South Melbourne

The men who built South Melbourne were: three Greek-Australian sides in the same corner of the city — Hellenic, Yarra Park Aias and South Melbourne United — decided in 1959 that one club served them better than three.

It survived until 1996, when Soccer Australia set about stripping ethnic markers from club names and the team was pushed into calling itself South Melbourne Lakers. That lasted two years, helped along by an American basketball franchise threatening to go to court over it. The club became South Melbourne Soccer Club, then simply South Melbourne FC in 2005.

The four NSL titles came either side of the renaming. The last two ran back to back — Carlton beaten 2–1 in 1998, Sydney United 3–2 a year later — but the one supporters return to is 1991, settled on penalties against Melbourne Knights. In state competition the record is heavier still: ten Dockerty Cups, the most recent in 2024 against Manningham United Blues, which showed the club can still get over the line without a national league to play in.

Matches against Sydney Olympic carry their own name, the Greek Derby, and their own trophy in the Greek Herald Cup. The table goes out of the window in those games.

South Melbourne has never won the Australia Cup; semi-finals in 2017 and 2024 are as far as it has gone. Nor has it played in the A-League, absent since that competition began.

Home is Lakeside Stadium in Albert Park, 10,000 capacity, 6,000 of them seated — the club moved there after leaving Middle Park in 1995. The colours have not moved at all: royal blue and white, worn since three small clubs decided to become one.