The 2017 VFL season was the 136th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), a second-tier Australian rules football competition played in the state of Victoria. The competition began on 8 April and concluded with the grand final on 24 September 2017.
At the end of the 2016 season, AFL Victoria terminated the licence of the Frankston Football Club due to its financial position, which was no longer considered viable. The club had suffered a severe downturn in the profitability of its pokies licence over the previous few years, and by 2016 the machines were generating a loss for the club.[1] The club terminated the pokies licence in May 2016, but by that time owed more than $1,500,000, both to the state gaming regulators and other creditors. The club went into voluntary administration in August,[2] and the club's VFL licence was terminated the following month, in the week after the VFL Grand Final.[3][4] The club's immediate existence was saved when creditors, including the gaming regulators, agreed to waive more than 90% of the club's debt, and it came out of administration in late November 2016, but was still excluded from the 2017 season.[5] The club then embarked on a campaign 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 applied for and was re-granted its VFL licence for the 2018 season, meaning it missed only one season of football.[6]
There had been an expectation over the previous few years that the Australian Football League's St Kilda Football Club would terminate its reserves affiliation with Sandringham at the end of the 2015 VFL season, with a plan for both clubs would go their separate ways in 2016.[7][8] This led to Sandringham establishing a partnership with Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) club Hampton Rovers.[9] The affiliation with St Kilda was temporarily extended for the 2016 VFL season.[10][11] However, after renegotiations throughout 2016, a new rolling affiliation deal with no fixed term was signed, to begin in 2017.[12] The new deal changed the nature of the affiliation, expanding St Kilda's involvement in Sandringham's operation − including removing a stipulation from the previous agreement that no more than 14 St Kilda-listed players could play in Sandringham's senior team in any given match and Sandringham playing three games per year in St Kilda colours (beginning in 2018) at Moorabbin Oval, St Kilda's former home ground.[13][14]
The Casey Scorpions were renamed the Casey Demons, to co-brand the club with its AFL-affiliate, Melbourne. The club changed its guernsey design to match that of the Melbourne Football Club.[15][16]
The beginning of the third quarter of the match between Geelong and Box Hill was delayed by almost half an hour after a public address malfunction at Simonds Stadium resulted in the siren sounding continuously for fifteen minutes.[17]
In a close conclusion to the Grand Final, Richmond took a 13 point lead at the 20 minute mark of the final quarter, before Port Melbourne kicked three goals in time on to take a five-point lead. Richmond's Ben Lennon then had an opportunity to kick for goal after the final siren from a mark 52 metres out directly in front, but he missed to the right side.[18]
The last ever Development League premiership before the reserves competition was wound up at the end of the 2017 season was won by Casey. Casey 13.16 (94) defeated Williamstown 11.16 (82) in the Grand Final, played at Fortburn Stadium on 17 September as a curtain-raiser to the seniors first preliminary final.[21]
Notable events
Werribee's home ground, Avalon Airport Oval, was unavailable throughout the 2017 season as it was being upgraded. Rather than setting up a permanent alternative, the club played all nine of its home games at different venues, in Torquay, North Melbourne, Wangaratta, Carlton, Docklands, Frankston, Craigieburn, Hoppers Crossing and Footscray.[22]
After a successful two-year contract, a new two-year broadcast deal covering the 2017 and 2018 seasons was signed between the VFL and Seven Network.[22]
Eventual premiers Port Melbourne fell on financial hardships prior to the 2017 season, and the entire playing and coaching list forwent match payments in the club's Round 1 match.[23]
North Ballarat's home ground, Eureka Stadium, underwent a change in management at the start of the season when the entire precinct was compulsorily acquired by the City of Ballarat. The arena and part of the outer was already crown land, with the rest being owned on freehold title by the football club; but the council acquired the entire precinct as it needed to be upgraded for an Australian Football League game in August – the first ever to be staged at the venue – and the council did not have faith that the North Ballarat Football Club board, which had recently undergone a significant and unstable period of change, would be able to manage the works. The club received $5.5M in compensation for the acquisition and an interim lease to use the ground in the 2017 VFL season.[24] These issues formed part of the off-field instability which saw the club's VFL licence terminated at the end of the season.
Ron Todd, the prolific key forward who played for Collingwood in the VFL in the 1930s and Williamstown in the VFA in the 1940s, was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame. He was only the second player who played the majority of his career in the VFA post-1897 to be inducted.[25]
^Gallagher, Breanna (5 December 2013). "Saints and Sandy re-align". St Kilda Football Club. Archived from the original on 17 December 2024. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
