Footscray JUST

Mendo Ristovski, pictured here as a Footscray JUST player on his 1978 Scanlens card, played one season for South Melbourne Hellas in 1979. Photo source: Scanlens trading card section on OzFootball Museum.

Footscray JUST (Jugoslav United Soccer Team) often known simply as JUST, is a defunct soccer club in Melbourne which played alongside South Melbourne Hellas in both the Victorian State League and the National Soccer League.

Established in 1950 by migrants from Yugoslavia, they played in the Victorian leagues with considerable success, winning five Victorian State League titles and three Dockerty Cup titles. Of the 16 state league titles on offer from 1961-1976, JUST won four, second only to South Melbourne's seven. Originally only called 'JUST', after JUST had taken over Footscray Capri, they added the 'Footscray' moniker to their name in 1961.

In 1977 they became a foundation member of the National Soccer League (along with South Melbourne, Mooroolbark and Heidelberg United), where they largely struggled, with the exception of the 1986 season, where they lost to Adelaide City in the Southern Conference grand final. Poor seasons soon returned though, and the team was relegated at the end of the 1989 season to the Victorian leagues, where after one more poor season, finishing 15th, the club effectively disbanded; the club was 'colonised' by an Argentine contingent, and the links to the club's Serbian/Yugoslav past were severed.

Over the years numerous players played for both JUST and Hellas, and the two sides even on occasion combined to play against overseas opposition. JUST's main home ground was Schintler Reserve in Footscray.