Caulfield Oakleigh District Football League

The Caulfield-Oakleigh District Football League (CODFL) was an Australian rules football competition based in Melbourne's southern suburbs that ran for 30 years between 1932 and 1962. Originally established as a junior competition, open-age grades were introduced for the 1936 season.

The Caulfield-Oakleigh District Football League has roots stretching back to the late 1910s in the form of the Oakleigh District Junior Football Association.^[1] This competition was later renamed the Caulfield-Oakleigh-Dandenong Junior Football Association, but lapsed during the late 1920s. The Caulfield Oakleigh Junior Football Association began in 1932 and was renamed to Caulfield-Oakleigh District Football League in 1935. The early years of the competition were heavily supported by the Oakleigh Football Club, which was keen to establish a strong feeder competition in its area.^[1] The competition began with six clubs and the first premiership was won by the Caulfield Juniors.

The CODFL introduced its first open-age competition in 1936,^[2] with a second coming two years later in 1938.^[3] Despite playing through the beginning of the second World War, the senior competition was forced into recess in 1942 as enlistments took many players away, although junior competition would continue throughout the war.^[4] The senior competition returned in 1946.^[5]

The CODFL had become a fairly stable competition in the years following the war, however it faced increasing competition from the higher-standard Federal Football League for its best clubs by the 1950s. McKinnon won 4 premierships in a row between 1949 and 1952 before departing for the Federal FL at the end of the 1953 season, when the Victorian Football Union upheld McKinnon's appeal against the CODFL's refusal to grant them clearance.^[6] In response to this, the CODFL broke away from the VFU, with secretary W. J. Wilde claiming that the VFU had "lost its usefulness".^[7]

After Springvale and Bentleigh, two of the league's strongest clubs, both departed for the Federal FL after the 1957 season, a four-tier system was introduced in a bid to prevent any other clubs from leaving the CODFL.^[1] This system featured two senior grades (A and B) and two junior grades (U17 and U15) would run. A year later, a third open age grade, Reserve Open, was introduced underneath A grade, which did not require its clubs to field a reserve side. These changes failed to prevent clubs leaving, however. Glen Huntly and East Malvern entered the Federal FL in 1960 and 1961 respectively, while Glen Waverley received an invitation to join the Victorian Football Association in early 1961, which they duly accepted.^[8] The Eastern Suburban Football League, which had also been beset by club losses to the Federal League, entered into merger discussions with the CODFL in 1961, culminating in the formation of the South East Suburban Football League after the 1962 by way of a merger of the two leagues.^[9]

*won in a lower grade