The Bendigo Football Netball League (previously known as the Bendigo and District Football Association, Bendigo Football Association and Bendigo Football League) is an Australian rules football and netball competition based in the Bendigo region of Victoria.
Football in Bendigo appears to of been first played with a match between the Sandhurst Football Club and the Volunteers Football Club in July 1861.
Formed on 10 June 1881 by the city's three clubs (Bendigo, Coachbuilders and Sandhurst) as the Sandhurst Football Association.
Bendigo FC won both the 1886 and 1887 premiership and not Eaglehawk as previously recorded on this page. Sandhurst FC were undefeated premiers in 1889 and not Eaglehawk FC as previously recorded on this page. Eaglehawk FC won the 1900 premiership and not South Bendigo as previously recorded on this page.
It is one of the oldest football leagues in Australia, and among its members are some of the oldest football clubs in Australia, including the Castlemaine Football Club, who joined in 1925 from the Castlemaine District Football Association and are acknowledged as the second oldest football club in Australia and one of the oldest in the world.
The Bendigo Mid-Week Football Association commenced in 1926 and in 1930 and Railways defeated Banks for the premiership.
John Ledwidge was captain-coach of the Bendigo Football League representative team that won the 1962 VCFL Caltex Country Football Championships by defeating the Wimmera Football League at Horsham.
In 2024, the Bendigo Football Netball League was reduced from ten football teams to nine, following the departure of the Kyneton Football Club to the Riddell District Football Netball League. In the same year, Broadford Football Club indicated its intention to enter the BNFL from 2025 onwards. In August 2025, Gisborne Football Club voted to leave the league to join the Ballarat Football League for the 2026 season onwards.
Yellow points represent clubs currently in recess.
Between 1880 and 1903, the team on top of the ladder at the end of the home and away series of matches were crowned Premiers, therefore no official Bendigo Football Association Grand Finals were played prior to 1904.
In 1929, the Bendigo Football League (BFL) decided to perpetuate the memory of the late BFL President, Mr. Fred A. Wood, with a gold medal for the best and fairest player from 1930 to 1939.
In 1946, the BFL best and fairest award was named the Arthur E. Cook Medal, in memory of the late Bendigo MLA, who died suddenly at the Victorian Parliament House in April, 1945. For many years, Cook was associated with the administration of the BFL.
Between 1947 and 1951 the award was known as the Thomas Rees Davies Medal, who died in May 1946 and was a former Bendigo Councillor, Eaglehawk Mayor and BFL President from 1935 to 1939. Davies was a former Eaglehawk footballer and club secretary and also Secretary of the BFL too. He was made a life member of the BFL in 1926.
The Jack Michelsen Medal was first awarded in 1952, after a prominent Bendigo Mayor, long-term Councillor and BFL President from 1923 to 1925, John Andrew Michelsen, OBE. Michelsen was a journalist at the Bendigo Advertiser for many years.
Only three players in the history of the Bendigo Football League have won a premiership, won the league best and fairest award and kicked one hundred goals, all in the one season. This achievement was performed by Mickey Crisp in 1930 and Greg Kennedy in 1971, who both went onto play VFL senior football at Carlton the following year in round one. The other is Strathfieldsaye's Lachlan Sharp who achieved this feat in 2017. In 1962, Rochester's Ray Willett won a premiership, won the league best and fairest award and won the league goalkicking with 67 goals.
Goals in brackets "()" includes goals kicked in finals.
Home & Away Season was reduced by 6 rounds and Finals series cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic in Victoria