was first known as "Cecil Football Club" (after Cecil Street, South Melbourne, one of the early thoroughfares), but adopted the name "South Melbourne Football Club" four weeks later on 15 July. The club was based at Lake Oval alongside the lake in Albert Park, also home of the South Melbourne Cricket Club. While one of the early favourites to win, South Melbourne were a notable exclusion from the Challenge Cup competitions of the 1870s with entry to this competition strictly limited to clubs playing under the Melbourne Football Club's rules. The club's lack of adherence to the Victorian Rules (and insistence on playing by its own rules) resulted in some controversial early wins. This, along with ability to regularly field a full senior team, may have contributed to its absence during the football season competition begun in the 1870s. Throughout this period South Melbourne, along with neighbouring Cup member club Albert Park, had experimented with rugby football rules which in May 1874 had advocated strongly for their widespread adoption in Victoria, however this did not meet favour with the more powerful clubs in the colony. Despite not being part of the big league of clubs, South Melbourne by the mid-1870s is recorded to have enough senior players to field two teams of twenty and played matches against non-Cup clubs during this time against nearby clubs including Fawkner Park, Elwood, West Melbourne, Southern Rifles in 1875 and Sandridge Alma, St Kilda Alma, Victoria Parade, and Williamstown in 1876 among others. Many of this group of clubs most of which had primarily juniors had also begun to discuss starting their own cup competition. South was one of Victoria's most prolific touring clubs. Seeking more regular senior competition in 1876 South Melbourne also went on one of its first regional tours playing against newly formed clubs at Beechworth, Blackwood, Taradale and Ballarat. VFA era: 1877–1896 South Melbourne was a junior foundation club of the Victorian Football Association in 1877, and attained senior status in 1879. Amalgamation with Albert Park In 1880, South Melbourne amalgamated with the nearby Albert-park Football Club, which had a senior football history dating back to May 1867 (Albert-park had, in fact, been known as South Melbourne during its first year of existence). Following the amalgamation, the club retained the name South Melbourne, and adopted the club's now familiar red and white colours from Albert-park. Nicknamed the "Southerners", the team