| YEAR | DESCRIPTION | TEAMS |
| 1877 | Nine teams commence the Victorian Football Association (VFA): Albert Park, Carlton (Blues), East Melbourne, Essendon, Geelong (Pivotonians), Hotham, Melbourne (Redlegs or Reds), St Kilda (Saints) and West Melbourne. | 9 |
| 1878 | East Melbourne leave the VFA. | 8 |
| 1879 | East Melbourne return, and the South Melbourne (Southerners) enter. | 10 |
| 1880 | St Kilda leaves the VFA. Albert Park has difficulties and merges into South Melbourne. | 8 |
| 1881 | St Kilda return after the one year hiatus. | 8 |
| West Melbourne leave the VFA. | ||
| 1882 | East Melbourne leave the VFA. | 7 |
| 1883 | St Kilda leave the VFA again. | 6 |
| 1884 | Fitzroy (Maroons) and Williamstown (Villagers, later Seagulls) both enter the VFA. | 8 |
| 1885 | Richmond (Tigers) and University (Students) enter the VFA. | 10 |
| 1886 | St Kilda returns, and Footscray (Imperials), Prahran, Port Melbourne (Ports, Portonians, Borough) and South Williamstown all enter. | 15 |
| 1887 | Ballarat, Ballarat Imperial and South Ballarat all enter the VFA. They played regular season games against the fifteen Melbourne teams but were ineligible for the premiership. | 18 |
| 1888 | Prahran merges into St Kilda, and South Williamstown and merges into Williamstown. | 16 |
| Hotham is renamed North Melbourne (Shinboners). | ||
| 1889 | University leaves the VFA. The three Ballarat-based teams also cease to be fully associated with the VFA; senior clubs continued to play matches against them, but they did not count towards the premiership. | 12 |
| 1892 | Collingwood (Magpies) enter the VFA. | 13 |
| 1897 | Brunswick (Pottery Workers, later Magpies) enter the VFA. | 6 |
| Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Melbourne, South Melbourne and St Kilda all leave to found the VFL. | ||
| Footscray change their name from Imperials to Tricolours around this time. | ||
| 1899 | Prahran Two Blues and West Melbourne enter the VFA. | 8 |
| 1900 | Essendon Town Dreadnaughts enter the VFA. | 9 |
| 1901 | Essendon Town Dreadnaughts become Essendon Association Dreadnaughts. | 9 |
| 1903 | Preston Bullants enter the VFA. | 10 |
| 1908 | Brighton Penguins and Northcote (Brickfielders , later Dragons) enter the VFA. | 10 |
| Richmond leaves in favour of the VFL. West Melbourne is kicked out of the VFA. | ||
| c1909 | Brunswick Pottery Workers become Brunswick Magpies. | 10 |
| 1912 | Melbourne City Citizens enter the VFA. | 11 |
| 1913 | Preston leave the VFA.** | 10 |
| 1914 | Hawthorn Mayblooms enter the VFA. | 10 |
| Melbourne City leaves the VFA. | ||
| 1916 | The VFA ceases to exist during the height of World War One. | 0 |
| 1918 | The VFA recommences with six of the ten teams it left with: Brunswick, Footscray, North Melbourne, Northcote, Prahran and Port Melbourne. | 6 |
| 1919 | The other four teams: Brighton, Essendon Association, Hawthorn and Williamstown, re-enter. | 10 |
| 1922 | Geelong Association enters the VFA. | 10 |
| Essendon Association merge into North Melbourne. | ||
| 1925 | Coburg Lions enter the VFA. | 8 |
| Footscray, Hawthorn and North Melbourne all leave the VFA in favour of the VFL. | ||
| 1926 | Preston re-enter the VFA, and the Camberwell Tricolours enter. | 10 |
| 1927 | Yarraville Villains enter the VFA. | 10 |
| Geelong Association leave the VFA. | ||
| 1929 | The Oakleigh Purple and Golds and Sandringham Zebras enter the VFA. | 12 |
| 1942 | The VFA again ceases operations during the world war. | 0 |
| 1945 | VFA recommences with all teams. | 12 |
| 1949 | Yarraville Villains change their name to Yarraville Eagles. | 12 |
| 1951 | Box Hill White Horses and Moorabbin Kangaroos enter the VFA. | 14 |
| 1957 | Mordialloc Bloodhounds enter the VFA. | 15 |
| 1958 | Dandenong Dandies enter the VFA. (Their official name was the Dandies, however they were always called the Redlegs) | 16 |
| 1959 | Sunshine Crows enter the VFA. | 16 |
| Prahran Two Blues leave the VFA. | ||
| 1960 | Prahran Two Blues re-enter after one year. | 17 |
| 1961 | Keen to expand, the VFA adopts a multi-division system including relegation and promotion. | 18 |
| Waverley Panthers enter the VFA. | ||
| 1962 | Brighton Penguins merge with a non-VFA team to become the Brighton-Caulfield Penguins. | 18 |
| 1963 | Geelong West Roosters enter the VFA. | 19 |
| 1964 | Moorabbin Kangaroos leave the VFA. | 18 |
| 1965 | Werribee Tigers enter the VFA. | 19 |
| Brighton-Caulfield Penguins become Caulfield Bears. | ||
| 1966 | Frankston Dolphins enter the VFA. | 20 |
| c1967 | Box Hill White Horses become Box Hill Mustangs. | 20 |
| 1979 | Camberwell Tricolours become Camberwell Cobras. | 20 |
| 1982 | Springvale Scorpions and Kilsyth Cougars enter the VFA. | 22 |
| 1983 | Berwick Trojans enter and Moorabbin Kangaroos re-enter. | 24 |
| 1984 | The Yarraville Eagles fold and leave the VFA. | 23 |
| 1985 | The Kilsyth Cougars leave the VFA. | 22 |
| 1986 | Berwick Trojans become Berwick Gippslanders. | 22 |
| 1988 | The Berwick Gippslanders, Caulfield Bears, Moorabbin Kangaroos, Mordialloc Bloodhounds, Northcote Dragons and Waverley Panthers all leave the VFA. | 16 |
| 1989 | The VFA divisions end starting this year. | 14 |
| The Geelong West Roosters leave before the start of the season, and the Sunshine Crows leave in the middle. | ||
| 1990 | Brunswick merge with a non-VFA club to become Brunswick-Broadmeadows. | 14 |
| 1991 | Camberwell Cobras leave at the start of this season, and Brunswick-Broadmeadows leave in the middle. | 12 |
| 1995 | Prahran Two-Blues, Oakleigh Devils and Dandenong Dandies all leave the VFA. | 9 |
| 1996 | The VFA changes its name to Victorial Football League, VFL, now that the old VFL is now the AFL. The Preston Bullants become known as the Preston Knights, changing their colours from red and white to white, blue and black. | 11 |
| North Ballarat Roosters and the Traralgon Maroons enter the VFL. | ||
| 1998 | Bendigo Diggers enter the VFL. | 11 |
| Traralgon Maroons leave the VFL. | ||
| 1999 | Coburg Lions become Coburg-Fitzroy Lions. | 11 |
| 2000 | The VFL becomes strongly aligned with the AFL, and reserve players from AFL teams were now able to play with the VFL if their team was aligned with an existing VFL team. The initial alignments were: Box Hill with Hawthorn, Port Melbourne with Sydney, Werribee with the Western Bulldogs, Sandringham with Melbourne. | 18 |
| Carlton Blues, Collingwood Magpies, Essendon Bombers, Kangaroos, Geelong Cats, Richmond Tigers and St Kilda Saints all entered VFL 'Reserves' teams. | ||
| Box Hill Mustangs become Box Hill Hawks, but retain the mustang image on their guernsey. The Preston Knights revert to the name Preston Bullants, and revert to their old colours. | ||
| 2001 | Coburg align with Richmond, Springvale align with St Kilda, Williamstown align with Collingwood, all of whose reserve grade teams drop out. The Kangaroos align with a new team to form the Murray Kangaroos. | 16 |
| Tasmania Devils enter the VFL. | ||
| Coburg-Fitzroy Lions become Coburg Tigers | ||
| 2003 | The Bullants align with Carlton and Bendigo align with Essendon, both of whose reserves teams drop out. Port Melbourne and Sydney dis-align and the Kangaroos align in Sydney's place, ending the short career of the Murray Kangaroos. | 13 |
| Bendigo Diggers become Bendigo Bombers. | ||
| 2006 | Port Melbourne end their affiliation with the Kangaroos. Port Melbourne exists as a stand alone team, while the Kangaroos become aligned with North Ballarat and Tasmania, with half of their reserve players fed into each club. | 13 |
| The Scorpions move to Cranbourne and become the Casey Scorpions; the club retains the name "Springvale Football Club." | ||
| 2008 | The Western Bulldogs and Collingwood end their affiliations with Werribee and Williamstown respectively. The Western Bulldogs align with Williamstown in Collingwood's place. North Melbourne ends its partial affiliation with Tasmania, and partially affiliates with Werribee, retaining its partial affiliation with North Ballarat. | 14 |
| Collingwood re-enters its 'reserves' team into the VFL. | ||
| 2009 | St Kilda ends its affiliation with Casey, and becomes affiliated with Sandringham, and Melbourne ends its affiliation with Sandringham and becomes affiliated with Casey. | 13 |
| Tasmania Devils leave the league. | ||
| 2010 | The Gold Coast Football Club, who became known as the Gold Coast Suns during mid-season join the VFL. This was planned as a one-year stint in the VFL before the club played its inaugural season in the AFL in 2011. | 14 |
| 2011 | The Gold Coast Suns leave the VFL to join the AFL. | 13 |
| 2012 | The Northern Bullants became known as the Northern Blues, and Bendigo Bombers became known as the Bendigo Gold. | 13 |
| 2013 | Essendon ends its affiliation with Bendigo, which continues as a stand-alone senior club. | 14 |
| Essendon re-enters its reserves team into the VFL. | ||
| **Other sources suggest Preston merged into Northcote. | ||
1. PORT MELBOURNE (15): 1897, 1901, 1922, 1940-41 (2), 1947, 1953, 1964, 1966, 1974, 1976-77 (2), 1980-81 (2), 2011.
2. WILLIAMSTOWN (13): 1907, 1921, 1939, 1945, 1949, 1954-56 (3), 1958-59 (2), 1986, 1990, 2003.
3. SANDRINGHAM (10): 1946, 1962, 1985, 1992, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2004-06 (3).
4. GEELONG (10): 1878-80 (3), 1882-84 (3), 1886, 2002, 2007, 2012.
5. FOOTSCRAY (9): 1898-1900 (3), 1908, 1913, 1919-20 (2), 1923-24 (2).
6. HOTHAM/NORTH MELBOURNE (6): 1903-04 (2), 1910, 1914-15 (2), 1918.
7. COBURG (6): 1926-28 (3), 1979, 1988-89 (2).
8. SOUTH MELBOURNE (5): 1881, 1885, 1888-90 (3).
9. SPRINGVALE (5): 1987, 1995-96 (2), 1998-99 (2).
10. PRAHRAN (5): 1937, 1951, 1970, 1973, 1978.
11. OAKLEIGH (5): 1930-31 (2), 1950, 1952, 1972.
12. NORTHCOTE (5): 1929, 1932-34 (3), 1936.
13. ESSENDON (4): 1891-94 (4).
14. PRESTON/NORTHERN BULLANTS (4): 1968-69 (2), 1983-84 (2).
15. DANDENONG (3): 1967, 1971, 1991.
16. BRUNSWICK (3): 1909, 1925, 1938.
17. NORTH BALLARAT (3): 2008-10 (3).
18. CARLTON (2): 1877, 1887.
19. MOORABBIN (2): 1957, 1963.
20. ESSENDON ASSOCIATION (2): 1911-12 (2).
21. RICHMOND (2): 1902, 1905.
22. YARRAVILLE (2): 1935, 1961.
23. COLLINGWOOD (1): 1896.
24. FITZROY (1): 1985.
25. WEST MELBOURNE (1): 1906.
26. GEELONG WEST (1): 1975.
27. WAVERLEY (1): 1965.
28. WERRIBEE (1): 1993.
29. BOX HILL (1): 2001.
30. BRIGHTON/CAULFIELD (1): 1948.
