Parkdale Vultures Football Club is a team on the rise in the Victorian Amateur Football Association competition.
Founded in 2004 after an amalgamation between 2 successful local clubs (Mentone Amateur Football Club and Parkdale Football Club), the Vultures are today a progressive, professional organisation and is well on its way to becoming the biggest club in the City of Kingston.
Since the merged club started in 2004 the Senior Team has played in 3 Grand Finals, winning 2 Premierships. In 2014 whilst losing the Grand Final the consolation prize was promotion to Premier B for season 2015. The whole club from the committee, coaches and players are extremely determined to continue our progression to the very top of the VAFA over the coming years.
The club maintains a very close relationship with Mordialloc-Braeside Junior Football Club, which remains a major source of recruits to the Vultures. Over the past few seasons the club have had numerous U19’s players that have come from Mordi-Brae also play in the TAC Cup competition with Sandringham Dragons.
Taking into account the various club mergers, over the entire journey the club has won 11 senior premierships dating back to 1936. Along the way the club has racked up the odd reserves, thirds and junior premiership as well.
The club has provided a platform for emerging young talented players to progress to AFL ranks. Our alumni stretches back to the 1970’s with Rex Hunt and more recently the 2019 GWS Best & Fairest winner Tim Taranto.
In 2019 the club moved into the new Cliff Sambell Pavilion.
The earliest newspaper articles about the Parkdale Football Club date back to 1923.
These articles noted that the club first took up residency at Attenborough Park which now part of the land where Mordialloc Secondary College is built. The club participated in an 18 under junior competition known as the Seaside Junior Association that year. 2 years later the club took up residency on newly cleared scrub land. This land became known as the Parkdale Recreation Reserve (now called Gerry Green reserve) and was officially opened on 25th October 1925.
In the late 1920s Parkdale participated in the Federal Football Association (FFA) in the Under 21 competition. In 1930 the club began to field a team in the senior competition. In 1934 Parkdale joined the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). In its third season the club won the 1936 section C premiership by defeating Malvern. In 1937 the club reached the grand final in section B but were beaten. The club was promoted to the A Section of the VAFA competition in 1938. This remains as the only season that Parkdale participated in the highest grade of the VAFA competition.
From 1940 to 1945, the senior team went into recession during the war. The juniors however continued to participant in the VAFA junior competition. In 1941 Parkdale junior team took part in the grands final only loss to University. In 1946 the Parky senior team returned and remained in the VAFA till 1954.
A move to the Federal league followed. In 1978 Parky won the Premiership in a tough encounter against Oakleigh Districts. In 1982 the club moved cross to the South East Suburban Football League (SESFL) which subsequently became the Southern Football League (SFL) in 1993.
During this period Parkdale won the 1984 Premiers in Division 3, were runners up is Division 2 in 1988 runners up before going one better in 1989 taking out the premiership in Division 2 under the stewardship of Geoff Linke (Coach) and Neil Jenkins (Captain).
The clubs final premiership for the then “Seagulls” was an SFL Division 1 flag in 1995 defeating Noble Park.
St Patricks Mentone Football Club was formed in 1969 and participated in the YCW National Football League (YCWNFL) with moderate success in the late 70s.
The clubs first premiership Section C (South) occurred in 1976, lead on field by Mark Bowden (Captain) and coached by Brian Rose. A move to the Eastern Suburban Churches Football Association (ESCFA) in 1980, brought about a Premiership in Section E in 1982 beating Aquinas College by 35 points.
Further success occurred in 1989 under Mark Bowden. In 1991 the club moved to the VAFA and in 2000, the club changed its name to Mentone Amateur Football Club.
The following year the club won the Section D2 premiership as undefeated Champions.