2018 VFL season
| 2018 VFL | |
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| Teams | 15 |
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← 2017
2019 →
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The 2018 Victorian Football League season will be the 137th season of the Victorian Football Association/Victorian Football League Australian rules football competition. The competition will run between April 2018 and September 2018.
There were several changes to the league's membership and alignments between the 2017 and 2018 seasons, with North Melbourne reserves joining the competition, Frankston rejoining, and North Ballarat departing, resulting in a total membership of 15.
The Frankston Football Club will return to the competition after a one-year hiatus. AFL Victoria had terminated the club's licence at the end of the 2016 season due to its unviable financial position, which saw it in administration owing more than $1,500,000. The club embarked on a campaign during 2017 to assure its long-term viability, which included signing up 1200 members and working to improve its relationship with the local leagues as a pathway for Mornington Peninsula footballers into state football. The club then applied for and was re-granted its VFL licence for the 2018 season.
At the end of 2017, the ten-year reserves affiliation between the AFL's North Melbourne Football Club and the VFL's Werribee Football Club came to an end. North Melbourne will enter its reserves team in the VFL seniors, the first time that team had competed in the competition. Werribee will continue to field a stand-alone senior team in the VFL.
After the 2017 home-and-away season had concluded, AFL Victoria suspended North Ballarat's playing licence. The club had endured two years of off-field instability since the termination of its partial reserves affiliation with AFL club North Melbourne. This had included: multiple changes of personnel at executive and board level; the compulsory acquisition of its home ground Eureka Stadium in early 2017; and difficulties in governance associated with the club's attentions being divided between its VFL team and the North Ballarat City team it operated in the Ballarat Football League. AFL Victoria determined that the club's governance had deteriorated to the point that it no longer met the minimum requirements for a VFL licence. The club's poor on-field performances – a combined win-loss record in 2016 and 2017 of 4–32 – was also a factor. The suspension brought to an end North Ballarat's 22-year association with the VFL, which included three premierships. Although the club will not contest the 2018 season, it will have the opportunity to reapply for its licence as Frankston had done; AFL Victoria maintains an interest in maintaining an ongoing VFL presence in Ballarat, although is not necessarily committed to North Ballarat providing that presence.
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