Proud return for young Pirates

By Paul Pickering
PARKMORE Junior Football Club is back from the brink of extinction.
The Pirates, who were unable to field a team four years ago, are shaping as an early good news story of 2010 after last week reporting a resurgence to AFL Victoria’s newly-established Dandenong Task Force.
Parkmore vice-president Michael Palma proudly reported that the Pirates are hoping to field three teams in the Dandenong and District Junior Football League next year, thanks largely to some lateral thinking from club officials.
Three teams may not sound like a registration boom, but it is an admirable result for a club that battled to field one team in the competition this season.
“Four years ago we had no team, last year we had just one and we only had about 10 or 11 kids playing the first few matches,” Palma said.
“Now we’ve definitely got two for next year and we’re pushing for three.” The secret to Parkmore’s success has been increasing its presence in local schools through Auskick clinics, while also establishing two junior cricket teams to keep the Pirates together during the summer.
The club has two under-11 sides playing under the banner of Southern Pirates in the Dandenong District Cricket Association.
Palma says the club has made a point of welcoming kids of all cultural backgrounds, and their enthusiasm for the game has been infectious.
“We’ve got children from Sri Lanka, India, Cambodia and also a few from part-Aboriginal backgrounds,” he said.
“Once you get one or two children from a particular background and they feel comfortable, they’ll bring their friends along as well.”
Palma hopes that his club’s upturn may be a sign of things to come in the City of Greater Dandenong. “It’s been a hard road, but seeing those results and seeing the kids improve is what it’s all about,” he said.
“Everybody probably agrees that in the past the ball had been dropped in the area, but I think now everyone’s doing their fair share.
“Through the involvement of the AFL, the council, the local associations and the footy clubs, we can get back to where we should be.”
That was the consensus from club representatives at last week’s Dandenong Task Force consultative meeting.
Club and league officials joined representatives from the council, Victoria Police, the Centre for Multicultural Youth, Mission Australia and the Springvale Community and Advice Bureau at the Wednesday meeting.
Attendees were genuinely impressed by the action plans put forward by the DDJFL and AFL Victoria and, despite the airing of some grievances, all left with a clearer idea of the way forward for footy in Dandenong.