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The Bellarine Football League (BFL) is an Australian rules football competition based in the Bellarine Peninsula region of Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1971 as the Bellarine & District Football League (BDFL), it is comprised of semi-professional athletes from ten clubs and is administered by Football & Netball Geelong. The season consists of 18 "home-and-away" rounds, followed by a four-week finals series contested by the top five teams in the league, culminating in the grand final.

History

Formation

Many of the present-day BFL sides competed in the now defunct Polwarth Football League before the creation of a new, local league was touted in 1970. Four committee members from the Barwon Heads, Ocean Grove and Portarlington football clubs joined forces to push for a new competition. The inaugural Directors Meeting was held on December 2, 1970, with Les Ash named as president.

The competition, known as the Bellarine & District Football League, officially began on April 17, 1971 with eight clubs competing, while the Polwarth league dissolved. Leopold, Ocean Grove, Portarlington, Queenscliff, Torquay and Winchelsea joined from the Polwarth league, while Drysdale and Barwon Heads defected from the Geelong & District Football League (GDFL). Surprisingly, Winchelsea and Drysdale – the most recent premiers of their former leagues before their move to the BDFL – struggled during their first seasons in the league, finishing sixth and seventh on the ladder respectively. Torquay, who had competed in four consecutive grand finals during its seven seasons in the Polwarth league, won the very first BDFL premiership, defeating Queenscliff by 62 points in the decider. The Tigers also won the reserves grand final, while Queenscliff (U/16s) and Ocean Grove (U/13s) were premiers of the junior divisions.

The league finds its feet

The league's first dynasty began in 1972, when Barwon Heads won its first of what would be three consecutive flags, two of those over its cross-town rivals, Ocean Grove. The powerhouse Seagulls line-up, lead by club best-and-fairest winner Brian Marshman, league best-and-fairest winner Dennis Johnson and league leading goal kicker Stephen "Chooka" Piec, lost just six out of 54 games during that dominant three-year period and set the benchmark in the BDFL.

During this time, the Anglesea Football Club joined from the GDFL. The Roos' first season, in 1973, yielded no success as the seniors, reserves and under-16s sides all went winless. Their under-13s side managed one solitary win. Lara Football Club also applied to join the league, but had its request denied.

Barwon Heads' stronghold was finally broken in 1975, by Queenscliff. In its fourth BDFL finals series, the Coutas defeated Drysdale by 24 points in the seniors grand final, while finishing runners-up in the reserves and under-13s divisions. Their premiership success was short-lived, however, as Queenscliff would be eliminated in straight sets in the 1976 finals series despite finishing two games clear on top of the ladder.

The much-loved Football Record was first published weekly in 1975, after a proposal the previous year, and continues to be published to the present day.

1976 saw the introduction of Newcomb as the league's tenth club, a figure that remains the same today. Like Anglesea three years earlier, the Dinosaurs missed the finals in their first season, but fared much better in the win-loss department with six victories for the year.

Queenscliff returned to the grand final in 1977, again after finishing on top in the regular season, but succumbed to local rivals Drysdale, who won its second consecutive flag.

In 1978, Queenscliff's Mike Birrell became the first player to win consecutive league best-and-fairest awards, but it was Portarlington who tasted the ultimate success as the Coutas slumped to seventh. The Demons won their first premiership since 1959 in the GDFL's Jarman Cup (third division), defeating Drysdale by 47 points in the same year that the BDFL was promoted to "major league" status. 1978 also marked the introduction of the interchange system for all grades.

Ash's reign as league president ended the following year after overseeing the BDFL for its entire existence up to that point, succeeded by Ocean Grove's Don Cole, who was a member of the league's original founding committee.

Leopold rounded out the decade with its first senior premiership in any league under its present-day configuration, defeating the highly-favoured Newcomb by nine points after previously losing to the Dinos in the second semi-final. Ash oversaw the landmark win in 1979 as Leopold president after previously holding the post in the years before his tenure as league boss.

One decade down

The new decade marked a new era of dominance for one club, Newcomb. The Dinosaurs won the first three premierships of the 1980s, defeating Portarlington in 1981 before overcoming Torquay in successive seasons. John Fagan became the first player to win two grand final best-on-ground medals, and remains only one of two players to ever do so in the Bellarine league.

In a period of unbridled success for Newcomb, Portarlington could feel cruelled. The Demons fielded some of their best ever sides in the early 80s, but had only two runners-up finishes to show for it – the seniors in 1980 and the reserves in 1981. Torquay could also feel hard done by, losing three consecutive senior grand finals from 1981–83.

But the Dinos took full advantage of other clubs' despair. They were a powerhouse across all ages and divisions. In a stunning stretch of success, from 1980 to 1984 the club won 11 premierships: three senior flags, one reserves, three under-15s, one under-17s and three under-18s. Their entire junior contingent remained extremely successful throughout all of the 80s and the early 1990s.

In 1982, Peter Scheuffele became the first player to play 200 BDFL games and was rewarded with automatic life membership, a process that continues to this day. Scheuffele has since taken his tally to over 1000 games of football across the country, a testament to his longevity and standing within country football.

1983 saw the loss of one of the BDFL's foundation clubs, Winchelsea, as it moved to the Colac & District Football League due to location and a lack of success across the board. Anglesea won its first BDFL premiership in that year, defeating Torquay who was runners-up yet again. Next season Torquay could finally call itself premiers once more, adding to its 1971 flag in the inaugural year of competition. The 1984 grand final was the closest in league history and none has come closer since. Just one behind separated Torquay and Drysdale, as the Tigers won 19.11 (125) to 19.10 (124).

The league accommodated for the complicated 'bye' system through the introduction of a new team in 1985, St Leonards. They immediately found life tough and were responsible for some of the lowest ever scores in the history of the competition, going 45 matches before their first win in the BFL. Drysdale won the final BDFL premiership in that season, beating Leopold comprehensively by 74 points as the league prepared to transition into another phase.

District no more

In the league's 16th year of existence, the decision was made to officially change its name to the Bellarine Football League.