Dandenong Thunder SC

Early years

The club was founded in 1970 as South Dandenong Prishtina S.C. by Albanian migrants. Even today the club is primarily backed and supported by Albanians and Albanian-Australians living in Melbourne. They started competing in the Victorian District League East Division, which was the eighth tier of football (soccer) in Victorian Football Pyramid. For decades they were playing in the lower divisions until the mid-1990s when they started to climb the entire Victorian pyramid. In 1994 they were playing in State League Division 3, and every year managed to get promotion to a higher level until they reached the Victorian Premier League in 1998.

1990s

After a successful 1997 season, when they became the champions of Victorian State League Division 1, South Dandenong Prishtina S.C. played their first ever Victorian Premier League season in 1998. Being led by their player-coach Fadil Muriqi, the team managed to stay in the Victorian Premier League after finishing the season in 12th place. Same thing didn't happen in the following season and the team was relegated to Victorian State League Division 1.

2000–2013

They came back in Victorian Premier League in 2001 but were relegated again as the season ended.

At the end of the 2001 season, South Dandenong underwent a name change, becoming Dandenong Thunder. They spent the following seven seasons in the Victorian State League Division 1. The Club began spending more on players in 2007, bringing in Veton Korcari from Richmond SC and Louis Brain, a former A-League player for Adelaide United and were promoted from State League 1 in 2008.

Thunder surprised everyone in their return to the top flight, clinching the 2009 Victorian Premier League Minor Premiership with a lead of 12 points. Thunder managed to go undefeated for the first 15 rounds of the season, taking their running total to 31 games undefeated, stretching back to Round 5 of the 2008 season. Individual player achievements included youngster Jack Hingert being selected to play for A-League side North Queensland Fury and Joey Di Iorio winning the golden boot. Despite their season long domination, Thunder eventually lost the Grand Final to Altona Magic SC on penalties.

In the 2012 season, Thunder managed a famous treble, the first in their history. They won the Victorian State Knockout Cup, beating Port Melbourne Sharks in the Grand Final on penalties, the Minor Premiership and the Championship, beating Oakleigh Cannons 2–1 in the Grand Final at AAMI Park. This was their first ever VPL Championship.

National Premier Leagues Victoria

In late 2013, the club had their bid for a place in the National Premier Leagues Victoria accepted and competed in the top tier of the NPL Victoria in 2014. Thunder placed 9th in the 14 team league in 2014. Young winger Matthew Millar was the club's top goalscorer with seven goals, also winning the NPL Rising Star award.

In 2015, Thunder slashed its budget in an attempt to reduce club debt, and replaced many higher earners with young and inexperienced but talented players. Then manager Dean Hennessey also departed, joining Hume City, and the club brought in Stuart Munro as the new head coach. The season didn't go to plan, though, with the team struggling to put together good performances. Relegation was confirmed in Round 25, when the side lost 3–0 to North Geelong Warriors.

In the off-season, Thunder named Huss Skenderovic as the coach for the 2016 NPL1 season,^[1] and announced the signings of former Melbourne Victory FC player Kristian Sarkies,^[2] former Socceroo Simon Colosimo and English striker Brandon Barnes.^[3] Dandenong Thunder opened its NPL2 East campaign with 15 consecutive wins, before a 3–3 draw against NPL2 West leaders Whittlesea Ranges. On 14 April, Dandenong were deducted three league points after being found guilty by the Football Federation Victoria tribunal of fielding ineligible player Amir Osmančević in Round 1, where he should have sat out through a suspension accumulated the previous season while at his previous club.^[4] Thunder's first loss of the season came in Round 21, when it unexpectedly went down to Box Hill United 2-1.^[5] Thunder lost three more games in the final seven games of the season, leading to Kingston City winning the league title on the final match day of the season.^[6] Dandy's second place finish meant it went to the NPL2 promotion playoff, facing North Geelong Warriors, whom they had beaten 2–0 at Elcho Park earlier in the season. Despite going into the clash as favourites, Thunder went down 4–1, North Geelong condemning the side to NPL2 football for the second season running.^[7] At the end of season awards night, Thunder marksman Barnes took out both the league Top Goalscorer, with an NPL2 record 41 goals, and league Best and Fairest awards.^[8]

Dandenong Thunder lost senior head manager Huss Skenderović as he joined Adelaide United FC to become the A-League side's head W-League and National Youth League coach.^[9] Thunder began its preparations for 2017 by appointing Italian Giuseppe Anastasi as its new head coach for the 2017 NPL2 East season.^[10] Thunder had to chance coaches just a few weeks later. As Anastasi was unable to travel to Australia due to family reasons, Dandenong reacted by appointing Gianfranco Impellizzeri to the helm.^[11] The race to promotion from NPL2 East was contested for most of the season between Thunder and neighbours Dandenong City SC. Led by Barnes, who scored 35 goals in 28 games, wining the league golden boot again, Thunder achieved promotion by taking out the NPL2 East title.^[12]

Despite promotion, Thunder and Impellizzeri parted ways in the off-season and the club appointed Andy Vargas as the new head manager. Thunder started the 2018 NPL season with four consecutive losses, including an embarrassing 9-0 loss to South Melbourne at home. Thunder won six of its next nine games and pulled itself well clear of the relegation zone. On 7 June 2018, Veton Korcari ceased playing with Thunder to take up the recently vacated coaching role. Korcari had been a long-serving and well regarded player at Thunder. Thunder finished the season in 8th place^[13] with Barnes taking out the league golden boot for the third season running, scoring 22 goals.^[14]