2008 VFL season explained

Competition:	vfl
Year:	2008
Caption:	Current VFA/VFL logo, former VFL/AFL logo
Teams:	14
Premiers:	North Ballarat
Count:	1
Minor Premiers:	Port Melbourne
Mpcount:	18
Matches:	149
Top Goal Scorer:	Nick Sautner (Sandringham)
Prevseason:	2007
Nextseason:	2009

The 2008 Victorian Football League (VFL) was a semi-professional Australian Rules Football competition featuring thirteen teams from Victoria and one team from Tasmania.

It was the 127th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the North Ballarat Football Club, who defeated Port Melbourne by 45 points in the Grand Final on 26 September. It was the first VFL premiership in North Ballarat's history.

League membership and affiliations

Prior to the 2008 season, there were several changes to the VFL-AFL reserves affiliations:^[1]

ended its seven-year affiliation with Williamstown, and began fielding its own reserves team in the VFL, having previously done so in the 2000 season.
ended its eight-year affiliation with Werribee, and entered a new affiliation with Williamstown.
ended its two-year partial affiliation with Tasmania. Unlike many other VFL/AFL affiliations, which had strengthed their VFL clubs, the North Melbourne–Tasmania alignment had been very unpopular amongst Tasmanian fans, and significantly harmed the VFL club's standing within the state.^[2] Tasmania continued to contest the VFL as a stand-alone senior club, and and entered a new partial affiliation with Werribee. North Melbourne's other partial affiliation with North Ballarat was unchanged.

As a result, the size of the VFL increased to fourteen teams: nine VFL-AFL affiliations, two AFL reserves teams and three stand-alone VFL clubs.

VFL–AFL alignments

Bendigo Bombers
Box Hill Hawks
Casey Scorpions	Melbourne
Coburg Tigers	Richmond
Collingwood	Collingwood
Frankston
Geelong	Geelong
North Ballarat	North Melbourne
Northern Bullants	Carlton
Port Melbourne
Sandringham	St Kilda
Tasmania
Werribee	North Melbourne
Williamstown	Western Bulldogs

Ladder

Season Awards

Best and Fairest

The VFL Best and Fairest is awarded the J. J. Liston Trophy.

Rank	Player	Team	Votes

1	James Podsiadly	Werribee	16
=2	Peter Summers	Sandringham	15
=2	Brett Johnson	Williamstown	15
=4	Greg Tivendale	Coburg	14
=4	Brett Goodes	North Ballarat	14
=4	Paul Kennedy	Frankston	14

Leading Goalkickers

The VFL Leading Goalkicker at the end of the regular season is awarded the Jim 'Frosty' Miller Medal.The 2008 winner was Nick Sautner of the Sandringham Zebras.^[3]

Rank	Player	Team	No. Games	Total Goals

1	Nick Sautner	Sandringham	16	74
2	James Podsiadly	Werribee	20	73
3	Justin Berry	Frankston	20	50
4	Adrian Bonaddio	Port Melbourne	20	49
=5	Patrick Rose	Williamstown Seagulls	20	48
=5	Robin Nahas	Port Melbourne	20	48

Other

The Fothergill–Round Medal was won by Robin Nahas (Port Melbourne).^[4]
Williamstown won the reserves premiership. Williamstown 16.17 (113) defeated Box Hill 11.16 (82) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the Seniors First Preliminary Final on 20 September.^[5]

Notable events

The timing of the Grand Final was shifted to the Friday night immediately before the AFL Grand Final, after many years of having been played on the preceding Sunday, and also moved to a new venue at Telstra Dome. This shift in timing lasted only two seasons, before the game reverted to the Sunday before the AFL Grand Final.
Starting from this season, the TAC Cup Under 18s Grand Final was played as a curtain-raiser to the VFL Grand Final. The VFL Reserves Grand Final was shifted to the previous week, and was thereafter played as a curtain-raiser to one of the senior preliminary finals.

External links

Notes and References

Web site: History of the VFL 1877 - 2013. 31 July 2016. 29 October 2014. Fox Sports Pulse.
News: The Mercury. 15 April 2014. 31 July 2016. Dominic Baker reveals changing times in Tasmanian football. Brett Stubbs.
http://www.sportingpulse.com/assoc_page.cgi?client=1-118-0-0-0&sID=60264&news_task=DETAIL&articleID=6623352&sectionID=60264 Sautner Climbs Mountain Again
Web site: Fothergill-Round Medallists. 20 December 2014. 29 October 2014. Sportingpulse.
News: Herald Sun. Melbourne, VIC. Sport. 68. 22 September 2008.