Club History

In 1946, a group of Port Melbourne youngsters formed a football club to play in the VFA Sub-district competition in 1947. They called their club the Port Colts because they were all young and to distinguish themselves from their older counterparts at the Borough. Their jumper was in the traditional Port colours of Red with a Blue Vee. In 1957, a senior team was established locally. Initially, it was called the Middle Park Colts but in 1958 it was renamed the Port Melbourne Colts and adopted the same jumper previously won by the Colts Juniors.

Lagoon Reserve was the initial home ground for the Port Melbourne Colts Seniors but by the early sixties, they moved to Murphy Reserve which is still their home ground today. In the early seventies, the Colts started fielding junior teams and by 1978, were fielding teams at Under 13, Under 15 and Under 17 levels. At the turn of the century, the Port Colts Seniors were playing in the Western Region Football League and fielding teams from Under 8s up to Under 17s. Perhaps the best known former Port Colts junior from that era is Collinwood Women's captain and former Matilda, Breanna Davey.

Unfortunately, by the late 1990s, the number of local junior footballers had shrunk so much that the Colts Seniors were unable to filed any junior teams and, for several years, Port Melbourne boys and girls who wanted to play footy had to turn out for South Districts.

In 2012, Rachel Love whose son was of Auskick age, roped in a group of volunteers to set up an Auskick group at Murphy Reserve. The Auskick program was very successful and these volunteers became the nucleus of the group that established the Port Colts Junior Football Club and they lodged a successful application for the new Colts Juniors to play in the Southern Metropolitan Junior Football club from 2013. The new club adopted the traditional Colts jumper as worn by the Seniors and its home ground was Murphy reserve. In its first year, the Colts fielded an Under 9 Mixed Team, coached by Peter Maloney, and a new era of football began in Port Melbourne. The Auskick program continued and since 2012, has introduced nearly 1000 youngsters to AFL footy. Port Melbourne Auskick enters its twelfth season (it missed two because of COVID) in 2025.

Between 2012 and 2016, the Port Melbourne Colts Juniors fielded only mixed teams. Kerry Ashbrook spearheaded the launch of girls' football in 2015, leading to the club’s first dedicated girls' teams in 2016—an Under 12s and an Under 15s—featuring 33 players. The program rapidly expanded, and by the end of 2019, the Colts had six girls' teams with nearly 140 players. By the 2024 season, the Colts Juniors were fielding stand-alone mixed teams at Under 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12; stand-alone girls' teams at Under 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, and 16; and alliance teams at Under 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17.5. In just 12 years, the club had grown from a single team to twenty teams, marking a significant transformation in its junior football program.

The 'Alliance' concept involves Colts combining their playing list with the playing list from another club (South Districts or St Kilda City) so that players from both clubs can play at the skill level that best suits their football development, rather than each club fielding only one side with a variety of playing abilities at a particular year level. In 2025, the club is fielding Alliance teams with St Kilda City at U13, 14, 15 and 16 and with South Districts at Under 17.5.

Although the Colts Juniors run as a separate entity to the Colts Seniors, Womens and Masters teams, all the teams share Murphy Reserve, and there is a natural progression for our juniors to join these teams. Some players may also spend a year or two at the Sandringham Dragons, as good performances at the Dragons can lead to players being drafted to the AFL. Issy Bacon is our most recent player to be drafted. Starting in our Under 10 Girls side, Issy now plays for Richmond in the AFLW.