The2003 VFL season was the 122nd season of theVictorian Football League (VFL), a second-tierAustralian rules football competition played in the states ofVictoria andTasmania.^[1][2]

Williamstown won thepremiership for the 13th time, after defeatingBox Hill by 29 points in the2003 VFL Grand Final.^[3]

There were several changes to theVFL–AFL reserves affiliations prior to the 2003 season:^[4]

• Sydney, which had been partially affiliated withPort Melbourne, withdrew from having any connection with the VFL, instead electing to field a stand-alone reserves team in theAFL Canberra competition.^[5] Sydney broke off the affiliation with one year left on the contract, prompting a lawsuit from Port Melbourne.^[6]
• TheKangaroos, after spending the previous three years using theMurray Kangaroos as its VFL-affiliate, became affiliated with Port Melbourne. The Murray Kangaroos club, which had been a joint venture operation between the Kangaroos and theOvens & Murray Football League, dropped out of the VFL and folded.
• Carlton, which had been fielding itsreserves team in the VFL, became affiliated with theNorthern Bullants. The Carlton reserves withdrew from the VFL.
• Essendon, which had been fielding itsreserves team in the VFL, became affiliated withBendigo. Under the affiliation, Bendigo adopted Essendon's black and red guernsey, and changed its nickname fromDiggers toBombers. The Essendon reserves withdrew from the VFL.

As a result of the changes, the VFL was reduced from sixteen teams to thirteen.Geelong was now the only one of the ten Victorian AFL clubs left fielding its own reserves team in the VFL, with nine clubs in VFL-AFL affiliations.

• TheJim 'Frosty' Miller Medal was won for a record fifth consecutive year byNick Sautner (Northern Bullants), who kicked 82 goals.^[8]
• TheJ. J. Liston Trophy was won by David Robbins (Sandringham), who polled 16 votes. It was Robbins' second Liston Trophy, having previously won the award in 2000. Robbins finished ahead ofStephen Jurica (North Ballarat), who finished second with 15 votes, andJordan Doering (Tasmania) andAdrian Fletcher (Williamstown), who were equal third with 14 votes.Jeremy Clayton (Port Melbourne) polled the most votes with 20, but was ineligible to win the award due to suspension.^[9]
• TheFothergill–Round Medal was won byAaron Davey (Port Melbourne).^[10]
• Williamstown won the reserves premiership. Williamstown 20.15 (135) defeated theNorthern Bullants 12.11 (83) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the Seniors Grand Final on 21 September.^[11]

• The VFL granted a favourable fixture to the three stand-alone VFL clubs,Tasmania,North Ballarat andFrankston to try to assist them financially. The clubs were given extra home games (Tasmania had twelve home games for the year, and North Ballarat and Frankston had ten) and they were given extra Sunday matches to avoid clashes with the local competitions which were still mainly played on Saturdays.^[12]

• List of VFA/VFL premiers
• Australian Rules Football
• Victorian Football League
• Australian Football League
• 2003 AFL season

• Victorian Football League seasons
• 2003 in Australian rules football

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from December 2017
• Use Australian English from December 2017
• All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from November 2025