Albert Park Football Club (historically styled as Albert-park) was a 19th-century

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

club based in the Melbourne suburb of Albert Park. The club was one of main first-rate senior football clubs during the unaffiliated era of Victorian football. The club was established as the South Melbourne Football Club in May 1867. It changed its name to Emerald-hill in April 1868, then to Albert-park in May 1869. It played its home games at the Emerald-hill Ground. The club quickly became one of the main senior clubs competing at the time. The best performance in its history was in the 1870 season; it was undefeated, but it finished second for the premiership behind , which was also undefeated. The club also claimed the South Yarra Presentation Challenge Cup during the 1870 season, although the claim was disputed by the other clubs: rules required that a club was to win four cup matches without loss to claim permanent ownership of the Cup, but the other clubs disputed Albert-park's right to claim

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victory against

Railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

when the latter club declined to play a scheduled game due to insufficient players turning up. In claiming the walkover, Albert-park players took to the field against no opposition and scored two goals, in a similar manner to the traditional ceremony of an unopposed horse "walking over" the track to claim a walkover victory – something one sportswriter described at the time as "simply absurd and unprecedented," but which later became common practice in the event of such a forfeiture. In 1876, the club entered an amalgamation with , but the amalgamation ended one year later when North Melbourne was re-established as an independent club under the name 'Hotham'. In 1877, Albert-park was an inaugural senior member of the

Victorian Football Association The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

. In 1880, Albert-park amalgamated with the neighbouring , which had joined the VFA as a senior club in 1879, to create a new club which carried on South Melbourne's name but retained Albert-park's red and white colours. The merged club went on to dominate metropolitan football during the 1880s, winning five premierships in ten years, and exists today as the professional

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a reser ...

club in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

. A newer, unrelated club called the Albert Park Football Club competes today in the

Victorian Amateur Football Association The Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) is the largest senior community Australian rules football competition in Victoria. It consists of seven senior men's and women's divisions ranging from Premier to Division 4. In addition there ...

References

{{VFL Former Victorian Football League clubs Australian rules football clubs in Melbourne