2009 VFL season

League membership and affiliations

• ended its nine-year affiliation with Sandringham and entered a new affiliation with the Casey Scorpions.
• ended its eight-year affiliation with the Casey Scorpions and entered a new affiliation with Sandringham.

Ladder

Finals series

Awards

• The Jim 'Frosty' Miller Medal was won by Nick Sautner for the ninth time in his career. Sautner kicked 71 goals for the season.
• The J. J. Liston Trophy was by Myles Sewell, who polled 18 votes. Sewell finished ahead of Michael Barlow, who was second with 16 votes, and James Podsiadly and Sam Iles, who were equal third with 15 votes.
• The Fothergill-Round Medal was won by Michael Barlow.
• Box Hill won the reserves premiership. Box Hill 16.18 defeated Sandringham 13.6 in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors second preliminary final on 20 September.

  Notable events

• The Bendigo Bombers could not play at their home ground Queen Elizabeth Oval after May because the surface was deemed unfit for VFL football. Bendigo's remaining home games were transferred to Windy Hill, the training ground of its AFL-affiliate.
• The VFL introduced the "23rd man rule". Under the rule, the size of the playing squad was increased to twenty-three, provided the 23rd player was a top-age player currently in the TAC Cup, or an undrafted player who had played in the TAC Cup during the previous year. The rule was designed to provide additional senior football opportunities to promising juniors, and improve the alignments between VFL clubs and their TAC Cup affiliates.