South Melbourne Football Club is an Australian football club. It was formed in 1959 after a merger between three local clubs - South Melbourne United, Hellenic and Yarra Park. The club was initially known as South Melbourne Hellas and easily won the Victorian First Division North title in its first year of competition. Promoted to the Victorian State League First Division they finished fifth in their first season and won the competition in their second.
South were founding members of the National Soccer League (NSL) in 1977 and finished 11th in its opening season. A major recruiting drive the next season resulted in a third place finish. A bottom place finish the next season forced coach John Margaritis to rebuild the side and resulted in another third place finish in 1980. English coach Tommy Docherty was imported but could do no better than 6th place and was dismissed. 1983 saw a fourth place finish.
Hellas lifted their first national title in 1984 when after finishing first in the Southern Conference of a restructured competition they beat local rivals Heidelberg to earn a place in the first NSL Grand Final. They then defeated Sydney Olympic 2-1 in both legs, home and away, to win the league. 1985 again saw the Southern Conference topped but a disastrous finals series meant an early exit. The next year was a failure with a seventh place finish. With the competition reverting back to a one division national competition in 1987 South again struggled and finished 6th behind champions APIA Leichardt .
1988 began a run of several consecutive finals appearances. After finishing third in the regular season South again exited the finals early after losing two games. 1989, the last winter season of the NSL, saw an 8th place finish. Second place was achieved in the 1989-90 summer season but once again the club suffered the indignity of throwing away a "double chance" by losing both its finals and being eliminated.
A second national title was achieved in the 1990-91 season when South beat Melbourne Croatia (now Melbourne Knights) in a thrilling penalty shootout in front of 23,318 at Olympic Park. The feat could not be repeated the next year as the club were eliminated by eventual Premiers Adelaide City in a Preliminary Final.
Minor Premiers by five clear points in 1992-93, the side that had only conceded 23 goals in 26 matches during the regular season suddenly let in 11 in three games against Adelaide City and Marconi-Fairfield and were again eliminated early. 1993-94 ended in a second place finish and yet another straight sets exit in the playoffs - this time at the hands of Melbourne Croatia and Adelaide City. The 1994-95 finals series saw a first up win against the Morwell Falcons but elimination at the hands of Melbourne Croatia in the Preliminary Final.
1995-96 found South in crisis, finishing 8th and missing the playoffs by 8 points. In 1996-97, having adopted the nickname "Lakers", (a name they were later forced to abandon, through the threat of legal action by the NBA) South Melbourne finished third in what was briefly known as the A-League. Local rivals the Melbourne Knights (formerly Melbourne Croatia) were eliminated easily, and a Con Blatsis goal a minute into extra time eliminated Adelaide City, but Sydney United proved a tougher proposition and South were beaten in a Preliminary Final 1-0.
South Melbourne's final game in the National Soccer League took place on March 20, 2004 at Hindmarsh Stadium in Adelaide. The final score was Adelaide United 2, South Melbourne 1 (AET).
The club entered voluntary administration in the months after the 2003-04 season concluded. A deal was reached with creditors and the club will take its place in the Victorian Premier League for the 2005 season.
