South Melbourne Football Club is an Australian semi-professional association football club based in Albert Park, Melbourne. [1] The club was formed in 1959 as three clubs South Melbourne United, Hellenic and Yarra Park before it was shortly renamed to South Melbourne Hellas in 1960.
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Before their entrance into the National Soccer League in 1977, South Melbourne won 8 premierships, 2 Dockerty Cups and 2 Ampol Cups. It was until the 1984 season, where South Melbourne won their first national competitive league in the Southern Conference. [2] During the club's stadium move to Bob Jane Stadium (now Lakeside Stadium), the club were known as the South Melbourne Lakers with failure aspects afterward, they won the 1997–98 season of the National Soccer League and won another championship the next season which was their last in their National Soccer League career.
A move to the Bob Jane Stadium and a nickname change in the mid 90s injected new life into the club. South were known as the Lakers and after the 'failure' - by South's high standards - of the early to mid 90s (five Preliminary Final defeats), South Melbourne were able to shrug the finals monkey off its back by winning the 1997–98 Ericsson Cup.
As of the end of the 2020–21 season, the club's first team have spent 28 seasons in the National Soccer League, 33 in the top division of Victoria and the one in the second division of Victoria. Their worst finish to date is 14th in the National Soccer League, their placing at the end of the 1979 season. The club's longest period without a competitive honour is 7 years, between the 2007 and 2013 seasons.
The club set to play for National Second Division from October 2025 after participating in NPL Victoria.
