Southern Football Netball League

Formerly	South East Suburban Football League
Sport	Australian rules football
Founded	1963; 60 years ago (1963)
No. of teams	36
Level on pyramid	4
Relegation to	Division 2 Division 3 Division 4
Official website	sfnl.com.au

The Southern Football Netball League is an Australian rules football league, based in the south and south eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, for both seniors and juniors.

History

The South East Suburban Football League was formed in 1963 as a merger of the Caulfield Oakleigh District Football League with the East Suburban Football League after a number of its clubs moved to the Croydon Ferntree Gully FL (now Eastern Football League).

When the Federal Football League folded at the end of 1981, the SESFL had twenty clubs. After the addition of all but one of the Federal clubs for 1982, the league had a 16 team A grade, and a 12 team B grade competition. The league twice tried 3 divisions but the idea was later dropped as clubs left or folded.

In a major project in 1991, the league underwent a major revamp of its administration and opted to employ a full-time administrator and staff to manage the league's affairs. The League's administration along with its member clubs undertook a far-reaching corporate planning programme to map out future directions and objectives. The extra manpower allowed the elevation of League and club standards and the improved marketability of attracting the corporate sponsorship that modern football now required to keep the organisation afloat. Much of this work was completed by early 1992 and it was decided that a new name would be required to flow on from the work already achieved. The Southern Football League was adopted to show that a new professionalism was running football in the southern suburbs.

The league had another major change in 1993, when it absorbed the Eastern Suburbs Churches Football Association. The newly merged league began in 1993 with around 50 clubs playing 5 divisions, though this had dropped to 28 clubs in 3 divisions by 2002 due to clubs folding, merging, or moving to other competitions.^[1]

In April 1997, the Southern Football Show began on Optus Vision's Localvision channel, covering the weekly news of the league.^[2][3] It moved to Channel 31 Melbourne the following year. This program soon became known as the Southern Footy Show. It later expanded its scope to become the Local Footy Show, covering many Melbourne leagues until 2011.

In the new millennium, the league grew slightly with the addition of the Southern Dragons in 2009, Endeavour Hills in 2011 and Hallam in 2012. The Dragons returned to the VAFA after the 2012 season,^[4] but the revival of Carrum Patterson Lakes FC in 2013 after almost 20 years in recess kept the league at 31 clubs.^[5]

The 2014 SFL third division seniors grand final was called off after a brawl broke out between players and supporters. The game in which Mount Waverley was taking on Carrum Patterson Lakes. A police spokeswoman said supporters started heckling one of the teams as it left the ground at half-time. A fight broke out and one person was treated in hospital. The game was called off when one of the teams refused to return to the field."^[6]

In 2015, acknowledging the netball part of the competition, the league changed its name to Southern Football Netball League. ^[7] The 2015 season was also a time when the Southern Dragons went into recess.

In 2016 Port Melbourne Colts transferred in from Western Region Football League, and Lyndhurst FC fielded a senior side for the first time.^[8]

2017 saw the introduction of women's football.

The inclusion of 3 clubs enabled the league to have 4 men's divisions for 2018.

Premiers

South East Suburban FL premiers

Current Clubs (2023 season)

Division 1

Colours	Club	Nickname	Location	Home Ground	Website	Years in Comp	SFL Premierships
	Bentleigh	Demons	Bentleigh	Bentleigh Reserve	Official Site	1993-	Div 2: 2013
	Chelsea Heights	Demons	Chelsea Heights	Beazley Reserve	Official Site	1993-	Div 2: 2000, 2017, 2022 Div 3: 1995
	Cheltenham	Rosellas	Cheltenham	Cheltenham Reserve	Official Site	1982-	Div 2: 1992, 1993, 1995
	Cranbourne	Eagles	Cranbourne East	Livingston Reserve	Facebook	2022-	Div 1: 2022
	Dingley	Dingoes	Dingley Village	Souter Oval	Official Site	2007-	Div 1: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019 Div 2: 2008
	Mordialloc	Bloodhounds	Mordialloc	Ben Kavanagh Reserve	Facebook	1988–	Div 2: 1999, 2014
	Port Melbourne	Colts	Port Melbourne	JL Murphy Reserve	Facebook	1975-80, 2016-	A2 1975 Div 2: 2016
	Springvale Districts	Demons	Springvale	Springvale Reserve	Official Site	1993-	Div 2: 2007 Div 3: 2018
	St Kilda City	Saints	St Kilda	Peanut Farm Reserve	Official Site	1965-	A2: 1971, 1980 Div 1: 2002, 2007, 2009, 2010 Div 2: 1998, 2005 Div 3: 1994
	St Pauls	Bulldogs	Bentleigh	McKinnon Reserve	Official Site	1993-	Div 1: 2008, 2011, 2013, 2018

Division 2

Colours	Club	Nickname		Home Ground	Club Website	Years in Comp	SFL Premierships
	Black Rock	Jets	Black Rock	McDonald Reserve	Official Site	1986-	Div 3: 2004, 2007, 2015, 2022
	Caulfield Bears	Bears	Carnegie	Koornang Park	Official Site	1993-	Div 2: 1994
	Doveton	Doves	Doveton	Robinson Oval	Official Site	2022-	-
	East Brighton	Vampires	Brighton East	Hurlingham Park	Official Site	1963-	A1: 1966, 1973, 1976, 1991 A2: 1988 Div 1: 1993, 2004, 2012, 2014 Div 2: 2002
	East Malvern (Known as Tooronga/Malvern prior to 2012)	Panthers	Malvern East	D. W. Lucas Oval	Official Site	1964-	A2: 1978, 1985, 1990 Div 2: 2012 Div 3: 2001
	Hampton Park	Redbacks	Hampton Park	Robert Booth Reserve		2018-	Div 3: 2019
	Highett (known as Highett Districts prior to 1997)	Bulldogs	Highett	Turner Road Reserve	Official Site	1989-	Div 2: 2004, 2011, 2018 Div 3: 1996
	Keysborough	Burras	Keysborough	Rowley Allan Reserve	Official Site	2015-	-
	Murrumbeena	Lions	Murrumbeena	Murrumbeena Park	Official Site	1963-	A1: 1963, 1974 Div 2: 2003 Div 3: 1993
	Skye	Bombers	Carrum Downs	Carrum Downs Recreation Reserve	Facebook	2006-	Div 3: 2009

Division 3

Colours	Club	Nickname	Location	Home Ground	Club website	Years in Comp	SFL Premierships
	Ashwood	Magpies	Ashwood	Essex Heights Reserve	Official Site	1985-	Div 2: 1996, 2001
	Carrum Patterson Lakes	Lions[9]	Carrum	Roy Dore Reserve	Official Site	2013- Reformed, Carrum FC folded after the 1996 season in the MPNFL	-
	Clayton	Clays	Clayton	Meade Reserve	Facebook	1982-1985, 1999 -	A1: 1982, 1984 Div 1: 2001, 2006 Div 2: 2010
	Endeavour Hills	Falcons	Endeavour Hills	Barry Simon Reserve	Facebook	2011-
	Frankston Dolphins	Dolphins	Frankston South	Overport Park	Official Site	2018-	-
	Heatherton	Tunners	Heatherton	Heatherton Recreation Reserve	Official Site	1993-	Div 2: 2006, 2009 Div 3: 1998
	Lyndhurst	Lightning	Lyndhurst	Marriott Waters Reserve	Official Site	2016-	Div 4: 2022
	Narre South Saints	Saints	Narre Warren South	Strathaird Reserve	Official Site	2020-

Division 4

Colours	Club	Nickname	Location	Home Ground	Club website	Years in Comp	SFL Premierships
	Dandenong	Redlegs[10]	Dandenong	Greaves Reserve	Official site	1993- (known as Dandenong West until 2003, Dandenong Demons until 2009) (Not connected to former VFA club Dandenong)	-
	Doveton Eagles	Eagles	Doveton	Power Reserve	Official Site	1995-	Div 2: 2019 Div 3: 2013, 2017 Div 4: 1995
	Hampton	Hammers	Highett	Peterson Street Reserve	Official Site	2022-	-
	Lyndale	Pumas	Noble Park North	Barry Powell Reserve	Official Site	1993-	Div 3: 2000 Div 4: 1997 Div 5: 1995
	Moorabbin	Kangaroos	Hampton East	A.W Oliver Reserve	Official Site	1993-	Div 3: 2005, 2012 Div 5: 1993
	South Mornington	Tigers	Mount Martha	Citation Oval	Official Site	2006, 2020-	-

Thirds Only

Colours	Club	Nickname	Location	Home Ground	Club Website	Years in Comp	SFL Premierships
	Cerberus - Merged with South Mornington Thirds for 2023 season	Dogs	HMAS Cerberus	McAuliffe Oval		2018- Reformed (Previously competed 2004-2010)	Div 4: 2018
	Heatherhill	Hawks	Frankston	Bruce Park	Facebook	2023-	-
	Sandown Cobras	Cobras	Springvale	Edinburgh Reserve	Official Site	1963-1976, 2002-	1967, 1972, 1987, 1997
	South Yarra	Lions	Balwyn North	Leigh Park	Facebook	1993-	Div 3: 2008 Div 4: 1993, 2019

Women's Division 1

Colours	Club	Nickname	Location	Home Ground	Club Website	Years in Comp	SF Premierships
	Bentleigh	Demons	Bentleigh	Bentleigh Reserve	Official Site	2018-
	Black Rock	Jets	Black Rock	McDonald Reserve	Official Site	2022-	Div 2: 2022
	Casey Thunder	Thunder	Cranbourne East	The Hunt Club Reserve	Facebook	2021-
	Frankston Dolphins	Dolphins	Frankston South	Overport Park	Official Site	2018-
	Murrumbeena	Lions	Murrumbeena	Murrumbeena Park	Official Site	2018-	Div 1: 2018, 2017
	Narre South Saints	Saints	Narre Warren South	Strathaird Reserve	Official Site	2022-

Women's Division 2

Colours	Club	Nickname	Location	Home Ground	Club Website	Years in Comp	SFL Premierships
	Chelsea Heights	Demons	Chelsea Heights	Beazley Reserve	Official Site	2023-
	East Brighton	Vampires	Brighton East	Hurlingham Park	Official Site	2018-
	Casey Thunder	Thunder	Cranbourne East	The Hunt Club Reserve	Facebook	2021-
	Clayton	Clays	Clayton	Meade Reserve	Facebook	2018-	Div 2: 2018
	Lyndale	Pumas	Noble Park North	Barry Powell Reserve	Official Site	2018-	Div 2: 2019
	Skye	Bombers	Carrum Downs	Carrum Downs Recreation Reserve	Facebook	2021-

Previous Clubs

Folded/In Recess

Merged

Moved to Eastern Football League

Moved to Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League

• Carrum Downs Football Club

Moved to Northern Football League

• Lower Plenty Football Club

Moved to Victorian Amateur Football Association

Moved to Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League/Outer East FNL

• Boronia Park Football Club 1999
• Hallam Football Netball Club 2023