Yeah, I wasn’t trying to say anything much by that. Just thought it was interesting and relevant. 
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The seconds’ team manager has just been promoted in his full-time job with Cricket Victoria.
Wonder if that has any impact.
Nice.
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Frankston have lost a few, disappointing to lose Josh Smith and Matt Johnson, both bookends despite being undersized. (local level, Langwarrin FNC, MPNFL)
I have high hopes for Lachie Riley who has left Frankston to go to Sandringham as well
The 2026 Smithy’s VFL season will commence the weekend of March 21-22, in line with Round 2 of the Toyota AFL Premiership Season.
The Smithy’s VFL campaign will feature 21 home and away rounds, with all 22 clubs to play 18 matches and have three byes.
The finals series will be played across five weeks, commencing with Wildcard Finals on the weekend of August 22-23. The Smithy’s VFL Grand Final is scheduled to be played on Sunday, September 20.
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left off “with those 3 byes to be timed to cause the maximum annoyance to any aligned AFL team possible”
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No VFL coverage this year from C7 (behind paywall)
https://x.com/superfooty/status/2016031174746112177?s=61&t=17l-wi7YICeEeetAuF5jow
so its just on the AFL app or is it totally gone?
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Don’t know, I can’t read the full article. Hopefully someone has access to it.
Channel 7 walks from VFL broadcast, creates 50-year first
Jon Ralph, Paul Amy
4–5 minutes
VFL clubs face a broadcasting crisis as Channel 7 prepares to walk away from covering the league, ending over five decades of free-to-air television tradition.
Channel 7 will walk away from broadcasting the VFL, leaving the state league without free-to-air television coverage for the first time in more than 50 years.
Clubs are bracing for the loss of Seven, which last year switched to calling games on Saturday nights at three rotating venues: Kinetic Stadium at Frankston, IKON Park and Whitten Oval.
Matches were shown in Victoria on secondary channel 7Mate but clubs have been told audiences were smaller than what they had been in the previous Sunday afternoon slot on the main channel.
The cost of broadcasting games with modest ratings was the key concern for Channel 7, which has been covering the league since 2015.
The state league will be off free-to-air for the first time in 50 years. Picture: Michael Klein
Despite discussions with the AFL over summer, Seven eventually decided broadcasting the VFL was not commercially viable.
The AFL is yet to make an official announcement but industry sources said on Tuesday the VFL and VFLW would be broadcast only on the AFL’s own app.
The league had welcomed the chance to show VFL in 2025 as part of the first year of a seven-season AFL broadcast rights deal. The Saturday night games allowed the network to produce football content every night of the week.
But with Fox Footy’s Super Saturday giving it exclusive rights to all Saturday AFL games in Victoria, Seven was always going to be challenged to draw big ratings for the state league competition.
Clubs say the TV coverage offered great exposure to the competition and helped them attract sponsors.
“It’s a great selling point for us – you’ll see your name on TV,’’ one club official said.
It also creates a point of difference between the VFL and strong suburban leagues.
Clubs were given the news at a meeting attended by top AFL officials Greg Swann and Laura Kane in December.
The club official said the prospect of Channel 7 dropping its coverage was “pretty bad for everyone involved in the VFL’’.
“It’s always been broadcast on terrestrial television. For it to be removed from terrestrial television after all these years wouldn’t be good,’’ he said.
He said the decision to go to 7pm on Saturdays had been a mistake, frustrating supporters by delaying the release of the draw, upsetting clubs that didn’t want to give up home games and producing disappointing ratings.
Fans won’t see the action on Channel 7. Picture: Michael Klein
Reigning premiers Werribee played before TV cameras just once during the season, against Casey Demons at Whitten Oval.
“The reality is, we didn’t rate. It was a ridiculous time slot,’’ the official said.
He said the AFL should “get creative’’ and look to offer the VFL to national broadcasters the ABC and SBS.
The ABC began covering the old VFA in 1987 after it was broadcast for many years on Channel 0/10.
With Ross Booth, Phil Cleary and Sam Kekovich in the ABC commentary box, matches gained a cult following on Saturday afternoons.
“I’ve said many times that Peter Gee and Ross Booth’s calls of VFA grand finals on ABC TV were as good as any AFL grand final calls the commercial stations have produced,’’ Cleary said in 2024 after the death of Booth.
The ABC’s coverage of the VFA-VFL ended after the 2014 season, when it told AFL Victoria it could not commit to the broadcast in 2015 and beyond.
Since 2022 every VFL game has been streamed live and shown on AFL.com.au and the VFL app.
VFL spokesman Sam Zito said this afternoon: “Broadcast arrangements for season 2026 are currently not finalised and will be announced ahead of the season. However, we can confirm all VFL and VFLW matches will again be broadcast live and free via AFL channels.”
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Thank you
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Note the different wording at the end: the VFL(W) livestreams and replays have never been “in” their apps, just linked to from it.
Except I just now looked in the AFL Live app, and it does attempt to embed last year’s videos in there. It fails, of course, because AwFuL code monkeys: you get audio only, you can’t scrub, and you need to force-quit the app because you lose the ability to navigate elsewhere in the app.
(Same videos currently play OK on their website.)
Back to Ch 0 like the old days
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They need to bring back a few of the old style VFL thugs, that is what got the audience.
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I’m sure the money Dills is spending on his current junket to India could have been used to ensure VFL footy was shown on free to air TV in 2026.
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Richmond have released their VFL practice matches which include a VFL game straight after our AFL practice match
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Bring back Saturday arvo VFL on ABC.
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