Australian Football

Bentleigh

Today’s Bentleigh Football Club began life in 1965 as Bentleigh Methodists. The club was admitted that year to D Grade in the Eastern Suburban Protestant Churches Football Association (ESPCFA - later renamed the ESCFA). It won its first premiership in 1968, thanks to a hefty grand final defeat of Mont Albert, but had to wait until 1990 before procuring its second, this time in B Grade.

During its time in the ES(P)CFA Bentleigh underwent more emblem changes than it won grand finals. Initially nicknamed the Terriers, it was later known as the Bulldogs, and then the Dragons. In 1995 it underwent another nickname change when it adopted a similar playing uniform to AFL club Melbourne and, with sad predictability, became known as the Demons. Two years earlier, the ES(P)CFA had been absorbed into the Southern Football League (SFL) and that was where Bentleigh remained until the end of the 1999 season, proving generally quite competitive, but unable to add to its tally of senior premierships.

It was a similar story for quite a few years after the club crossed to the VAFA in 2000. Despite reaching grand finals in D4 in 2000, and D3 in 2001 and 2006, it failed on each occasion to 'bring home the bacon'. Finally, in 2009, the Demons broke through for their first and only VAFA premiership after downing St Mary's Salesian in the D3 Grade grand final.

Since 2011 Bentleigh has competed in the Southern Football League, reaching a Division Two grand final on debut, only to lose to Highett. Two years later they made amends with a 13.7 (85) to 10.13 (73) grand final defeat of Mordialloc, thereby procuring promotion to Division One, in which they have competed since. In 2016 they qualified for the grand final only to succumb to a humiliating 107 point defeat at the hands of Dingley. A year later they again reached the finals and ultimately finished third before narrowly missing out in 2018 on major round participation when they cam sixth, a result that was repeated in 2019.