History
The Borough joined the Victorian Football Association (VFA) in 1886 and has played in every season since then. In the late 1890s, Port Melbourne was touted to join the breakaway VFL competition, but was denied membership. In their place, the St Kilda Football Club joined the VFL, an event still talked about to this day. The reason given was the Borough's reputation for poor behaviour by both its players and supporters.
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. This policy was dropped in the 1980's after the recruitment of Emmett Dunne from VFL club Richmond who was a policeman.
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. Traditionally the Borough's greatest rivals are the Williamstown Seagulls and the Sandringham Zebras. All three teams continue to play in the VFL to this day.
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 North Melbourne Kangaroos (2003–2005);
Since 2006, Port Melbourne has existed as a stand-alone VFL club.
Read more about this topic: Port Melbourne Football Club
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I believe that history has shape, order, and meaning; that exceptional men, as much as economic forces, produce change; and that passé abstractions like beauty, nobility, and greatness have a shifting but continuing validity.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)
“We know only a single science, the science of history. One can look at history from two sides and divide it into the history of nature and the history of men. However, the two sides are not to be divided off; as long as men exist the history of nature and the history of men are mutually conditioned.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“... the history of the race, from infancy through its stages of barbarism, heathenism, civilization, and Christianity, is a process of suffering, as the lower principles of humanity are gradually subjected to the higher.”
—Catherine E. Beecher (1800–1878)