthorn affiliated with fellow eastern suburban club Box Hill. Box Hill immediately co-branded with Hawthorn, changing its nickname from the Mustangs to the Hawks.
  • Western Bulldogs affiliated with fellow western suburban clubs Werribee and Williamstown, with half of its players allocated to each VFL club.
  • Melbourne affiliated with Sandringham.
  • Sydney entered a partial affiliation with Port Melbourne, the club with which it had shared a zone when it was based in South Melbourne. No more than six of Sydney's reserves players played for Port Melbourne; the rest played for a dedicated Sydney reserves team in the Sydney AFL competition.

A fifth affiliation was established with the creation of a new club, the Murray Kangaroos. The Murray Kangaroos was operated in partnership between the North Melbourne Football Club and the Ovens & Murray Football League, and was based at both Coburg City Oval in Melbourne and the Lavington Sports Ground in Albury. The Murray Kangaroos were affiliated with the Murray Bushrangers from the TAC Cup under-18s competition, which served to complete the VSFL's original vision that all twelve Victorian TAC Cup clubs would be affiliated with a VFL club.[5]

This left six Victorian AFL clubs, all of which entered their reserves teams directly into the VFL. These were: Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Geelong, Richmond and St Kilda.

Other changes

After four years, the merger between Preston Bullants senior club and the Northern Knights TAC Cup club was terminated, and the two clubs returned to being separate entities. The senior club, which had competed as the Preston Knights since 1996, became known as the Northern Bullants, and it returned to the red and white colours that it had worn prior to 1996.[6]

With the increased size of the league, the finals were expanded from five clubs to eight clubs. The VFL adopted the same final eight system which was adopted by the AFL in the same season, replacing the McIntyre Final Five which had been in use since 1989.

The Victorian State Football League was superseded by a newly established body, Football Victoria, which administered the league.

Summary

As a result of this large suite of changes, the size of the VFL grew from eleven to eighteen clubs, the largest it had been since 1987. The size of the competition during the 2000 season was the largest ever to contest the premiership in a single division in VFA/VFL history. The clubs were:

Ladder
2000 VFL season
Pos Team Pld W L D PF PA PP Pts
1 Sandringham (P) 19 16 3 0 2151 1460 147.3 64 Finals
2 North Ballarat 19 14 5 0 2079 1667 124.7 56
3 Carlton reserves 19 14 5 0 2079 1667 124.7 56
4 St Kilda reserves 19 13 6 0 2094 1520 137.8 52
5 Geelong reserves 19 13 6 0 2017 1723 117.1 52
6 Williamstown 19 13 6 0 2006 1746 114.9 52
7 Box Hill 19 13 6 0 1892 1647 114.9 52
8 Springvale 19 12 6 1 1648 1564 105.4 50
9 Werribee 19 10 8 1 2025 1839 110.1 42
10 Essendon reserves 19 10 9 0 1778 1783 99.7 40
11 Collingwood reserves 19 9 10 0 1731 1871 92.5 36
12 Frankston 19 8 10 1 1903 1911 99.6 34
13 Port Melbourne 19 6 13 0 1787 1858 96.2 24
14 Murray Kangaroos 19 6 13 0 1632 1850 88.2 24
15 Coburg-Fitzroy 19 4 15 0 1483 1744 85.0 16
16 Northern Bullants 19 4 15 0 1495 2226 67.2 16
17 Richmond reserves 19 3 15 1 1501 2119 70.8 14
18 Bendigo 19 1 18 0 1316 2413 54.5 4
Source:
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) percentage; 3) number of points for.
(P) Premiers.

Finals Series
  Qualifying / Elimination finals Semi-finals Preliminary finals Grand final
                                   
  QF1: August 7, Waverley Park  
1  Sandringham 9.14 (68)  
4  St Kilda 10.7 (67)     SF1: August 13, North Port Oval  
     St Kilda 8.14 (62)    
EF1: August 6, North Port Oval      Geelong 9.13 (67)       PF1: August 20, North Port Oval
5  Geelong 15.11 (101)        Sandringham 22.23 (155)  
8  Springvale 8.12 (60)          Carlton 12.9 (81)     GF: August 27, Waverley Park
         Sandringham 15.18 (108)
  EF2: August 5, North Port Oval       PF2: August 19, North Port Oval      North Ballarat 11.11 (77)
6  Williamstown 22.17 (149)          Geelong 12.7 (79)  
7  Box Hill 15.14 (104)     SF2: August 12, North Port Oval        North Ballarat 20.13 (133)  
     Carlton 19.11 (125)    
QF2: August 5, North Port Oval      Williamstown 7.9 (51)    
2  North Ballarat 17.24(126)  
3  Carlton 10.6 (66)  

Grand Final
2000 VFL Grand Final
Sunday 27 August

(2:10 pm)

 Sandringham def. North Ballarat Waverley Park (crowd: 8,652) [7]
4.6 (30)
8.10 (58)
11.14 (80)
 15.18 (108)		 Q1
Q2
Q3
 Final		 0.5 (5)
3.5 (23)
5.8 (38)
 11.11 (77)		 Umpires: Jeffery, Malcolm, Twitt
Norm Goss Memorial Medal: Richard Maloney (Sandringham)
Sautner 6, Beams 2, Pitt 2, Templeton 2, Febey, Haynes, Williams Goals Clarke 2, Peake 2, Power 2, Field, Inkster, Maher, T. Polkinghorne, Snibson

Awards

Notable events
  • The VFL established a second television deal during the 2000 season, with one match played each Monday night and broadcast live on the Seven Network's subscription television channel C7 Sport, in addition to the long-standing weekly Saturday afternoon broadcasts on ABC Victoria.[4] The Monday night fixture was short-lived, and did not survive beyond the 2000 season.[11]
  • With the disuse of Waverley Park for Australian Football League games following the opening of Docklands Stadium, Waverley Park became available for VFA/VFL football for the first and only time in its history. Springvale, located only a few kilometres away, played all but its first home game of the season at the ground,[12] and all Monday night games were played at the ground, as well as a few other isolated games and the Grand Final.[13] The Grand Final was the last game of competitive football played on Waverley Park before it was sold to developers.[7]
  • Bendigo's six point win against Murray in Round 17 was its final ever win as a stand-alone VFL club. Its remaining 78 games as a stand-alone club (spanning seasons 2000–2002 and 2013–2014 and excluding the period of its reserves affiliation with Essendon) yielded one draw and 77 losses.[11][13][14][15][16]
  • As with other major football leagues, the 2000 season was played a month earlier than usual, to ensure it was finished before the 2000 Sydney Olympics, which began on 15 September.

See also

References
  1. Stephen Rielly; Stephen Linnell (24 May 1994). "Vic clubs threaten AFL on reserves". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. p. 50.
  2. Daryl Timms; Michael Stevens (10 December 1997). "Time's up for twos". Herald Sun. Melbourne, VIC. p. 86.
  3. Fiddian, Marc (2004); The VFA; A History of the Victorian Football Association 1877-1995; p. 188
  4. "103rd Annual Report (Part 2)" (PDF). Australian Football League. 1999. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 October 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  5. Charles Heppell (20 April 1994). "New state footy league mooted". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. p. 32.
  6. "Preston Football Club". Darebin heritage. Archived from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  7. Michael Warner (28 August 2000). "Zebras set scene for Demons". Herald Sun. Melbourne, VIC. p. 40.
  8. "Frosty Miller Medallists". Fox Sports Pulse. 25 May 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  9. "J.J. Liston Trophy Medallists". Fox Sports Pulse. 25 May 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  10. "Fothergill-Round Medallists". Sportingpulse. 29 October 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  11. "Victorian Football League (VFL), 2001". Australian Football.com. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  12. Santo Caruso; Marc Fiddian; Jim Main (2002), Football Grounds of Melbourne, Essendon North, VIC: Pennon Publishing, pp. 140–143
  13. "Victorian Football League (VFL), 2000". Australian Football.com. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  14. "Victorian Football League (VFL), 2002". Australian Football.com. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  15. "Victorian Football League (VFL), 2013". Australian Football.com. Archived from the original on 3 October 2015. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  16. "Victorian Football League (VFL), 2014". Australian Football.com. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.