National Premier Leagues Victoria 2

The National Premier Leagues Victoria 2, commonly referred to as NPL Victoria 2, is a regional Australian semi-professional soccer league comprising teams from Victoria. The league sits at level 2 on the Victorian league system, behind the National Premier Leagues Victoria, (level 3 of the overall Australian league system). The competition is administered by Football Federation Victoria, the governing body of the sport in the state.

National Premier Leagues Victoria 2
Founded2014
CountryAustralia
State Victoria
Number of teams12
Level on pyramid3
Promotion toNPL Victoria
Relegation toNPL Victoria 3
Domestic cup(s)FFA Cup
Dockerty Cup
Current championsSt Albans Saints
(2019)
Current premiersEastern Lions (East)
St Albans Saints (West)
2020 Season

Format

In 2014, the competition was a 14 team league.

For the 2015–2019 seasons, the league was divided into East and West conferences of 10 teams each. Each team played home and away against teams in their conference and single games against each team in the opposite conference. The winner of each conference was promoted to the NPL Victoria, while second place in each conference entered into a promotion/relegation series.

In 2020, the competition reverted to a 12 team league.[1]

Clubs
Locations of 2019 NPL 2 Victoria clubs within metropolitan Melbourne. Blue shading indicates teams in the East conference, red shading indicates teams in the West conference.

The following 12 clubs are competing in the NPL Victoria 2 during the 2020 season:

Team Location Stadium Capacity
Brunswick City Brunswick West Dunstan Reserve 1,000
Bulleen Lions Bulleen David Barro Stadium 3,000
Goulburn Valley Suns Shepparton John McEwan Reserve 3,200
Kingston City Clayton South The Grange Reserve Unknown
Langwarrin Langwarrin South Lawton Park Reserve 5,000
Manningham United Templestowe David Barro Stadium 3,000
Moreland City Coburg Campbell Reserve 2,000
Moreland Zebras Moreland CB Smith Reserve 2,000
North Geelong Warriors Geelong Elcho Park 5,000
Northcote City Thornbury John Cain Memorial Reserve 9,000
Pascoe Vale Fawkner CB Smith Reserve 2,000
Werribee City Werribee Galvin Park Reserve 1,000

History

Avondale FC were the inaugural champions of the National Premier Leagues Victoria 1 division in 2014, while North Geelong finished the season as runners up with both sides earning promotion to the National Premier Leagues Victoria.

On 6 November 2014, Football Federation Victoria announced Melbourne City FC NPL and Melbourne Victory FC Youth would join the league in 2015. Eastern Lions SC, Murray United FC, Nunawading City FC and Moreland City FC all also joined the expanded competition for the 2015 season. FC Bulleen Lions and Richmond SC were the two clubs to achieve automatic promotion in the revamped league in 2015 by winning their respective conferences. Melbourne Victory joined them by beating NPL2 West runner up Moreland Zebras FC in the NPL2 preliminary promotion playoff, and then North Geelong in the promotion playoff, with North Geelong joining automatically relegated sides Werribee City FC and Dandenong Thunder SC in NPL2 for 2016.

In 2016, St Albans Saints SC and Kingston City FC won automatic promotion by winning their respective West and East conferences, while North Geelong immediately bounced back into the top-flight, beating Dandenong Thunder in the NPL2 playoff and Richmond in the NPL promotion-relegation playoff. Richmond, Melbourne Victory and Northcote City FC were the relegated sides from NPL, joining the NPL2 for 2017.

Past winners
Year Competition Premiers Champions
2014 National Premier Leagues 1 Avondale Heights N/A
2015 National Premier Leagues 1 East: Richmond
West: Bulleen Lions		 Richmond
2016 National Premier Leagues 2 East: Kingston City
West: St Albans Saints		 Kingston City
2017 National Premier Leagues 2 East: Dandenong Thunder
West: Northcote City		 Dandenong Thunder
2018 National Premier Leagues 2 East: Dandenong City
West: Altona MagicCity		 Dandenong City
2019 National Premier Leagues 2 East: Eastern Lions
West: St Albans Saints		 St Albans Saints
gollark: I guess that's something.Mine has nice features, though.
gollark: ```channel {Number<1-65535>} Channel ID to transmit on.reply_channel {Number<1-65535>} The senders designated reply channel.```
gollark: Also, reply channels don't exist.
gollark: Okay, ignore that.Mine supports string or number channels, getting away from the historic uselessness that is rednet.
gollark: AARGH I CAN'T TALK.

References
  1. "Victoria restructures its NPL competition". footballtoday.news. 31 October 2018. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.