THE NORTHERN Football League’s Division 1 was the most evenly contested senior football competition in Melbourne in 2014.
With an average margin of just 32.1 points, the competition recorded the lowest average margin of any of the 23 senior football competitions played in Melbourne.
The NFL’s Division 2 also recorded a positive result, ranked fourth for competitiveness with an average margin of 37.2 points per game.
The average margin in Division 3 was 56.9 points – the second best result when compared with each metropolitan league’s bottom division, bettered only by the Southern Football League.
The average margin in the NFL’s Division 1 was six points less than last year, and bettered the 32.4 points average margin recorded in 2012.
The 2014 Division 1 season started in thrilling style, with Northcote Park and West Preston-Lakeside playing out a draw on the opening night of the season.
The competition remained tight throughout, with 24 matches decided by two goals or less throughout the course of the season.
Remarkably, grand finalist Heidelberg played in eight games decided by less than 12 points – winning all of them – while bottom-placed Whittlesea ended the season with a respectable percentage of 61, despite winning only one game.
So close was the competition that no place inside the top five on the ladder was cemented heading into the final round of the home and away season.
The finals series also proved to be more competitive than in recent years, with an average margin of just 23.6 points across the six finals matches at Preston City Oval. The average margin during the 2013 finals series was 38.1 points.
The 2014 Division 2 season was the competition’s most even since it was split during the 2009 home and away season.
Back in 2010, the average margin in Division 2 was 70.4 points. By 2013, that average had dropped to 49.3 points and this year it reduced by a further two goals to 37.2 points.
In Round 13, the four Division 2 matches were decided by an aggregate of just 32 points. Three of the four games that round were decided by less than a goal, while the other result saw Epping beat Diamond Creek by just 22 points.
The average margin in Division 3 this year rose for the first time in the competition’s five-year history. In 2014, the average margin in Division 3 was 56.9 points, more than two goals higher than the 2013 average of 42 points.
Despite the rise in the average margin in Division 3, the competition still produced a more competitive season than the lowest division in the Essendon District Football League, Eastern Football League, Victorian Amateur Football League and Western Region Football League.
Continue below for the ten most competitive football competitions in metropolitan Melbourne, as determined by average margins across all matches played in 2014.
1. NFL Division 1 – 32.1 points
2. EFL Division 2 – 33.4
3. VAFA Premier – 34.4
4. NFL Division 2 – 37.2
5. SFL Division 2 – 38.5
6. EDFL Premier – 39.2
7. VAFA Premier C – 40.3
8. EDFL Division 1 – 40.6
9. VAFA Division 1 – 42.9
10. EFL Division 3 – 43.1
