Leader Local Footy ranks the top-50 country clubs of 2023

The votes are in with fans having their say on who was the best team in country footy this season. See who came in at number one.

Parochialism runs deep in country footy.

Fans always want to believe their club is the best, both in their own league but also in comparison to those around them.

But which club really is the best in the bush?

It may be an impossible question to answer given the great variance in quality of football played across the leagues.

No-one would seriously consider that a small club in a minor rural league would beat a powerhouse in the Ovens and Murray if they were to come head to head in battle.

But, when comparing clubs as the best performed we have to take into account how they fared relative to the skill level around them.

So, at the risk of being ridiculed, Leader Local Footy’s writers have put their brains together to try and answer that seemingly unanswerable question as we rank the top-50 performing clubs of the country footy season.

For our ranking system, we’ve graded teams based on their records in their own comps rather than trying to compare them across other leagues.

So a club that dominated a small league like Upper Murray may rank higher than a club from the Goulburn Valley League, even though the GVFL team would surely win easily should the two ever play against each other.

These rankings are based on the entire season, not just the clubs who prevailed on the biggest days.

Some teams did outrank others due to their performances in a stronger competition, despite not coming away with the premiership.

The final rankings are in and there’s plenty of dominance from the Geelong region.

Originally published as Leader Local Footy ranks the top-50 country clubs of 2023