A newly established club in Melbourne’s outer east will hit the SFNL in 2025

There’s a new football club in Melbourne’s outer east. Here’s how it formed, what it’s about and its five-year vision.

Clyde is starting its senior journey in the Southern league in 2025.

There will be a new kid on the block in 2025.

Clyde, based in Melbourne’s outer east, will be joining the Southern Football Netball League next year as a start-up senior club.

The Cougars’ one senior team will start in the Southern league’s Open Grade competition, previously known as Thirds.

They’ll don green and yellow and will be the senior entity of the junior club, which fielded 12 teams in the South Metro Junior Football League in 2024.

Club president Clint Fitzgerald, who is also the vice president of the junior club, and Adrian McIntyre have steered its establishment.

“It’s something I have visioned for the last couple of years but we didn’t have our own ground yet,” Fitzgerald said.

“We had to wait until our ground was redeveloped and get one full season in as juniors before we started going hard for it.

“I got a message from Adrian McIntyre, who is already playing and he asked if we were going to have a senior club.

“Once he come on board, it was the two of us who got it going on from there.”

Clyde's new logo, set to be unveiled in the Southern league in 2025.

The team will likely be made up of junior dads and locals during its infancy, as Clyde’s oldest junior boys side will be under-14s next year.

But that timeline won’t put the brakes on the Cougars’ goals to grow.

“I have played in footy clubs my whole life, so I just want this club to be one of the big clubs over time,” Fitzgerald said.

“Eventually we want it to be like every club: A junior pathway through to senior footy.

“Our oldest age is under-14s so the team now would be made up with some of the dads of the club and then locals.

“Clyde is a massive growing area and there’s plenty of blokes who know how to play footy and want to play footy but don’t want to travel for training and games.

“I hope anyone who is in the local area and wants to have a game will come down.”

Clyde “isn’t setting a limit” on how quickly it joins the Southern league’s divisional ranks but hopes to be there in at least five years.

“In five years I would hope we would have 19s, seniors, reserves and women’s,” Fitzgerald said.

“By then all our juniors would be hitting the under-19s pathway so that’s the long-term plan.

“This year it’s just ‘let’s get our name out there, get a team on the park and build from there’.

“We haven’t put a timeline on it but we’re not in any rush, we just want to have a pathway for the juniors, that’s why we have a five-year plan to get into divisional.

“Whether it’s the year after or in three, four years, we’re not setting a limit on it – it will be just whatever works for the league and for us.”

Clyde’s junior jumper.

SFNL CEO Lee Hartman said it was “fantastic” to have another senior club enter the competition.

“It’s exciting for the league, we know that Casey corridor is growing rapidly,” he said.

“Clyde has 20,000 people but will grow to 80,000 in the next 30 years so we know we will have some new clubs out of that area.

“For a junior club to go up to a senior club is fantastic, we’ve had about eight of our current clubs grow from junior clubs in the past.

“To have Clyde join and play in the Open Grade in 2025 and look to divisional from there, it’s quite exciting.”

The Southern league is looking to have four divisions of 10 teams but it will only accept clubs like Clyde which fit the criteria.

“No doubt we would like to get to four divisions of 10 but we have to make sure it’s the right clubs who are a good fit and we believe Clyde will be in time,” Hartman said.

“We’re not just looking for clubs to make up those numbers, we’re looking to make sure they’re the right fit, sustainable and we think Clyde definitely will be.”

Fitzgerald said the Cougars have had interest but encouraged more locals to lace up.

“We’ve got about 20 or 30 blokes who are interested straight away and that’s without fully advertising yet so it’s taken off pretty quick,” he said.