2021 VFL season

The North East Australian Football League had served as the top state-level league in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Queensland (and previously for the Northern Territory) since 2011. Throughout its existence, the NEAFL had accommodated the reserves teams of the states' four AFL clubs – Sydney, Greater Western Sydney, Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast – and several stand-alone senior clubs from the regions. The NEAFL's utility as a development league and talent pathway had long suffered as a result of the substantial gap in standard between its weakest teams and players, its strongest teams and players, and AFL level – gaps which had been far more pronounced than in the VFL.[1] The AFL clubs had long been keen for a higher quality league for their reserves teams to contest, and the AFL had been keen to improve the senior development pathways. The high costs of running the NEAFL also became acutely problematic due to the massive financial losses suffered by the football industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] As was the case for the VFL, the 2020 NEAFL season was cancelled due to the pandemic.

In August 2020, it was announced that the NEAFL would amalgamate into the VFL, with all of its clubs afforded the opportunity to join the VFL, over a transitional period in 2021 and 2022.[3] This is expected to provide both the AFL clubs and the northeastern pathway clubs with a higher standard of competition, improving player development and senior pathways in the north east.[4] Six of the NEAFL's nine teams joined the new competition: the Sydney reserves, Greater Western Sydney reserves, Brisbane reserves and Gold Coast reserves, and two stand-alone senior clubs from Queensland: Gold Coast based Southport Sharks and Brisbane based Aspley Hornets. Sydney based Sydney University was offered a licence[5] before ultimately declining due to the cost to compete being too high.[6] The Canberra Demons[7] and Brisbane based Redland both declined to join the merged competition before licenses were offered.[8]

The competition was referred to by the working title 'VFL/East Coast second tier competition' in official correspondence during part of the offseason,[9] before the 'Victorian Football League' was ultimately retained unchanged.[10]

The financial pressures of the pandemic resulted in many AFL clubs seeking lower-cost reserves affiliation options. A new, lowest-cost option was made available to the AFL clubs, under which reserves players would be dispersed throughout the various VFL clubs rather than being affiliated to a single club, but no club took up the option.[3]

Ultimately, the only change for 2021 is that the affiliation between Carlton and the Northern Blues was terminated after eighteen seasons – this had been announced in March 2020, prior to the cancellation of the 2020 season. This affiliation had been high cost for Carlton due to the large amount of money it had been investing in the club as a development pathway in the region.[11][12] Carlton will field its reserves team in the league for the first time since the 2002 season. Furthermore, the administration of the Northern Blues – which had initially announced that it would have to fold without Carlton's financial backing and was not included in the aborted plans for a shortened 2020 season – worked successfully through the year to find a means to remain viable as a stand-alone senior club, and will return to the league under its former Northern Bullants name, and in its traditional red and white colours.[5]

No Tasmanian team was introduced to the league in 2021 as part of the expansion interstate; although AFL Tasmania had gained a provisional licence in 2018 to re-establish a Tasmanian team in the VFL from 2021, plans for this were deferred during the pandemic.[4]

The governing bodies announced an intention to take deliberate moves to strengthen the VFL's utility as a pathway league, through which undrafted players from the underage systems could continue to develop and then be drafted into the AFL system. No formal announcements have been made about how this might occur, but it has been reported that age restrictions could be enforced, setting a certain quota of under-21 and under-23 players who must be included on each VFL club playing list. The under-age players would be allocated to clubs on a zoning basis, with each NAB League club and other under-19s system allocated to a specific VFL club or clubs, thus allowing for greater interchange and continuity.[13]

Annual grants from the AFL to the stand-alone VFL clubs, which had been introduced in 2000 when the AFL reserves first amalgamated with the VFL, were abandoned due to the financial pressures of the pandemic. The salary cap for the competition was also significantly reduced, from $380k to $200k,[14] or $100k for AFL reserves teams or those with reserves affiliations.[5] Interstate travel costs for the competition will be financed by the AFL.[6] Consideration will be given to partitioning the league into geographical conferences to minimise the overall travel costs.[13]

The season will see a trial of positional restriction rules, under which each team must have three players inside each 50-metre arc – including one in each goal square – at every kick-in and boundary throw-in. The rule is intended to reduce around-the-ground congestion, and following its trial in the 2021 VFL season trial will be assessed for potential inclusion in the national Laws of the Game for 2022.[15]