Nunawading

Nunawading City came together in 1971 as a club for the Melbourne suburb it still carries in its name. The senior men's side spent decades in Victoria's suburban divisions before its clearest result arrived in 2019, when the team topped the Victorian State League Division 1 South-East and earned promotion into NPL Victoria 3. The club's women had already left their mark in the previous era, reaching the State Knockout Cup final three times, in 1985, 1991 and 1992, without winning any of them.

The name attached to that 2019 promotion is Fahid Ben Khalfallah, the Tunisian who both played for and coached the side that season. Jake Brimmer came through the same pathway between 2011 and 2013 before moving on to Perth Glory and Melbourne Victory, while Liberia international Emile Damey wore the club's colours during his 2016 international call-ups.

2025 brought the club's deepest cup run to date, a Dockerty Cup semi-final lost 0-5 to Heidelberg United, alongside a run to the Round of 32 in the Australia Cup. None of it carries the weight of a named rivalry — no fixture against Springvale White Eagles, Essendon Royals, Malvern City or Eastern Lions has ever been billed as a derby — but those are the sides Nunawading keeps meeting in Victoria Premier League 2, season after season, in matches that matter for the table rather than for history.