VFL 2023 - GOLD COAST SUNS WIN THE PREMIERSHIP

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2023 VFL PARTICIPATING TEAMS:
  • Box Hill Hawks
  • Brisbane Lions
  • Carlton Blues
  • Casey Demons
  • Coburg Lions
  • Collingwood Magpies
  • Essendon Bombers
  • Footscray Bulldogs
  • Frankston Dolphins
  • GWS Giants
  • Geelong Cats
  • Gold Coast Suns
  • North Melbourne
  • Northern Bullants
  • Port Melbourne
  • Richmond Tigers
  • Sandringham Zebras
  • Southport Sharks
  • Sydney Swans
  • Werribee Tigers
  • Williamstown Seagulls

SEASON DATES AND FINALS QUALIFICATION:

  • Round 1 will begin on March 25th to align with AFL round 2
  • 18 matches, and 4 byes will follow for a total of 22 home and away rounds.
  • Wild card round will begin on August 26th, which will basically expand finals qualification from 8 teams to 10 teams.
  • Finals to begin September 2nd
  • Grand Final to be played on September 24


The 2023 VFL Finals will be as follows:

Wild Card Round:
(August 26 - 27)
7th vs 10th
8th vs 9th

Qualifying and Elimination Finals:
(September 2 - 3)
First Qualifying Final: 1st vs 4th
Second Qualifying Final: 2nd vs 3rd
First Elimination Final: 5th vs lower ranked wild card winner
Second Elimination Final: 6th vs highest ranked wild card winner

Semi-Finals:
(September 9 - 10)
First Semi Final: Loser of first qualifying final vs winner of first elimination final
Second Semi Final: Loser of second qualifying final vs winner of second elimination final

Preliminary Finals:
(September 16 - 17)
First Preliminary Final: Winner of first qualifying final vs winner of second semi final
Second Preliminary Final: Winner of second qualifying final vs winner of first semi final

Grand Final
(Sunday, September 24)
winner of the first preliminary final vs winner of the second preliminary final


COACHING CHANGES:

  • Zane Littlejohn will replace Clint Proctor at the Box Hill Hawks
  • Ben Hudson will replace Mitch Hahn at the Brisbane Lions
  • Luke Power will replace Dan O'Keefe at the Carlton Blues
  • Jamie Cassidy-McNamara will replace Andrew Sturgess at the Coburg Lions
  • Josh Fraser will replace Craig Black at the Collingwood Magpies
  • Taylor Whitford will replace Mark Corrigan at the Casey Demons
  • Leigh Tudor will replace Brent Stanton at the Essendon Bombers
  • Mark Corrigan will replace Shane O'Bree at the Geelong Cats
  • Wayne Cripps will replace Damian Truslove at the GWS Giants
  • Brodie Holland will replace Ben Hart at the Northern Bullants
  • Tom Lynch holds on to the North Melbourne coaching gig after being a caretaker
  • Jeremy Laidler has departed the Sydney Swans
 
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TEAMS EXPECTED TO PARTICIPATE:
  • Box Hill Hawks
  • Brisbane Lions
  • Carlton Blues
  • Casey Demons
  • Coburg Lions
  • Collingwood Magpies
  • Essendon Bombers
  • Footscray Bulldogs
  • Frankston Dolphins
  • GWS Giants
  • Geelong Cats
  • Gold Coast Suns
  • North Melbourne
  • Northern Bullants
  • Port Melbourne
  • Richmond Tigers
  • Sandringham Zebras
  • Southport Sharks
  • Sydney Swans
  • Werribee Tigers
  • Williamstown Seagulls

Coaches Changes


Player Signings

Salary caps and amount of matches played are expected to rise.
Tassie Thylacines ?
 
Expect a lot of turnover from Coburg. Underperformed this year and honestly don't love the coaching or the style of play.
 

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Sounds like people have forgotten the Coburg-Fitzroy Lions FC fiasco in the mid 1990s ... that nearly brought down Coburg as well.

The VFA/L's terminal decline started when the AFL hijacked the VFA (which, by admission was in disarray in 1995 when it got "taken over") and twelve years on we are close to a similar situation for the old VFA clubs.

The AFL-based clubs are looking at the bottom line more than the worth factor and as a result, the traditionals like Port, Sandy and Willy could end up back on thin ice ... and it's not a long stretch to say that if the AFL goes ahead with "their own VFL" or an Eastern Seaboard FL, the names of Sandringham and Williamstown, etc. would vanish and the stand-alone sides might end up in suburban and country leagues, such as the MPNFL (Frankston), the EFL, the DVFL or the WRFL. No need to worry about the VFA name - in all honesty it went in the mid 90s and this incarnation is realistically a 2nd 18 competition.

Having witnessed the VFA/L for the past 28 years and having moved to Perth, the WAFL structure and professionalism exceeds the VFL and their input and communication with AFL clubs has ensured that the clubs are not under constant pressure to survive.
Motty,

What you've written is spot on, but nobody from the former VFA clubs act.

Heads in sand waiting for something to happen.
It won't.

I dropped this missive in 10 months ago with one thumbs-up, thank you MortlockWatcher, plus
one reply from Mr North Man "Worth considering".

Our former VFA clubs aren't going anywhere, perhaps nowhere within the VFL which I feel that we all realise but nobody seems to want to 'bite the bullet' and move on.

Our clubs were powerhouses and can be again within a strong 'all suburban' competition.

I've copy/pasted: here 'tis.

The Eastern Football League is arguably the strongest and well-run professional league in metropolitan Melbourne.

Should the combined former VFA clubs, now 2nd rate citizens in the VFL approach the EFL, and if accepted to join, could encourage other powerful district clubs to seek admittance.

This could be the beginning of a pseudo VFA, perhaps the ‘VSFA’.

Just thinking.
 
Motty,

What you've written is spot on, but nobody from the former VFA clubs act.

Heads in sand waiting for something to happen.
It won't.

I dropped this missive in 10 months ago with one thumbs-up, thank you MortlockWatcher, plus
one reply from Mr North Man "Worth considering".

Our former VFA clubs aren't going anywhere, perhaps nowhere within the VFL which I feel that we all realise but nobody seems to want to 'bite the bullet' and move on.

Our clubs were powerhouses and can be again within a strong 'all suburban' competition.

I've copy/pasted: here 'tis.

The Eastern Football League is arguably the strongest and well-run professional league in metropolitan Melbourne.

Should the combined former VFA clubs, now 2nd rate citizens in the VFL approach the EFL, and if accepted to join, could encourage other powerful district clubs to seek admittance.

This could be the beginning of a pseudo VFA, perhaps the ‘VSFA’.

Just thinking.
Top Div NFL and EDFL aren't far off. Skim the few top clubs off those three (SFL, Riddell and and WRFL are far too weak to be included) comps, add the stand alones. Call it the VFA. Promotion and relegation possible back to the those comps. Create a soccer style 'league pyramid' system for Melbourne. Could be exciting. AFL Vic would be keen to get it going as it would realise their aim for an AFL Reserves comp, and we have a a new, exciting, relevant, suburban set up. Get rid of the NAB League and have each side have an u/21 side, if the youngsters are good enough they play seniors. So effectively this comp becomes the development comp in Melbourne (keep the NAB League for the country lads as it's just too hard to integrate them into this), adds another layer of interest to our 'new' VFA.

VAFA would want to keep away as it would require them to give up the pretense that they are actually amateur.
 
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Williamstown have harvested just about every decent player from North's VFL side. Marty Hore, Harry Jones, Matt Walker & Jack Lidscombe all gone to the gulls. Highly doubt North will be able to replace that sort of VFL level quality.
 
Expect a lot of turnover from Coburg. Underperformed this year and honestly don't love the coaching or the style of play.
Old news now, but coach gone, Sturgess to Calder Canons, Has been a big turnover of players through retirements, delistings. Website shows about 8 signings at the moment, mainly from AFL aligned VFL programs.
 
Old news now, but coach gone, Sturgess to Calder Canons, Has been a big turnover of players through retirements, delistings. Website shows about 8 signings at the moment, mainly from AFL aligned VFL programs.
It'll be a very interesting year. I think we'll struggle still, though I'm not a fan Sturgess leaving weeks before pre-season won't be helpful.
 

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December 2022 List Updates
It's been a while... I've updated the OP for all the coaching changes.

As for list changes, I have put together most of the changes as of the 2nd of December... there have been some changes and updates since.

 
With the AFL fixture released - We are still not expecting the VFL fixture to be out until mid-late January.

Pretty poor for the AFL to delay it that long - clubs (especially stand-alone) need to start organising things.

SANFL hoping to release theirs by Christmas and WAFL expected to release theirs in January.
 
The AFL should give the state leagues its fixture as soon as it is finalised so they can get theirs out.

This 'smoke and mirrors' game of releasing Round 1 fixtures on a Sunday and Gather Round late in the week and the the full fixture on a Saturday afternoon means that the fixture had been finalised and approved for more than a week by the time it was finally released in full.

I asked a league in the northern half of the state late last week when its fixture would be out and they said "once we know when AFL Grand Final day is, we can liaise with the other leagues in the district and co-ordinate our Grand Final days so they don't clash and then work the dates back from there. It will probably be out around Christmas time".

Apart from Covid, Grand Final day has been the last Saturday in September since Adam was a boy, so I was a bit stunned by that comment ... and also that they didn't actually ring someone at the AFL to make sure (as if they needed to!). This country league that usually has its fixture out in mid November. Couldn't they have assumed the traditional AFL GF date and got their fixtures done and then released it the same day as the AFL if there were no problems?

Football administrators are getting more and more unpredictable and most of the regional admin hubs in the bush haven't got a clue.
 
Let’s get this straight the AFL don’t give a F:ck what the supporters think about VFL,SANFL or WAFL the draw should put out a week after the AFL..
The AFL means this
Arrogant Fu:king Liars

The WAFL season is expected to start when the AFL is up to Round 5. That will help the two AFL clubs LOL.

The same issues will present themselves for the other state leagues as well.
 

  • Round 1 will align with the second round of the AFL (March 25)
  • 18 matches, and 4 byes (again)
  • Grand Final to be played on September 24
  • Introduction of the wild card round, which will basically expand finals qualification from 8 teams to 10 teams.

The 2023 VFL Finals will be as follows:

Wild Card Round:
(August 26 - 27)
7th vs 10th
8th vs 9th

Qualifying and Elimination Finals:
(September 2 - 3)
First Qualifying Final: 1st vs 4th
Second Qualifying Final: 2nd vs 3rd
First Elimination Final: 5th vs lower ranked wild card winner
Second Elimination Final: 6th vs highest ranked wild card winner

Semi Finals:
(September 9 - 10)
First Semi Final: Loser of first qualifying final vs winner of first elimination final
Second Semi Final: Loser of second qualifying final vs winner of second elimination final

Preliminary Finals:
(September 16 - 17)
First Preliminary Final: Winner of first qualifying final vs winner of second semi final
Second Preliminary Final: Winner of second qualifying final vs winner of first semi final

Grand Final
(Sunday, September 24)
winner of first preliminary final vs winner of second preliminary final
 
Why do they call them wildcard rounds rather than just saying the top 10 make finals? Its not like we have different divisions like the US leagues.
It's how you expand a top eight finals system without actually expanding the top eight finals system
 
Sigh. Another year of screwing it up.

Should start same round as the AFL. Play 20 games (play everyone once), three byes if they insist on this "wildcard round".
 

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VFL 2023 - GOLD COAST SUNS WIN THE PREMIERSHIP

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