The VAFA has announced the fixture calendar for the 2024 season, highlighted by the William Buck Premier Men’s Grand Final moving to Friday, September 27 – the public holiday on the eve of the AFL Grand Final, at Elsternwick Park.

The Holmesglen Under 19 Men’s and Thirds Men’s sections will begin the season on Saturday, April 6, a week ahead of the rest of the competition.

Both these changes will assist the competition to achieve a greater spread of finals matches at premium venues and at traditional and preferred time slots.

Regrading for all Under 19 Men’s and Thirds Men’s sections (along with Women’s sections) will now occur after Round 4, which should lead to less re-fixtures being required as a result of team movements.

All other senior sections across both the men’s and women’s competitions will begin on Saturday, April 13.

After much consideration and in consultation with clubs, the double bye in July has been re-introduced for William Buck Premier Men’s (as well as Premier B & C Men’s), all Holmesglen Under 19 Men’s competitions and William Buck Premier Women’s, in order to reduce the number of forfeits during a period where forfeit numbers are traditionally high.

This second bye round has been placed the week after the VAFA’s representative football matches against the Perth Football League for both the Men’s and Women’s, scheduled for Saturday, July 6 in Western Australia.

A further bye for William Buck Premier Men’s falls on August 17, to extend their home and away season and ensure there’s no overlapping with other premium VAFA Grand Finals.

This strategic move aims to attract larger crowds and greater media attention with the aim of elevating the VAFA to an even higher level of prominence within the community.  In 2022, the Premier C Men’s  Grand Final between the Monash Blues and Old Geelong was played on the Grand Final eve Friday.

On the decision to schedule the Premier Men’s Grand Final this way, CEO Jason Reddick told VAFA Media, “This is an exciting initiative that we have had on the radar of the Presidents of the Premier Clubs for over 12 months now. Their support for the day was subject to the return of the double bye mid-year, so we are pleased to be able to accommodate that request.

“Our expectations are that playing our Grand Final on the public holiday when no other football is occurring, will enable us to showcase our Premier Men’s competition to an even wider audience.”

William Buck Premier Women’s will remain at 18 rounds in season 2024 in order to continue to elevate it as the premium women’s community football competition in the country and to align closely with the William Buck Premier Men’s competition.

All other women’s competitions will be 16 rounds based on the qualitative feedback received from the VAFA Women’s Football Strategy Survey. An announcement on the VAFA Women’s Football Strategy and the 2024 Women’s Competition Structure will be made in early November.

We have had strong interest from Club’s entering more teams into our expanding Mecwacare Masters competition, therefore fixture dates for that competition will be reviewed once team entries are finalised in early 2024.

Fixtures for the 2024 season will be released from late November onwards, following consultation from clubs.

Download the 2024 VAFA Fixture Calendar PDF