BFNL tops list of most AFL players produced

Have you ever wondered which regional or country league has produced the most young footballers who have gone on to play at VFL, later AFL, level?

Well a contact of mine a couple of seasons back sent me a table he’d compiled showing how many players from the different leagues throughout Victoria and southern NSW had gone on to play at the highest level of Australian Rules footy.

Additionally the table lays out how many games in total these players ran out for.

Bendigo heads the Top Ten list with 358 recruits who went on to play 17,272 games, well ahead of second placed Ballarat with 291 players who racked up a tally of 15,832 games.

Then comes Goulburn Valley, the Geelong Football and Netball League and Gippsland rounding out the Top Five.

My contact assures me he’s gone right back to the VFL’s foundation year of 1897 when just eight clubs competed, including the now defunct clubs Fitzroy and South Melbourne: now the Brisbane Lions and the Sydney Swans, respectively.

The first eight clubs were, of course, Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Melbourne, South Melbourne and St. Kilda.

The list includes those players who turned out for just one game right up to the giants of the code who played 250, 300, 350 and even a quartet who notched 400 senior games.

And the list had to include the clubs who joined later --- Richmond (early 1900s) plus Footscray, Hawthorn and North Melbourne who left the VFA behind and joined the VFL in 1925.

The complication for the compiler came when he had to reconcile the country clubs which had switched leagues, amalgamated with the club from a neighbouring town or district or even folded completely.

“The current league the club is in and where the players records had been stored beforehand counts as that league.

“And if a particular club no longer exists --- it’s folded --- then its players’ records have been allocated to that wound-up club’s last known league.”

So here’s the table of the Top Ten regional and country leagues which have produced the most VFL/AFL players and the total number of games they’d racked up.

1/. Bendigo: 358 players (total games: 17,272).

2/, Ballarat: 291 (15,832 games)

3/. Goulburn Valley: 288 (11,710).

4/. Geelong FNL: 287 (14,271).

5/. Gippsland FNL: 287 (14,134)

6/. Ovens and Murray: 279 (12,010).

7/. Hampden: 231 (12,435)

8/. Mornington Peninsula: 202 (12,397).

9/. Outer East FNL: 188 (11,702).

10/. Wimmera FNL: 161 (8,204).

Remember, this list was compiled just after the Covid-interrupted seasons of the early 2020s so each league would now have a few more players and total games to add to their 2021 tally.

Bu the overall standings wouldn’t have altered significantly although it’s possible Geelong FNL might have slipped further ahead of Gippsland --- or the other way round.