2000 VFL season
Date	16 March – 27 August 2000
Teams	18
Premiers	Sandringham 7th premiership
Runners-up	North Ballarat 2nd runners-up result
Minor premiers	Sandringham 5th minor premiership
J. J. Liston Trophy	David Robbins (Springvale – 21 votes)
Frosty Miller Medallist	Nick Sautner (Sandringham – 60 goals)
← 1999 2001 →

The2000 VFL season was the 119th season of theVictorian Football League (VFL), a second-tierAustralian rules football competition played in the state ofVictoria.^[1] The season began on 16 March and concluded on 27 August, comprising a 19-match home-and-away season, followed by a four-weekfinals series.^[2]

Sandringham won the premiership for the seventh time, defeatingNorth Ballarat by 31 points in the2000 VFL Grand Final.^[3]

The league underwent significant changes for the 2000 season, being merged with theAustralian Football League (AFL)reserves competition. Since this season, the VFL has served as a state-level senior competition in whichreserves players and reserves teams from most AFL clubs compete.

TheVictorian State Football League (VFSL) had operated two open-age senior competitions during the 1990s: the VFL, which it took control of in1995, and theAFL reserves, which it had operated since1992. The AFL Reserves competition was contested by thereserves teams of elevenAustralian Football League clubs: those of the ten Victorian clubs and that of theSydney Swans. The VSFL had intended to merge the two into a single competition which would serve as an AFL reserves competition, a state-level senior competition and a development pathway from the 1995 season; however there was such significant opposition from the AFL clubs against abolishing their dedicated reserves competition that they had threatened to use their power to sack theAFL Commission over the changes.^[4]
Consequently, the two competitions had run in parallel between 1995 and 1999.

Prior to the 1998 season, the AFL again announced plans to amalgamate the VFL and the AFL reserves into a single competition, giving the clubs two years to make arrangements before the combined competition was to begin from the 2000 season. Although most of the AFL clubs were still opposed to the changes, on this occasion they accepted them.^[5]

Under the new arrangement, AFL clubs were given two options: they could continue to operate their own reserves teams, fielding them in the VFL; or, they could enter areserves affiliation with one or more existing VFL clubs. Under the affiliation structure, listed players who were not selected in the senior AFL team would be made available to play for their affiliated VFL club; the VFL club would then make up the balance of the team from its own playing list.

Under the new arrangement, four AFL clubs entered into affiliations with existing VFL clubs. These were:^[6][7]

• Hawthorn affiliated with fellow eastern suburban clubBox Hill. Box Hill immediately co-branded with Hawthorn, changing its nickname from the Mustangs to the Hawks.
• Western Bulldogs affiliated with fellow western suburban clubsWerribee andWilliamstown, with half of its players allocated to each VFL club.
• Melbourne affiliated withSandringham.
• Sydney entered a partial affiliation withPort Melbourne, the club with which it had shared a zone when it was based in South Melbourne. No more than six of Sydney's reserves players played for Port Melbourne; the rest played for a dedicated Sydney reserves team in theSydney AFL competition.

A fifth affiliation was established with the creation of a new club, theMurray Kangaroos. The Murray Kangaroos was operated in partnership between theNorth Melbourne Football Club and theOvens & Murray Football League, and was based at bothCoburg City Oval in Melbourne and theLavington Sports Ground in Albury.^{[citation needed]} The Murray Kangaroos were affiliated with theMurray Bushrangers from theTAC Cup under-18s competition, which served to complete the VSFL's original vision that all twelve Victorian TAC Cup clubs would be affiliated with a VFL club.^[8]

This left six Victorian AFL clubs, all of which entered their reserves teams directly into the VFL. These were:Carlton,Collingwood,Essendon,Geelong,Richmond andSt Kilda.

After four years, the merger betweenPreston Bullants senior club and theNorthern Knights TAC Cup club was terminated, and the two clubs returned to being separate entities. The senior club, which had competed as the Preston Knights since 1996, became known as theNorthern Bullants, and it returned to the red and white colours that it had worn prior to 1996.^[9]

With the increased size of the league, the finals were expanded from five clubs to eight clubs. The VFL adopted the samefinal eight system which was adopted by the AFL in the same season, replacing the McIntyre Final Five which had been in use since 1989.

The Victorian State Football League was superseded by a newly established body,Football Victoria, which administered the league.

As a result of this large suite of changes, the size of the VFL grew from eleven to eighteen clubs, the largest it had been since 1987. The size of the competition during the 2000 season set a new record as the largest to contest the premiership in a single division in VFA/VFL history, a mark which stood until 2021. The clubs were:

• TheJim 'Frosty' Miller Medal was won for the second consecutive year byNick Sautner (Sandringham), who kicked 60 goals.^[11]
• TheJ. J. Liston Trophy was won by David Robbins (Springvale), who polled 23 votes.^[12]
• TheFothergill–Round Medal was won by Michael Swan (Port Melbourne).^[13]
• Sandringham won the reserves premiership. Sandringham 17.15 (117) defeatedPort Melbourne 11.7 (73) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the Seniors Grand Final on 27 August.^[10]

• The VFL established a second television deal during the 2000 season, with one match played each Monday night and broadcast live on theSeven Network's subscription television channelC7 Sport, in addition to the long-standing weekly Saturday afternoon broadcasts onABC Victoria.^[7] The Monday night fixture was short-lived, and did not survive beyond the 2000 season.^[14]
• With the disuse ofWaverley Park forAustralian Football League games following the opening ofDocklands Stadium, Waverley Park became available for VFA/VFL football for the first and only time in its history.Springvale, located only a few kilometres away, played all but its first home game of the season at the ground,^[15] and all Monday night games were played at the ground, as well as a few other isolated games and the Grand Final.^[16] The Grand Final was the last game of competitive football played onWaverley Park before it was sold to developers.^[10]
• Bendigo's six point win againstMurray in Round 17 was its final ever win as a stand-alone VFL club. Its remaining 78 games as a stand-alone club (spanning seasons 2000–2002 and 2013–2014 and excluding the period of itsreserves affiliation withEssendon) yielded one draw and 77 losses.^{[14][16][17][18][19]}
• As with other major football leagues, the 2000 season was played a month earlier than usual, to ensure it was finished before the2000 Sydney Olympics, which began on 15 September.

• 2000 AFL season

• Victorian Football League seasons
• 2000 in Australian rules football

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