Melbourne Football Club

Australia

Founded

1858

Arena

Melbourne Cricket Ground · 100,024 cap

The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is an Australian rules football club, playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). It is named after and based in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, and plays its home games at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Melbourne is the world's oldest professional club of any football code. The club's origins can be traced to an 1858 letter in which Tom Wills, captain of the Victoria cricket team, calls for the formation of a "foot-ball club" with its own "code of laws". An informal Melbourne team played that winter and was officially formed in May 1859 when Wills and three other members codified "The Rules of the Melbourne Football Club"—the basis of Australian rules football. The club was a dominant force in the earliest Australian rules football competition, the Challenge Cup, and was also a foundation member of the Victorian Football Association (VFA) in 1877 and the Victorian Football League (VFL) in 1897, which later became the national Australian Football League. Melbourne has won 13 VFL/AFL premierships, the latest in 2021.

West Coast Eagles

Australia

Founded

1986

Arena

Optus Stadium · 61,266 cap

The West Coast Eagles are an Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia, currently playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Representing the Australian state of Western Australia, in particular the Perth metropolitan region, the club trains and plays its home games at Subiaco Oval (Domain Stadium) in Subiaco, having previously also played matches at the WACA Ground. The club is one of two Australian Football League clubs based in Western Australia, with the other being the Fremantle Football Club. The club was founded in 1986 as an expansion team and entered the competition the following season, along with the Brisbane Bears, making the finals series for the first time in 1988. West Coast won its first premiership in 1992, after being defeated in the grand final the previous year, winning two more in 1994 and 2006. The club's current coach is Adam Simpson, and the current captain is Shannon Hurn. From the 2014 season onwards, the East Perth Football Club, playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL), has served as West Coast's reserves team, with West Coast players previously distributed among all WAFL teams.