Northern Knights Football Club
The Northern Knights Football Club, known as the Knights, is an Australian rules football team in the Talent League, Victoria’s top under-18 competition. Based in Preston, a northern suburb of Melbourne, the club wears white and navy blue and plays at Preston City Oval. It was founded in 1992.
In 2025, they finished 7th in the regular season and 9th after finals. The coach is Leigh Clarke and the captain is Brayden Gillard.
The Knights were created by the Victorian State Football League to promote junior development and help players reach the AFL draft. Many Knights players have been drafted to the AFL, including Matthew Kreuzer and Trent Cotchin (the first two picks in 2007) and Michael Hurley (the fifth pick in 2008). Other notable draftees include Anthony Rocca, Brent Harvey, Jack Grimes, Lance Whitnall, Brent Stanton, Heath Shaw, Marcus Bontempelli and David Zaharakis.
Northern Knights have won four Talent League premierships in a row, from 1993 to 1996, the first club to win three consecutive premierships in the competition. They have not won a Talent League Boys premiership since.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 03:01 (CET).