1919 VJFL season

The Victorian Junior Football League was established to bring a junior club affiliated with each of the VFL senior clubs into a single competition – at this time, junior was the term used for open age football of a lower standard than senior football, rather than for under age football.^[2] The league was intended to bring a junior club affiliated with each of the Victorian Football League (VFL) senior clubs into a single competition, and to adopt the same district eligibility scheme which the VFL had introduced in 1916.^[3] Player permit rules allowed for automatic transfers between the junior and senior clubs until July, allowing the juniors to serve as second eighteens for the seniors. The junior and senior clubs shared a home ground, with the juniors playing home when the seniors played away.^[4]

For the inaugural season, four existing junior clubs – the Fitzroy Juniors, Collingwood District (also known as Collingwood Juniors) and Leopold (affiliated with South Melbourne) and Caulfield (affiliated with Melbourne) – initially crossed to the new league from the Metropolitan Amateur Association; West Melbourne was affiliated with Essendon; and new junior clubs were formed in Carlton, Richmond and St Kilda.^[3] University, which had left the VFL senior competition after 1914, also entered a stand-alone junior team in the competition.^[5][6]

Shortly before the season, Caulfield withdrew, and a second University team was quickly arranged to take its place for the 1919 season.^[7] As was the case in the seniors, once the home-and-away season had finished, the VJFL premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the amended "Argus system".

A number of practice matches were held before the start of the season, including against several Victorian Football Association clubs.^[8]