2010 VFL season

The 2010 VFL season was the 129th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), a second-tier Australian rules football competition played in the state of Victoria.^[1][2]

2010 VFL season
Teams	14
Premiers	North Ballarat 3rd premiership
Minor premiers	Williamstown 10th minor premiership
J. J. Liston Trophy	Steve Clifton (North Ballarat) Shane Valenti (Port Melbourne)
Leading goalkicker	Matthew Little (80)
← 2009 2011 →

The North Ballarat Football Club won the 2010 VFL Grand Final, recording its third premiership in a row.

Teams

This season featured the addition of the Queensland-based Gold Coast Football Club to the league, the first new club in the VFL since Tasmania entered in 2001. Gold Coast's participation in the VFL was as part of the club's preparation for its entry into the Australian Football League in 2011: the club had played one season of under-18s football in the TAC Cup in 2009, then was to play one season of state/reserves football in the VFL in 2010 before its AFL senior debut.

The VFL continued to serve as both the top state-level football league in Victoria, and as a reserves competition for Victorian-based clubs in the Australian Football League, as had been the case since 2000. The affiliation agreements between VFL and AFL clubs were unchanged from 2009.

Ladder

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	D	PF	PA	PP	Pts
1	Williamstown	18	15	3	0	2174	1312	165.7	60	Finals
2	North Ballarat (P)	18	15	3	0	1650	1260	131.0	60
3	Casey Scorpions	18	14	4	0	1619	1471	110.1	56
4	Port Melbourne	18	13	5	0	1946	1506	129.2	52
5	Box Hill Hawks	18	11	7	0	1663	1531	108.6	44
6	Northern Bullants	18	10	8	0	1814	1539	117.9	40
7	Collingwood	18	10	8	0	1672	1509	110.8	40
8	Bendigo Bombers	18	10	8	0	1564	1533	102.0	40
9	Sandringham	18	7	11	0	1366	1463	93.4	28
10	Gold Coast	18	5	12	1	1409	1706	82.6	22
11	Coburg Tigers	18	5	13	0	1502	1757	85.5	20
12	Geelong	18	5	13	0	1401	1743	80.4	20
13	Werribee	18	4	13	1	1586	1957	81.0	18
14	Frankston	18	1	17	0	1000	2079	48.1	4

Source: sportingpulse.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) percentage; 3) number of points for.
(P) Premiers

Finals

The preliminary finals and the reserves Grand Final were moved from TEAC Oval to Box Hill City Oval because heavy rain and frequent use during September had left TEAC Oval unplayable.^[3]

	Qualifying and elimination finals					Semi-finals						Preliminary finals					Grand final
	Aug 28, Box Hill City Oval
	1	Williamstown	19.15 (129)
	4	Port Melbourne	10.11 (71)			5 Sep, TEAC Oval
						Port Melbourne		12.17 (89)
	29 Aug, Box Hill City Oval					Box Hill Hawks		14.11 (95)				11 Sep, Box Hill City Oval
	5	Box Hill Hawks	20.16 (136)									Williamstown		11.12 (78)
	8	Bendigo Bombers	10.11 (71)									Northern Bullants		16.8 (104)			19 Sep, Etihad Stadium
																	North Ballarat		20.13 (133)
	28 Aug, TEAC Oval											12 Sep, Box Hill City Oval					Northern Bullants		13.8 (86)
	6	Northern Bullants	15.18 (108)									North Ballarat		16.18 (114)
	7	Collingwood	8.9 (57)			4 Sep, TEAC Oval						Box Hill Hawks		6.17 (53)
						Casey Scorpions		9.6 (60)
	29 Aug, TEAC Oval					Northern Bullants		10.11 (71)
	2	North Ballarat	18.8 (116)
	3	Casey Scorpions	13.6 (84)

Grand Final

	2010 VFL Grand Final
Sunday 19 September (2:15 pm)	North Ballarat	def.	Northern Bullants	Etihad Stadium (crowd: 11,000)	[4]
	6.5 (41) 10.9 (69) 14.9 (93) 20.13 (133)	Q1 Q2 Q3 Final	1.1 (7) 5.3 (33) 10.5 (65) 13.8 (86)	Norm Goss Memorial Medal: Myles Sewell (North Ballarat)
Hale 3, Jones 3, J. Smith 3, Dinnell 2, Driscoll 2, Feery, Harding, Micallef, Norris, I. Smith, Stephenson, White		Goals	Fisher 4, Ellard 2, Jacobs 2, Iacobucci, McCorkell, Neaves, Thomas, Tuohy

Awards

• The J. J. Liston Trophy was jointly won by Steve Clifton (North Ballarat) and Shane Valenti (Port Melbourne), who each polled 20 votes. Ed Curnow (Box Hill) finished third on 13 votes, despite breaking his leg in Round 13 and missing the remainder of the season.^[3]
• The Frosty Miller Medal was won by Matthew Little (Williamstown), who kicked 80 goals for the season.
• The Fothergill–Round Medal was won by Michael Hibberd (Frankston)
• The top three teams after the finals – North Ballarat, Northern Bullants and Williamstown – qualified for the 2011 Foxtel Cup.
• Box Hill won the reserves premiership. Box Hill 17.20 (122) defeated Williamstown 16.9 (105) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the Seniors First Preliminary Final on 11 September.^[4]

2010 VFL Team of the Year^[5]

B:	Michael Stockdale (Casey)	Peter Faulks (Williamstown)	Adam Iacobucci (Northern Bullants)
HB:	Michael Hibberd (Frankston)	Sam Pleming (Port Melbourne)	Cameron Richardson (North Ballarat)
C:	Ben Davies (Williamstown)	Brett Johnson (Williamstown)	Sam Power (Coburg Tigers)
HF:	David Swallow (Gold Coast)	Callum Sinclair (Port Melbourne)	Steve Clifton (North Ballarat)
F:	Zac Smith (Gold Coast)	Matthew Little (Williamstown)	Shane Valenti (Port Melbourne)
Foll:	Orren Stephenson (North Ballarat)	Myles Sewell (North Ballarat)	Ed Curnow (Box Hill)
Int:	Russell Gabriel (Frankston)	Dom Gleeson (Werribee)	James Wall (Casey)
	Toby Pinwill (Port Melbourne)	Jonothan Simpkin (Geelong)	Ben Jolley (Williamstown)
Coach:	Gerard FitzGerald (North Ballarat)

Notable events

• For the second consecutive season, Bendigo was not permitted to use its home ground Queen Elizabeth Oval after May due to an unfit surface.^[6] The club's remaining home matches were played at either Windy Hill or Strathfieldsaye Oval.^[7]

See also

• List of VFA/VFL premiers
• Australian rules football
• Victorian Football League
• Australian Football League
• 2010 AFL season