The 'Borough' is one of the true pioneers of Australian Rules Football and pre-dates two-thirds of the current AFL clubs in the competition today.

For most of its 150-year history the club have played at the same historic North Port Oval, wearing the same vertical red and blue stripes in front of their legendary passionate and colourful supporters.

Port Melbourne is the most successful club in the VFA/VFL, having won 17 senior men's division 1 premierships three more than its nearest rival Williamstown.

In 1897, Port Melbourne was left out of the group of eight clubs which formed the breakaway VFL competition, despite having regularly been about the sixth- or seventh- best performing team onfield.

[2] The club, and the suburb of Port Melbourne in general, were heavily associated with wharf labourers and the union movement.

[3] Port Melbourne went on to become one of the strongest clubs in the VFA, and today still attracts some of the biggest crowds to its games.

[7] In 2024, Port Melbourne joined the Victorian Blind Football League (VBFL), becoming the first VFL club to do so.

[9][10] Unlike most other clubs, Port Melbourne never adopted a more modern nickname based on an animal or a profession, and remains known as the Borough.