Formation In
1919, a new football competition known as the
Victorian Junior Football League (
VJFL) was established – at this time, junior was the term used for open age football of a lower standard than senior football, rather than for under age football. The league was intended to bring a junior club affiliated with each of the
Victorian Football League (VFL) senior clubs into a single competition, and to adopt the same
district eligibility scheme which the VFL had introduced in 1916. Player permit rules allowed for automatic transfers between the junior and senior clubs until July, allowing the juniors to serve as second eighteens for the seniors. The junior and senior clubs shared a home ground, with the juniors playing home when the seniors played away. For the
inaugural season, four existing junior clubs – the Fitzroy Juniors,
Collingwood District (also known as
Collingwood Juniors) and Leopold (affiliated with ) and
Caulfield (affiliated with ) – initially crossed to the new league from the Metropolitan Amateur Association; West Melbourne was affiliated with ; and new junior clubs were formed in Carlton, Richmond and St Kilda. Shortly before the season, Caulfield withdrew, and a second University team was quickly arranged to take its place for the
1919 season. The two University teams were known as University A and University B, later becoming the modern day 'University Blues' and 'University Blacks'. University B contested only the 1919 season, with a Melbourne Juniors team established for 1920; University A contested the 1919 and 1920 seasons, reaching the
grand final both years before dropping out.
West Melbourne faced multiple heavy losses in
1920, including a 197-point loss against
Carlton District and a 229-point loss against
St Kilda District. The club left the competition at the end of the season, and were replaced by .
Name change In
1925, the VJFL was renamed as the
VFL seconds, later known more commonly as the
VFL reserves. Following the change, the seconds clubs still operated as distinct stand-alone clubs at this time, rather than coming directly under the influence of their senior clubs. This changed over the following decades, with all of the seconds teams gradually being subsumed by their senior counterparts. won the 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934 and 1935 premierships - the only time in VFL/AFL history (seniors or reserves) that a club has won five grand finals in a row. Local players were primarily recruited via the league's
metropolitan and country zoning rules, and the clubs had full ability to develop its players through its Under-19s and reserves teams: the same basic structure was also used consistently in the other two elite leagues, the
South Australian National Football League (SANFL) and the
West Australian Football League (WAFL).
VSFL era History was made in
1991, with the
Brisbane Bears winning the reserves premiership − the first non-Victorian club to win a VFL/AFL premiership in any grade. The
Victorian State Football League was established at the end of 1991 to take over administration of football in
Victoria from the
Australian Football League, which was now becoming preoccupied with administration of the game nationally. The
VSFL ran the AFL reserves competition from
1992 until
1999, which was also referred as the VSFL in its first few years. At the end of 1994, the VSFL also took over administration of the
Victorian Football Association (VFA) competition (which was renamed the
Victorian Football League in 1996).
Amalgamation with the VFL Following the
1999 season, the AFL reserves was merged into the
Victorian Football League. Such a merger had first been proposed as early as
1980, and a formal attempt to enact the merger for the 1995 season was defeated after strong opposition from the clubs. ==Clubs==