The Murrumbeena Football Club was established in 1918 and was affiliated with the Oakleigh District Junior Football Association (ODJFA) from 1918 to 1927. However, there is evidence that a Murrumbeena team played as early as 1891, playing in a competition organised by the Dandenong Football Club. There are newspaper articles documenting Murrumbeena teams playing in a competition against Prahran Juniors in 1901 and in 1908 the Argus newspaper reported that VFL club Essendon recruited Harry Farnsworth from Murrumbeena.
The ODJFA was a junior league with players up to the age of 21, with the average age of the team not exceeding 19. Murrumbeena won the Premiership in 1924 when the competition was known as the Caulfield Dandenong Junior Football Association.
There was a Murrumbeena team playing in the Amateur competition from 1923 and it is a possibility that when the players became too old to play in the ODJFA they joined the Murrumbeena Amateur team. There are players linked to the Murrumbeena team who played in 1918 in the ODJFA and then played with the Amateur competition in 1923.
Murrumbeena joined the Victorian Sub District League in B Grade, South Section in 1928 until 1933, which was a senior competition. In 1934, Murrumbeena joined the Caulfield Oakleigh Dandenong Junior Football Association (CODJFA) and won the Premiership that year.
Murrumbeena played in the CODJFA that became the Caulfield Oakleigh District Football League (CODFL) in 1935 until 1962 when the CODFL merged with the Eastern Suburban League and then became the South East Suburban Football League (SESFL).
Murrumbeena had senior and juniors playing throughout that time. In 1937 the CODFL had a junior division (under 20) in which Murrumbeena had a team, as well as a senior team in A Grade. Murrumbeena Rovers were a junior club that was formed in the late 1920s but was not affiliated with the senior club. Up until 1957 the seniors had only one team, many times not fielding a full side, whilst the Rovers won Premierships between 1954 and 1957 in Under 18s and Under 16s. The Rovers players did not always play senior football when they finished their junior football with Murrumbeena even though the two clubs signed a pact in 1957.
In 1958 the senior club and the Murrumbeena Rovers merged and in 1963 Murrumbeena and the Murrumbeena Football Club (Amateurs) merged to become one club. The merging of Murrumbeena Rovers, Murrumbeena Football Club (Amateurs) and Murrumbeena Football Club created a strong era for the club in all grades including entering a reserves team from 1958 and junior teams in various age groups.
Over the following years the club has experienced many highs and lows. The club was relegated to Third Division in the SESFL in 1986. Murrumbeena won the SESFL 3rd Division Premiership in that year and have continued a slow but steady growth ever since, winning the Division 3 senior Premiership in Southern Football League (SFL) in 1993 and the SFL Division 2 Premiership in 2003.
With the separation of the junior club in 1986, it has been a challenge to consistently have an under 19/Colts team and create a pathway from junior to senior football at Murrumbeena. In 2013, Murrumbeena won the Under 19 SFL Premiership with many of the players going on to play senior football at the club. During subsequent years Murrumbeena became stronger due to the players coming through from the under 19s, appearing in two grand finals 2015 and 2017, unfortunately without success.
The SFL changed its name to the Southern Football Netball League (SFNL) in 2015 and there was a push for clubs to incorporate a netball team. Murrumbeena introduced a netball team in 2014 and that was the catalyst for the Murrumbeena Football Club changing its name to the Murrumbeena Football Netball Club that year.
The SFNL introduced the Women’s Development League in 2017, with Murrumbeena winning the inaugural Premiership in 2017. In 2018, Murrumbeena saw two Women’s teams competing in the SFNL Women’s Development League with the senior women remaining undefeated and winning back to back Premierships.
The senior women’s team moved to the SEWFL Division 2 in 2019 finishing the year runners up whist the reservers women’s team stayed in the SFNL Division 2.
Following on from the success in 2018, a fourth netball team was introduced playing in 9th Division of the SFNL competition. All four sides made the finals with the seconds playing in third division winning the grand final. This was the same side that won the 2018 grand final (undefeated) in fourth division.