Australian Football

Port Melbourne

Few clubs can boast a history as colourful and eventful as that of Port Melbourne. Established in 1885, the club joined the Victorian Football Association the following year and had an immediate impact, finishing fourth. From the earliest days, the club was nicknamed ‘The Borough’ or ‘The Boroughs’ because that is precisely what Port Melbourne was until 1893, when it was proclaimed a town. In 1919 it became a city, but the original nickname stuck.

Throughout the pre-VFL period the club was seldom less than competitive. Its best finish was third in 1889, and if the initial composition of the Victorian Football League in 1897 had been determined solely by on field prowess it is arguable that Port Melbourne would have gained admission at the expense of the likes of St Kilda or even Carlton.

As if to emphasise this the club won its first VFA premiership in 1897 and was consistently close to the pace during each of the next five seasons, albeit for only one further flag in 1901. Thereafter, however, the longest premiership drought in the history of the club’s VFA involvement set in and it was not until a 2 point defeat of Footscray in the 1922 grand final that Port Melbourne supporters again had cause for celebration. The enjoyment was tinged with acrimony, however, following post-match allegations by four Borough players that they had received bribes to ‘play dead’. The VFA subsequently mounted an investigation during which charges were laid against Footscray president George Sayer, player Matt O’Donaghue, and former player Vern Banbury, with Banbury eventually being found guilty and receiving a life time ban.

Footscray gained their revenge over Port in the 1923 grand final with a 14 point triumph. This proved to be the first of four consecutive grand final capitulations by the Borough during the 1920s with the other failures coming at the hands of Brunswick by 16 points in 1925, Coburg by 7 points in 1928 and Northcote by 42 points in 1929.

In general terms, the 1930s are remembered as a grim decade economically. As far as Port Melbourne supporters of particularly long standing are concerned, it was an equally impoverished period on the field of play for their team, which only managed to qualify for the finals twice. This was despite the on field presence for much of the decade of one of the club’s - and the VFA’s - greatest ever players in the shape of Tom Lahiff, who sandwiched a brief VFL career between two prominent spells with the Borough, with success only coming towards the end of the second of these.

After finishing second to last in 1939, with Lahiff as captain-coach, the club unexpectedly prospered under his successor, Frank Kelly, with Lahiff’s contribution merely that of a player.

The 1940 grand final pitted Port Melbourne against Prahran and brought a comfortable 23.22 (160) to 17.11 (113) victory to the Borough in a high standard game. This was followed a year later by an equally impressive 15.18 (108) to 11.23 (89) grand final defeat of Coburg. The fact that Port Melbourne had not defeated Coburg in any game since 1929 made the victory all the more satisfying, not to mention impressive. Tom Lahiff had re-assumed the role of captain-coach shortly before the finals following the resignation of Frank Kelly but with the VFA in abeyance because of the war between 1942 and 1944 he was denied an opportunity to build on this success.

When the VFA competition re-commenced in 1945 Port Melbourne, with Lahiff at the helm, gave indications of carrying on where they had left off four years earlier only to fall in a heap against a Ron Todd-inspired Williamstown on grand final day. Todd’s 6 goal contribution to the Seagulls’ cause more or less matched their eventual margin of victory (37 points).

Port Melbourne’s next grand final appearance two years later proved to be vastly more enjoyable with rover Bill Findlay, centre half forward Bill Houston, centre half back Cyril Mann and ruckman Ron Reynolds prominent in a 15.13 (103) to 11.8 (74) defeat of Sandringham in wet conditions.

The 1950s proved to be an immensely frustrating decade with Port Melbourne almost invariably ‘thereabouts’ but only actually ‘there’ on one occasion. Indeed, the Boroughs’ record of appearing in eight consecutive grand finals for just one win would take some emulating.

Port Melbourne’s first grand final appearance of the 1960s came in 1964 against old foe Williamstown. Having comfortably accounted for the Seagulls by 52 points in the second semi final the Borough took little time in reasserting their authority a fortnight later as they raced to a 7.5 to 1.0 opening term lead. The final scores were Port Melbourne 14.17 (101) to Williamstown 10.5 (65) with the victors best served by energetic centreman Rob Freyer, ruckman Carl Bowen, 4 goal half forward George Milner and rover Graeme Taggart.

The Borough made the grand final again the following year but inaccuracy in front of goal proved their undoing in a 12 point loss to Waverley.

The Panthers again provided the grand final opposition in 1966 but this time Port Melbourne had little trouble eking out a 13.12 (90) to 6.11 (47) triumph. Future Brownlow Medallist Peter Bedford starred in the centre for the Borough, as did experienced follower Carl Bowen, rover Graeme Taggart and half back flanker Garry ‘Tables’ Williams.

The 1967 VFA grand final between Dandenong and Port Melbourne is indisputably one of the most infamous matches in Australian football history. Port Melbourne went into the match as warm favourites having comfortably accounted for the Redlegs in the second semi final but as has frequently been observed previous form does not always count for all that much when a flag is at stake. Dandenong’s eventual 16.13 (109) to 12.12 (84) victory was a fair indication of their superiority on the day and the only solace Borough supporters could derive from the occasion was that “we must have won the fights”.[1]

The Port Melbourne side which contested the VFA finals for a record eleven consecutive seasons between 1973 and 1983 was without doubt one of the greatest in the history of the competition. The side participated in six grand finals during the period, winning them all as well as taking out the VFA’s club championship on four consecutive occasions between 1973 and 1976.[2]

In 1973 the Borough were not quite the ‘finished article’ and bowed out to Prahran in the first semi final. A year later, however, they were by some degree the most powerful side in the competition, as their 22.20 (152) to 11.17 (83) grand final demolition of Oakleigh confirmed. Captain Norm Brown, centreman Jim Buckley, half forwards David ‘Sam’ Holt and Graham ‘Buster’ Harland were in particularly irrepressible form for the winners.

The Borough slumped to third in 1975 but 1976 saw them re-assume centre stage for a long awaited grand final re-match with their 1967 conquerors Dandenong.

The build up to the game was, by VFA standards, intense to an almost unprecedented degree, with much speculation focusing on the so called ‘revenge factor’. In this context, a violent encounter seemed almost inevitable, and so it proved. After a deceptively tame opening term events took a predictable turn for the worse five minutes into the second quarter when Port Melbourne full forward Fred Cook was pole-axed behind the play shortly after kicking a goal. The goal umpire, having just replaced his flags, was in the process of marking the goal on his score card and did not see the incident. Neither did the two boundary umpires who were relaying the ball back to the centre of the ground. Suddenly there was an explosion of activity at both ends of the field as Port Melbourne players endeavoured to exact retribution and their Dandenong opponents resisted strenuously. When order was restored, the Borough were able to race away to a 57 point triumph, 19.18 (132) to 10.15 (75). Best players for Port included ruckman Tony Haenen, half back flanker George Allen, full back Paul Wharton, and ruck-rover Graham Harland. Champion full forward Fred Cook contributed 5.6 (including 2 ‘posters’) to take his season’s tally to 124. Cook would go on to amass a VFA career record of 1,364 goals in 305 games with three clubs (Port Melbourne, Yarraville and Moorabbin).

Most of the post-match headlines referred to the fisticuffs rather than the football, however, which was hardly surprising given that the VFA Honorary Commissioners had no fewer than nine cases to consider on the following Monday night. Port players Graham Harland, Greg Dermott, David Holt and George Allen were all found guilty of various offences and received sentences ranging from a reprimand in the case of Dermott to a four week suspension for Harland. Port trainer Allen Thomas had also been reported for allegedly pulling the hair of a Dandenong player. Found guilty, he was banned from entering the field of play for a period of twelve months.

The 1977 grand final was also noteworthy, but thankfully for rather more salutary reasons: it was the VFA’s centenary year[3] and Port Melbourne celebrated it in signally appropriate fashion with a 100 point defeat of Sandringham. A crowd of 29,644 at the Junction Oval saw Fred Cook boot 9.4 from full forward and centre half forward Ivan Rasmussen add 5.1 to cap off a consummate all round team display which clinched the Borough their eleventh senior VFA premiership.

Annexing the twelfth flag three seasons later proved considerably more problematical as Coburg afforded stern opposition throughout a seesawing tussle. At lemon time the Lions led by 17 points but Port Melbourne seemingly ‘had the wood’, as the saying goes, over Coburg in 1980[4] and during the final twenty minutes of the game they took command to race to an 11 point victory. Defenders Greg Dermott and Frank Johnson junior, ruckman Vic Aanenson and half forward Tony Ebeyer were among the Borough’s best performers. 

At half time of the following season’s grand final Port Melbourne led Preston 9.9 to 9.4 after the latter had dominated the second term to the tune of 7 goals to 3. Another close finish looked likely, but the Borough, led by ruckman Vic Aanenson, rover Tony Ebeyer - who started the game on the bench - ruck rover Brendan Kavanagh, and half forward flanker Glyn Evans had other ideas. In the second half they added 23.10 to a paltry 6.4 by their opposition to rack up an all time record VFA grand final score of 32.19 (211); ironically, Preston’s eventual tally of 15.8 (98) was higher than Port Melbourne’s winning grand final score of a year earlier.

The Bullants scored even more freely in the 1982 grand final but Port Melbourne still proved to have their measure. Indeed, despite the closeness of the finish - 7 points - the Borough always appeared in control. Final scores were Port Melbourne 21.15 (141) to Preston 20.14 (134) with centreman Bill Swan, centre half back Glen Robertson and rover Brendan Kavanagh best for the premiers.

Port Melbourne has managed two more flag since 1982. The first of these, in 2011, was captured after the club went through the season undefeated, emphasising the Borough's status as one of the VFL’s six integral member clubs.[5] Indeed, it would be hard to imagine Victoria’s premier domestic competition without its longest serving and most successful member.

From season 2000, when, following the abolition of the AFL reserves competition, the VFL underwent a radical overhaul, the Borough entered into an alignment with AFL club Sydney whereby the Swans provided Port with a number of players each weekend. Similar arrangements were instigated by Box Hill-Hawthorn, and Melbourne-Sandringham, while the Western Bulldogs entered into separate arrangements with Werribee and Williamstown. In 2001 the landscape altered yet again, with Coburg aligning with Richmond, Springvale with St Kilda and Collingwood with Williamstown; the Western Bulldogs meanwhile aligned exclusively with Werribee. As of the 2003 season, Port Melbourne became aligned with the Kangaroos, while Bendigo and Essendon, and the Northern Bullants and Carlton also joined forces. This left Frankston as the only old style VFA club without an AFL ‘big brother’.

It remains to be seen what the long term effects of such a dilution of identity will be on proud clubs like Port Melbourne, but in the short term at least the Borough managed to capitalise to the extent of qualifying for, and very nearly winning, the 2004 grand final. However, despite throwing everything they could at opponents Sandringham during a hectic last term, they fell short by 4 points.

In 2005 the Borough, who ended their alignment with the Kangaroos midway through the year, qualified for the finals in fifth spot but, after scoring an emphatic 84 point win over Box Hill in an elimination final, bowed out of flag contention with a 38 point semi final loss to Bendigo. The following season, however, was an unmitigated disaster, as the side managed just 3 wins from 18 matches for the year to finish last.

The 2007 season saw the Borough qualifying for the finals and downing Casey Scorpions in an elimination final by 13 points. However, Coburg in the following week's semi final proved much too strong.

In 2008 Port Melbourne topped the ladder with 16 wins from 20 home and away matches and cruised to the grand final on the strength of a crushing 74 point defeat of Werribee in a qualifying final and a hard fought 21 point preliminary final win over historic rivals Williamstown. On grand final day, however, in front of 11,641 spectators at the Telstra Dome, the Borough underperformed badly, and went down by a rather humiliating 45 point margin.

Port Melbourne again qualified for the finals, and indeed earned the double chance, in 2010, but they nosedived out of premiership contention thanks to losses in consecutive weeks against Williamstown and Box Hill Hawks.

The 2011 season was one of the most memorable in the Borough's illustrious history as the side won every single match for the year, which is to say 18 home and away games, a qualifying final against Casey Scorpions (97 point margin), a preliminary final versus Northern Bullants (won by 22 points) and a grand final opposed by Williamstown. This last match saw the Seagulls dominate the opening term, to lead 5.3 to 2.0 at the first change, but thereafter Port Melbourne assumed gradually increasing control on the game, leading at the main interval by 21 points, by the same margin at three quarter time before pulling away to a decisive 22.12 (144) to 13.10 (88) triumph. The Norm Goss Memorial Medal for best player afield went to Port's Toby Pinwill. The last VFA/L club to remain unbeaten all year had been North Melbourne in the 1918 wartime competition which involved just half a dozen clubs.

Port Melbourne enjoyed another good season in 2012, culminating in a grand final showdown against Geelong reserves. The match was tight and close for three quarters, with Geelong leading by a single straight kick at the last change. In the final quarter, however, the Cats put their feet on the accelerator and pulled away to record an emphatic victory by 33 points, a margin which would have seemed highly unlikely earlier in the match.

In 2014 Port Melbourne again won the minor premiership but failed to go on with things, ultimately crashing out by 32 points against eventual premiers Footscray reserves in a preliminary final.

The Borough finished outside the top eight in 2015 before returning to finals action a year later. However, they were quickly ousted from premiership contention in an elimination final by Sandringham. A year later the Borough again made the finals before encountering the setback of a qualifying final loss to Box Hill, meaning that they would have to win three successive finals if they were to procure the premiership. As things transpired, this is precisely what they did. Opposed in a semi final by reigning premiers Footscray the Borough pulled away after half time to record an impressive 16.11 (107) to 12.15 (87) victory. A week later they led at every change en route to a 12.10 (82) to 8.11 (59) preliminary final triumph over Williamstown. This result saw the Borough through to a grand final clash with AFL club Richmond's reserve combination and it was the Tigers who had their noses in front for most of the match, only for Port to come home with a wet sail and boot the last 3 goals of the game to clinch victory at the death by 4 points. Scores were Port Melbourne 11.8 (74) defeated Richmond reserves 10.10 (70). A year later the Borough dropped down the ladder to eighth place after losing their elimination final clash with eventual premiers Box Hill by 11 points.

Port Melbourne remain the VFA/L's most successful club with no fewer than seventeen senior grade premierships to their credit. They are also one of the competition's best supported clubs, with a name that is recognised by genuine football supporters Australia-wide. What the future holds, however, in a football landscape that is changing faster and more radically than ever, is open to conjecture.