Bentleigh Football Club

The Bentleigh Football Netball Club is an Australian rules football club located in the southern suburbs of Melbourne. The club participates in the First Division Southern Football Netball League, based in the south and south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

History

The club was established in 1965,^[1] and was originally called Bentleigh Methodists Football Club. In 1965 the club had enough seniors to enter the Eastern Suburban Churches Football Association D grade and won nine and lost nine games.

In 1968 the club won their first premiership downing Mont Albert by 98 points. Promoted to C grade, the club lost the C grade grand final in 1970 and the B grade in 1971. The ESCFA had a system of both Grand Finals teams got promoted so to avoid the risk of a side playing dead so not to get promoted. By 1972 they were in A grade.

In 1977 following the merger of the Methodist and Presbyterians Churches to form the Uniting Church of Australia the club became Bentleigh Uniting. Later the ESCFA would drop the required for a football club to be aligned to a church so the club shorten it's name to Bentleigh in the hope of broadening support among the Bentleigh community

The absorption of the ESCFA by the Southern FL in 1993 meant the club was in the new league until 1999.

The rising costs of players payments and the caused the club to join the Amateurs in 2000. The club competed in the VAFA until 2010, along the way they won the (D3) premiership in 2009.

In 2011 the club rejoined the Southern FL and played off in the 2011 Div 2 Grand Final going down to Highett. In 2013 the won the Division 2 premiership, winning 13.7 85 to Mordialloc 10.13.73

In 2015 the name became Bentleigh Football and Netball Club to include the netballers and acknowledge the efforts they put in for the club.

References

External links

• Southern Football League website