The 'Borough' is one of the true pioneers of Australian Rules Football and pre-dates two-thirds of the current AFL clubs in the competition today. For most of its 150-year history the club have played at the same historic North Port Oval, wearing the same vertical red and blue stripes in front of their legendary passionate and colourful supporters.
Port Melbourne is the most successful club in the VFA/VFL, having won 17 senior men's division 1 premierships three more than its nearest rival Williamstown. It has also won one VFL Women's premiership.
Port Melbourne is also the only VFA/VFL club never to have been relegated to the second division when the VFA had both first and second divisions. The club has maintained an independent and stand-alone status, without being in a formal reserves affiliation with a club from the Australian Football League (AFL) for all but five years of its history.
Consequently, Port Melbourne is considered one of the strongest Victorian-based football clubs that does not compete in the AFL. The club has had a women's team in the VFL Women's (VFLW) competition since 2021, and in the past it has fielded premiership-winning teams in the now-defunct VFL reserves competition. In 2024, the club fielded its first team in the Victorian Blind Football League (VBFL).
History
Port Melbourne team that won its first premiership in 1897
The Port Melbourne Football Club joined the senior ranks Victorian Football Association (VFA) in 1886, its inaugural team formed in large part from members of the powerful nearby South Melbourne Football Club which had dominated metropolitan football in 1885.[1] The club has played in every VFA/VFL season since that time. In 1897, Port Melbourne was left out of the group of eight clubs which formed the breakaway VFL competition, despite having regularly been about the sixth- or seventh- best performing team onfield. Historian Terry Keenan theorised that the likeliest reason for Port Melbourne's exclusion was the reputation for the poor behaviour that its players and spectators had developed over the previous decade; its rivalry with and proximity to South Melbourne and the fact that Port Melbourne had supported the gate equalisation measures which the breakaway clubs were trying to escape were also speculated to have contributed to the decision.[2]
The club, and the suburb of Port Melbourne in general, were heavily associated with wharf labourers and the union movement. During a 1928 waterfront strike in Melbourne, a wharf labourer protesting the use of scab labour was shot by police; as a result, the club banned any police from playing with them. The policy remained in place until the late 1950s.[3]
Port Melbourne went on to become one of the strongest clubs in the VFA, and today still attracts some of the biggest crowds to its games. The club had very strong links with the Port Melbourne community, arguably the strongest community relationship within the VFA; local juniors often held stronger aspirations to play for Port Melbourne than for the VFL's South Melbourne – which by the 1950s was perennially struggling and to which the Port Melbourne area was zoned – and even players as highly decorated as Brownlow MedallistsPeter Bedford and Bob Skilton returned to play with Port Melbourne after their VFL careers.[4] Over the twenty-eight seasons from 1961 until 1988 that the VFA was partitioned into two divisions, Port Melbourne played every season in the first division – a distinction shared only with the Sandringham.
Traditionally, Port Melbourne's greatest rivals are the Williamstown Seagulls and the Sandringham Zebras. All three teams continue to play in the VFL to this day. Prior to the original breakaway of the VFL from the VFA in 1897, Port Melbourne's greatest rival was South Melbourne.[2]
Since the AFL reserves competition merged with the Victorian Football League in 2000, Port Melbourne has been involved in two affiliations: with the Sydney Swans (2001–2002), and with the Kangaroos (2003–2005); since 2006, Port Melbourne has existed as a stand-alone VFL club. The club has fielded a team in the VFL Women's competition since 2021.
In under-age football, Port Melbourne has been affiliated with the Oakleigh ChargersNAB League team since the 1999 season,[5] and the Chargers adopted Port Melbourne's colours as part of the affiliation. Port Melbourne had previously been affiliated with the Geelong Falcons (1996–1998),[6] and in 1995 was part of a three-way affiliation which saw it share the Calder Cannons and Western Jets with Williamstown and Coburg.[7]
The club's onfield nickname is the Borough or Boroughs. Like many clubs, its earliest nickname was geographical, and the Borough nickname came from the club's location in what was once the Borough of Port Melbourne; the name stuck, even after the area was upgraded to the status of town in 1893, and eventually city in 1919.[9][10] Unlike most other clubs, Port Melbourne never adopted a more modern nickname based on an animal or profession, and remains known as the Borough. The name was sometimes written as Burra or Burras,[11] and in the 1970s and 1980s the nickname was sometimes depicted with a kookaburra.[12]
Club jumper
The Port Melbourne Football Club's guernsey is royal blue with red vertical stripes.
In 2011, Port Melbourne completed a perfect season, winning all eighteen home-and-away games, then three finals matches, culminating in a 56-point win against Williamstown in the Grand Final.[13] It was the first perfect season in the VFA/VFL first division since 1918, and the first to not be shortened by war.[14]
Team of the century
The Port Melbourne team of the century was selected in August 2003:
Liston Medallists: E. Hyde (1930), W. Findlay (1946), F. Johnson (1952), V. Aanensen (1979, 1981), S. Allender (1980), W. Swan (1982, 1983), S. Harkins (1990), S. Valenti (2010, 2011)
The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in eastern states of Australia: Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, including reserves teams for the eastern state AFL clubs. It succeeded and continues the competition of the former Victorian Football Association (VFA) which began in 1877. The name of the competition was changed to the Victorian Football League in 1996. Under its VFL brand, the AFL also operates a women's football competition known as VFL Women's, which was established in 2016.
The Coburg Football Club, nicknamed the Lions, is an Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Coburg. It has been based at Coburg City Oval since 1915.
The Northern Bullants are a semi-professional Australian rules football club that currently competes in the Victorian Football League (VFL). The club, which is based in the Melbourne suburb of Preston, plays its home games at Preston City Oval.
The Williamstown Football Club, nicknamed the Seagulls, is an Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Williamstown. The club currently competes in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and VFL Women's (VFLW) competitions.
The Oakleigh Football Club, nicknamed the Devils, was an Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Oakleigh that competed in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) from 1929 until 1994.
The 1931 Victorian Football Association season was the 53rd season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Oakleigh Football Club, after it defeated Northcote by three points in the Grand Final on 26 September. It was the club's second VFA premiership, achieved in only its third season of senior competition, and it was Oakleigh's second premiership in a row.
The 1942 Victorian Football Association season was not played owing to World War II, which was at its peak at the time.
The 1945 Victorian Football Association season was the 64th season of the Australian rules football competition, and it was the first season played since the Association went into recess during World War II. The premiership was won by the Williamstown Football Club, which defeated Port Melbourne by 37 points in the Grand Final on 6 October. It was the club's fourth VFA premiership.
The 1946 Victorian Football Association season was the 65th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Sandringham Football Club, which defeated Camberwell by seven points in the Grand Final on 5 October. It was the first premiership in the club's history.
The 1947 Victorian Football Association season was the 66th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Port Melbourne Football Club, which defeated Sandringham by 31 points in the Grand Final on 4 October. It was the sixth premiership in the club's history.
The 1949 Victorian Football Association season was the 68th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Williamstown Football Club, which defeated Oakleigh by three points in the Grand Final on 1 October. It was the fifth premiership won by the club.
The 1953 Victorian Football Association season was the 72nd season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Port Melbourne Football Club, after it defeated Yarraville by 60 points in the Grand Final on 3 October. It was Port Melbourne's seventh VFA premiership, and it was the only premiership that the club won during a sequence of eight consecutive Grand Finals played from 1950 until 1957, and five consecutive minor premierships won from 1951 until 1955.
The 1960 VFA season was the 79th season of the Victorian Football Association (VFA), an Australian rules football competition based in the state of Victoria. The premiership was won by the Oakleigh Football Club for the fifth time, after it defeated Sandringham by 60 points in the grand final on 1 October.
Mark Fotheringham is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the Yarraville and Williamstown football clubs in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) in the 1970s and 1980s.
The 1995 Victorian Football Association season was the 114th overall season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Springvale Football Club, after it defeated Sandringham in the grand final on 24 September by 43 points; it was the second premiership won by the club.
The 2000 VFL season was the 119th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), a second-tier Australian rules football competition played in the state of Victoria. The premiership was won by the Sandringham Football Club, after defeating North Ballarat by 31 points in the Grand Final on 27 August.
The 2001 Victorian Football League season was the 120th season of the Australian rules football competition.
The 2003 Victorian Football League season was the 122nd season of the Australian rules football competition.
The 2018 VFL season was the 137th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), a second-tier Australian rules football competition played in the state of Victoria. The competition ran between April 2018 and September 2018.
References
↑ "The Football Season". The Argus. Melbourne, VIC. 30 April 1885. p.6.
1 2 Keenan, Terry (2001), "Keeping out the riff-raff – Port Melbourne's exclusion from the Victorian Football League in 1896", Sporting Traditions, 17 (2): 1–16
↑ Marc Fiddian (19 September 1981). "Another proud day for Port". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. p.43.
↑ Amy, Paul (2014), Fabulous Fred: the Strife and Times of Fred Cook, Melbourne Books, pp.53–54
Atkinson, G. (1982) Everything you ever wanted to know about Australian rules football but couldn't be bothered asking, The Five Mile Press: Melbourne. ISBN0 86788 009 0.
Terry Keenan. 2006. Unduly Rough Play – A History of the Port Melbourne Football Club, Volume 2 1918 – 1944. Albert Park: Eucalyptus Press
Terry Keenan. 2004. Kicking into the Wind – A History of the Formative Years of the Port Melbourne Football Club 1874–1917. Petersham: Walla Walla Press
Terry Keenan. 1999. A Taste of Port. Albert Park: Eucalyptus Press
Terry Keenan. A Family Feud. Port Melbourne: Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society.
Terry Keenan. Keeping Out the Riff-Raff. Port Melbourne: Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society.
Marc Fiddian. The VFA – A History of the Victorian Football Association 1877–1995.
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