2016 VFL season

At the end of the 2015 season, ended its ten-year partial reserves affiliation with North Ballarat. The move was in part motivated by a burgeoning partnership between the City of Ballarat and North Melbourne's AFL rivals , with North Melbourne not wishing to continue its investment in the Ballarat area if the rewards were to be reaped by another club. North Melbourne's existing partial affiliation with Werribee was upgraded to a full affiliation, and North Ballarat continued to contest the VFL as a stand-alone senior club. Beginning in 2016, a new statewide women's football league known as VFL Women's (VFLW) was established by AFL Victoria. The competition was formed from clubs previously established in the Victorian Women's Football League, and was aligned and co-branded with the VFL to improve market penetration. ==Home-and-away season==

Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 6 Round 7 Round 8 Round 9 Round 10 Round 11 Round 12 Round 13 Round 14 Round 15 Round 16 Round 17 Round 18 Round 19 Round 20 Round 21 ==Ladder==

Qualifying and elimination finals Semi-finals Preliminary finals Grand Final ==Awards==

• The Frosty Miller Medal was won by Ahmed Saad (Coburg), who kicked 49 goals during the home-and-away season. • The J. J. Liston Trophy was won by Michael Gibbons (Williamstown), who polled 17 votes. George Horlin-Smith (Geelong reserves) finished second with 15 votes, and Ben Jolley (Williamstown) and Toby Pinwill (Port Melbourne) were equal third with 14 votes. • The Fothergill–Round Medal was won by Luke Ryan (Coburg). ==Notable events==

• In August, the Frankston Football Club, struggling with debts in excess of $1,000,000 and a downturn in the profitability of its poker machine licence, went into voluntary administration. The club's VFL licence was terminated the following month, in the week after the VFL Grand Final, resulting in the club missing the 2017 season before being readmitted in 2018 after resolving its financial issues. == See also ==