Early history

After competing in junior competitions, Coburg was always keen to be promoted up the ranks. They joined the Melbourne District Association and were premiers in 1913, 1914 and again in 1920 (premiers and champions), their strength helped them get promoted to the Victorian Football League reserves from 1921 until 1924, Coburg was admitted as a senior club in the Victorian Football Association in 1925^[5] – as a response to Footscray, North Melbourne and Hawthorn joining the VFL^[6]

Coburg was immediately successful in the VFA, playing finals in its first season and winning three consecutive premierships from 1926 until 1928; however, these were the club's last top-division premiership for more than fifty years. Coburg was runners-up to the Northcote in three successive seasons from 1932 to 1934, and was also runners-up in 1941. The club was dominant in the junior/seconds competition from its inception in 1928 up to World War II, winning nine seconds premierships in thirteen seasons, including four in a row from 1937 until 1940.^[7]

Coburg has the second highest number of reported players in a VFA match, which occurred in the 1933 grand final against Northcote.

The Lions gained prolific goal kickers Lance Collins and Bob Pratt during the 1930s and 1940s. Collins, in his first full season in 1936 (he was injured in 1935 and played one game), kicked 16, 12, 11 and 10 goals in separate games to kick 116 goals for the season; in 98 games for Coburg Football Club (VFA) his tally was 432 goals. Bob Pratt, who crossed from the VFL without a clearance early in the throw-pass era, kicked 183 goals in the 1941 VFA season for Coburg, which was then the highest number of goals kicked in a VFA season until Ron Todd of Williamstown (VFA) beat that record and kicked 188 goals in 1945. Pratt and Collins together hold the record for the most goals by two players in a season: they kicked a total of 256 goals in 1941. Pratt kicked 22 goals in a match against Sandringham Football Club: a club record.

1965–1970: Financial struggle

The club's existence was threatened in 1965, when the City of Coburg leased Coburg Oval to the VFL's North Melbourne Football Club, leaving the club without a home ground.^[8] After going into debt attempting to fight the council's move,^[9] the club came to an arrangement to merge with North Melbourne,^[10] and fourteen committeemen left the club and moved to North Melbourne as part of the merge; but, dissenting committeemen and life members opposed to the merger formed a rival committee, and with the support of the VFA executive, were able to continue operating Coburg as a stand-alone club in 1965,^[11] playing games in Port Melbourne. The club's future was still in doubt until it could find a new permanent home ground; but North Melbourne's move to Coburg Oval, which was intended to be long-term, ended up lasting only one season, allowing Coburg to return to Coburg Oval and continue operating there from 1966 onwards.

The only J.J. Liston trophy winner for Coburg was Jim Sullivan in 1967. Prior to 1943 the Best and Fairest Award in the VFA was the 'Recorder Cup'. Coburg VFA winners were Peter Reville (ex-South Melbourne VFL) who was the equal winner in 1936 and E. "Snowy" Martin in 1927.

Jim Sullivan was credited by club statistics to have amassed 54 kicks in a match in 1969, which is the second highest recorded in senior football competition and the highest in the VFA competition.

1978–1990: Premierships and revival

After many years in the doldrums, the club enjoyed somewhat of a rebirth in the late 1970s, with a continued period of success until the 1990. During that time, the club won three flags (1979, 1988 and 1989), finished runner-up another two times (1980 and 1986) and won four minor premierships (1980, 1986, 1988 and 1989). Even so, the club's off-field position was not secure during this time, and the club was at risk of folding in 1982–83.^[12] VFA legend Phil Cleary was a member of all these games, as either a player or a coach.

1990–1998: Lean years

After the success of the 1970s and 80s, the 1990s proved to be lean years for Coburg.

After the departure of club legend Phil Cleary as coach in 1992, the club hired the services of Alex Jeaseaulenko, who coached the club to a winless season in 1993.

Coburg would subsequently go onto finish last in both the 1997 and 1998 seasons.

1999–2000: Coburg-Fitzroy Lions

For the 1999 and 2000 seasons, Coburg entered into a partnership with the Fitzroy Football Club.

Fitzroy, which had played in the VFA between 1884 and 1896, then in the VFL/AFL from 1897 until 1996, no longer operated a football team following the creation of the Brisbane Lions in late 1996, but it still had an administrative presence. Under what was effectively a sponsorship arrangement, Coburg became known as the Coburg-Fitzroy Lions, taking its new name at the beginning of August 1999. The club retained navy blue and red as its main colours, but adopted Fitzroy's red, royal blue and gold colours as an alternative strip

Despite large crowds of both Lions fans attending the home games, financial problems and AFL pressure, meant that Coburg were forced to align with an AFL reserves side, and the partnership with Fitzroy was severed at the end of the 2000 season.

2001–2013: Richmond alignment

Coburg's logo when they were known as the Coburg Tigers in their alignment with Richmond

From 2001 until 2013, Coburg had an alignment in place with the AFL's Richmond Football Club, which saw Richmond's players eligible to play senior football for Coburg when not selected in the AFL. During this time, the club changed its nickname from the Lions to the Tigers. Its best performance during that time was during 2007, when the seniors finished as runners-up and the reserves side won the premiership.

2014–present: Return of the Lions

The affiliation with the Richmond Football Club ended after the 2013 season;^[13] Coburg returned to operations as a stand-alone senior club in the VFL from 2014, and returned to the nickname "Lions". The club is yet to achieve any success since its return to stand-alone operation, and has not finished outside the bottom four during this period, with the exception of the 2021 season. During this time, the club was coached by Peter German (2014–2017),^[14] Leigh Adams (2018–2019)^[15] and Andrew Sturgess (2020-2022).^[16]

On 14 November 2022, former Collingwood Development Coach Jamie Cassidy-McNamara was appointed as the Lions new Senior Coach on a two-year deal commencing in 2023, following the shock departure of Sturgess.

Rivalries

The club has strong rivalries with Port Melbourne, Williamstown and Preston. The rivalry with Port Melbourne stems from both clubs particularly spiteful encounters throughout the 1980 VFA season culminating in the 1980 grand final which Port won by 11 points. This was added to further in 2018 when Lions captain Tom Goodwin walked out of the club to play for Port Melbourne and later in 2021 when its star midfielder Marcus Lentini also joined the Borough. The rivalry with Williamstown originated in the 1980s. After the Seagulls narrowly beat Coburg to claim the 1986 VFA premiership, the Lions would go back to back in 1988 and 1989 beating Williamstown on both occasions. Coburg and the Preston/Northern Bullants share a strong local rivalry and compete in the Battle of Bell Street.

Home ground

Coburg City Oval has the home ground of the Coburg Football Club throughout its history, except in 1965, when it served as the home of the North Melbourne Football Club in the VFL season; during that season, Coburg played its home matches at North Port Oval in Port Melbourne.^[17] The ground has a grandstand on the southern end near the goals. Terraces surround the rest of the ground. The capacity of the ground is 15,000, and the highest attendance recorded was 21,695. There are seats for approximately 3,000–5,000 people. From 2011, Coburg City Oval was known as Mantello Holden Oval. In 2014, club General Manager Craig Lees signed a three-year naming rights deal with Piranha Foods , with the ground to be known as Piranha Park until 2016. The Naming Rights deal was extended for another three seasons in September, 2016.

From early 2020 to May 2021 the ground underwent a much needed redevelopment, with works done on the grandstand, club offices, club facilities, and ground drainage.^[18]

Club

Individual

Games records

Dave Starbuck holds the club record for games, with 219, played mostly in the 1950s. He is closely followed by cult figure, Vin "The Tank" Taranto, who played during the 1980s and the dark days of the 1990s, when the club was at its lowest and almost folded. Third on the games list, on 205 games, is Cleary.

Team of the Century