Melbourne Knights

Melbourne Knights FC was founded in 1953 as Croatia by a small group of Croatian immigrants in Melbourne's western suburbs. The club played its first match on 10 April 1953. The Knights became a member of the Victorian Soccer Federation in 1954, which saw the club join and compete in a league competition for the first time that same year in the newly created Victorian Provisional League. The club quickly moved up the state divisions and by the mid-1960s had become one of the strongest clubs in Victoria, winning the State League title in 1968, 1978 and 1979. In 1984 after a number of years of lobbying the Knights finally joined Australia's elite soccer competition, the National Soccer League. By the 1990s the club had become the premier soccer club in Australia as it made the NSL Grand Final 5 out of 6 seasons, winning it twice in 1994–95 and 1995–96. Following the disbanding of the NSL in 2004 the Knights dropped to the Victorian Premier League, making the Grand Final in 2008. Knights won the Dockerty Cup in 2014, the club's first piece of major silverware in 18 years.