The best sports bars and pubs in Melbourne

It’s the official home of Liverpool supporters in Melbourne, but you’ll be well treated no matter whom you barrack for in the Melbourne CBD’s best pub for watching the Premier League. The Imperial stays open late for all the matches and keeps it classy, clean and comfortable with a traditional English pub vibe, and you can call ahead to book screenings of any sport you like. Staff are cheery and welcoming and the pub classics on the menu are high quality and great value, including a parma the size of a Frisbee.

A stalwart of the Richmond scene, the London Tavern's been packing them in with its top-notch pub grub and enviably oversized beer garden for years. This enormous paved courtyard is packed to the rafters with great big wooden tables, like something out of a medieval king's dining hall. The mental footy crowds at the weekend sort of complete the medieval picture too.

Whatever sport you’re into, The Sporting Globe in Richmond is your one-stop sports bar. Each location has more than 50 screens, a variety of private booths equipped with touchscreen televisions and an extensive selection of food and drinks. What more do you need?

The bar is long enough to house a variety of sports-viewing clusters, spaced out enough so rowdy factions don’t encroach into quieter clusters. A more traditional sports pub setup can be found tucked away in the front wing of the building, serving the needs of those looking for big screens above your head and no-frills draught beer on tap. The busiest area of the pub is invariably its sprawling beer garden, with a dedicated bar screening the game on each angle of the corner setup.

If footy is a religion, The Great Northern Hotel is its mega-church. Nestled away in the Inner North, this sprawling sports pub has a well-earned reputation as the premier destination for locals and visitors alike to watch the game. The main dining area can feel like mission control during the crossover between dinnertime and the match, thanks to a massive, wall-spanning screen. Bodies spring up to roar success, while groans of despair rumble under the celebrations. 

Situated plum on the Bridge Road thoroughfare, the Mt View Hotel is Melbourne’s perfect sports hub. There’s a large ground-level bar featuring a sea of big screens. The only risk while dropping in before a game is getting too comfortable – the atmosphere of the nearby stadiums is palpable here and it’s easy to feel as if you’re already under the MCG stands. Just above the bustle of the street below, the two middle floors have a laidback offering of pool tables and more TVs primed for a decidedly more relaxed viewing, but the jewel in the Mt View crown is its stunning rooftop beer garden. 

When it comes to sports-watching snacks, the Crafty Squire's menu boasts everything from pub classics (parmas, burgers and enormous steaks) to fancy fine-dining fare (pork terrine, saltbush lamb koftas and saganaki). There's also an impressive range of craft beers – including pale ales, pilsners and stouts – to wash it all down with. While all Australian leagues get their due airing across the venue’s big screens, the CBD pub has established itself as one of the most attractive destinations for EPL fans. And during the FIFA Women's World Cup, it will become a hive of activity with every game shown live. To catch all the action, book a table here. 

Richmond's Prince Alfred is the ultimate local pub, ticking all the boxes that a solid neighbourhood watering hole should. Now open seven days a week, you can get around nightly specials like half-price pizzas on Mondays and $20 parmas on Thursdays – what's not to love about that? The Prince Alfred also loves your doggo as much as you do, with the beer garden now fully accommodating four-legged friends. From July 20, you can catch the FIFA Women's World Cup – including every Matilda's game and all the finals – live and loud on the big screens. Book a table here.

Silverlake Social is named after the trendy neighbourhood of LA known for natural wine and avocado on toast. But despite the name, Silverlake is a straight-up American sports bar – the kind you might find in a regional airport or off a highway in a newly developed suburb of Dallas. There are neon beer signs, a pool table and a huge TV screen behind the bar for you to watch while munching on wings and sipping tequila cocktails. 

Inside, the pub’s interior is exactly what you are expecting - dark brickwork, vintage sports memorabilia, a chalkboard with the day’s specials, and smiley bar staff having a chat with some locals. It’s practised at being cosy and comfortable and here’s why: this Melbourne gem has graced the corner of Napier Street, Fitzroy for over 130 years. The charming ‘old Britannia’ style is the result of a recentish makeover, which also gifted the centenarian pub a little extra Melbourne magic – up a flight of stairs is the Harry & Frankie wine bar, the northside arm of the popular Port Melbourne haunt.

Sitting directly opposite Spencer St Station, the Mail Exchange Hotel has opened up on the ground floor of the refurbished Mail Exchange building on Bourke Street. It boasts a 200-seat bistro, an internal courtyard and a big front bar, all of which are perfect spots for catching the footy. 

The Duke of Wellington is clean and modern: a bit of a rarity for inner-city pubs. This is the official home of the Melbourne Demons and there are a couple of big screens playing highlights from the week when a game’s not on. Beers on tap stick to the standards, along with a cloudy and balanced James Squire cider. There are also a couple of solid options in the bottle like Acme Pale Ale and Four Pines. 

At its heart, the Corner is a true blue rock venue. It’s also very much a crowd-pleaser. On any given night, the Richmond icon is filled with footy fans glued to the TV screens, leather-clad rocker types, city workers who stumbled off the train station, and groupies of whatever band is playing in the band room later on. The rooftop bar, renovated in early 2017, is now where you’ll find the best seats in the house. On weekends, a DJ spins tunes spanning old-school rock ‘n’ roll to newer stuff, and there’s something romantic about knocking back a cold one in the early evening, watching trains come and go from Richmond train station.