The AFL’s decision to name the new east coast reserves competition the Victorian Football League has raised eyebrows around the country.
The league is set to serve as the reserves for all 14 east coast AFL sides, as well as VFL stalwarts Sandringham, aligned with St Kilda, Box Hill, aligned with Hawthorn, Casey, aligned with Melbourne, Coburg, Frankston, Port Melbourne, Werribee, Williamstown and the Northern Bullants, who are no longer aligned with Carlton.
Rounding out the league is NEAFL sides Aspley and Southport.
GWS, Sydney, Brisbane and Gold Coast, who are four of the six non-Victorian teams joining the competition, took to Twitter on Tuesday to voice their bemusement at the call.
Port Adelaide premiership midfielder Kane Cornes was similarly baffled by the decision, saying it sums up the league’s Victorian-centric bias.
“We’ve had a crack at the AFL, in brackets VFL, over the last couple of days about the lack of travel for the Victorian sides,” Cornes told SEN SA Breakfast.
“In the pre-season competition there’s only two Victorian sides that are travelling and the heavy lifting is going to the interstate teams of course.
“I’ve had a crack at the AFL, in brackets VFL, because they didn’t change the restrictions on the other clubs even though West Coast and Fremantle were disadvantaged by only being able to trade one hour per day.
“If that was in Melbourne, they would have changed it for everyone.
“But this is next level. On Monday, the AFL announced that the 2021 east coast reserves season is set to begin on April the 17th.
“It’s going to see state league footy return to Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales after the 2020 season was affected by COVID of course.
“Despite the involvement of six teams (from outside Victoria), six out of 22, the AFL has announced that the competition will be known as the Victorian Football League. The VFL.
“So the season will feature 22 clubs, it’ll be a 16-game season across 19 rounds. The six teams that are not Victorian teams, Aspley, Southport – a famous football club and highly successful in Queensland, Brisbane Lions, Gold Coast, GWS Giants and Sydney are the six teams.
“Of all the names they could have named the competition, there’s six out of 22 outside of Victoria and they’ve named it the VFL.
“Is that the most backwards announcement that the AFL’s ever done in recent times? How do they get away with this?
“We’re not going to go to war over it, but it’s remarkable how VFL centric the AFL still is.”
The ‘VFL’ will get underway on April 17th, with all clubs now in pre-season training.
GWS, Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sydney are very excited to be playing in the "Victorian Football League" in 2021. 😂 pic.twitter.com/PKpMhsUV36
— SEN 1116 (@1116sen) February 2, 2021