League and Cup Honours
When Harry Dockerty first donated the Cup which bore his name in 1909, he could not have envisaged how much the game would grow in such a short space of time. With the exception of the Great War, Men's League and Cup competition has been staged every season in metropolitan Melbourne in some form or another since then. What began life as the Men's First Division, became the State League and then the Premier League, before settling into the National Premier Leagues Victoria from 2014. Women's League and Cup competition began in 1974, and was governed solely by the Victorian Women's Soccer Association until amalgamation with the Victorian Soccer Federation in 1999. The pages here are dedicated to the Men's and Women's top flight League and Cup competitions.
But these competitions are merely a drop in the ocean when you explore the number of leagues administered under the auspice of Football Victoria. Life member and revered football historian John Punshon has filled an important void in documenting the statistical history of the game in Melbourne. As a result, Senior league records can be found on OzFootball, detailing the history of the Men's and Women's game in Melbourne over a period of 113 years. Similarly, Football Victoria's History and Heritage Coordinator, Tony Persoglia, has developed a club archive which attempts to identify club foundation years, mergers and amalgamations.
In time, Football Victoria will be able to showcase junior league records published in various forms over the past half century, with a compilation of end-of-season tables dating back to 1974 almost on the verge of completion. Any assistance in retrieving information missing in the OzFootball archives or which may be able to assist our junior competition research can be forwarded to history@footballvictoria.com.au.