1882 Victorian football season

Geelong won the Victorian Football Association (VFA) premiership for the fourth time, making it the club's fourth VFA premiership in just five seasons, and the first in a sequence of three consecutive premierships won from 1882 to 1884.^[10][11]

South Yarra was the premier club in the junior competition.^[a] This was disputed, as South Yarra did not play other leading junior clubs – including Hotham United, Northcote, South Park and Star of Carlton – during the season.^[13][14]

Peter Pindar, a football writer at The Australasian, wrote that "it would be just as absurd to call a club the premier which had never met Geelong, Carlton, Essendon, and South Melbourne, as it would be to style one the premier junior which had not met Hotham United, Northcote, South Park, or the Star of Carlton".^[15] In a letter to The Herald, South Park secretary W.M. Roy said that he "fail[ed] to see that we are not entitled to claim the Junior Premiership of 1882".^[16][17]

Albion Imperial was the premier club in the Ballarat District competition.^[1][20] During the season, Ballarat City merged with Ballarat Imperial to form the "Ballarat City Imperial Football Club", although it retained the colours of Ballarat Imperial and is considered a continuation of Ballarat Imperial.^[8][21] By this season, more than 100 clubs were based around the Ballarat region.^[1][22]

The 1882 SFA season was the second season of the Sandhurst Football Association (SFA).^[25] Eaglehawk was the premier club.^[26] Bendigo, Coachbuilders, Ironbark and Sandhurst also competed.^[23] The SFA also played a representative match against South Yarra on 24 May 1882 at the Upper Reserve.^[27]