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The Bentleigh Junior Football Club is a member of the Southern Metro Junior Football League, in the suburb of Bentleigh,in the city of Melbourne, Australia.

History

Junior Football in the local area began in 1956 when the Bentleigh Tigers (King George VI Reserve) played the McKinnon Demons (Bailey Reserve) in the inaugural game.

The Bentleigh McKinnon Youth Centre then organised a competition for the Under 11, Under 13 and the Under 15 age groups which catered for the boys in the area. The competition was strong and the demand for positions in the teams was high with very few sporting options available for boys. By the late 1950s, the Bentleigh Tigers were very strong in numbers and the excess of players in the area brought about the formation of the Bentleigh Bulldogs in the early 1960s. Players who went on to play VFL football from the Bentleigh Tigers included Greg Wells, Gary Hardeman, Trevor Barker and Geoff Raines.

When the Bentleigh Bulldogs and the Bentleigh Tigers merged in 1984, other Clubs in the area followed suit. St. Catherines joined Rowans Rd to form Moorabbin United (now Highett), St. Pauls joined the Demons to form St. Pauls Demons and Glen Orme joined Ormond Blues to form Ormond. The merging of the Bentleigh Bulldogs and the Bentleigh Tigers formed the Bentleigh Junior Football Club. From 1985 until 1997, the Bentleigh Junior Football Club wore the North Melbourne strip which was the colours that were decided upon by the players.

In 1998, the Bentleigh Junior Football Club changed its’ colours to the Melbourne strip as part of the alignment with the Bentleigh Senior Football Club.

The Bentleigh Junior Football Club has fielded between one and nine teams from Under 8 to Under 17 throughout its’ history.

2021 & Beyond

A highlight in 2021 was the drafting of Luke Nankervis who played over a 100 games with the club, and he was drafted to the Adelaide Crows. Other players to be drafted recently that have played at Bentleigh include Josh Worrell (Adelaide Crows) & Joel Amartey (Sydney Swans)

In recent years premierships were secured with 3 in 2022, 5 in 2023 and 2 in 2024.