by Cam Lucadou-Wells
On the back of World Cup fever, Greater Dandenong’s booming football clubs say they have hit a breaking point due to a shortage of pitches.
Football Victoria government relations and strategy Sebastian Hassett said facilities have reached “peak capacity” and were “struggling to cope” with the influx of new players.
“The demand for football in Melbourne’s South East is literally overwhelming.
“After this incredible Women’s World Cup, the appetite for football is about to explode.
“Simply put: we don’t have enough fields and pavilions.
“We already reached crisis point a few years ago – we’re living that crisis right now.”
Victims of the sport’s success are Keysborough Soccer Club, FC Noble Hurricanes and Keysborough District Football Club.
Hurricanes president Frank Mendolia says the club is struggling to base its 15 teams on a single pitch at Alex Nelson Reserve, Springvale South.
On peak-hour Thursdays, up to seven teams train on the pitch – each in their “own little zone”.
Greater Dandenong Council has been unable to relocate the Hurricanes to a bigger training venue, but allocated an overflow ground for Sunday games.
“From our experience, it looks like Dandenong doesn’t have enough facilities otherwise they could relocate us,” Mr Mendolia said.
With now 220 players, the Hurricanes have started a waiting list, Mr Mendolia said.
“I’d assume with the interest in the Matildas that’s only going to translate into more kids and potentially more girls to take on the game.
“But our teams are full at the moment. We don’t have the space for extra teams.”
After a Covid hiatus, Keysborough District Football Club is also now at capacity.
It owns its own pitch at Raleigh Allen Reserve, and hosts training for Keysborough Gardens Primary School students.
It could potentially double in membership in the next year, but is instead having to constantly turn members away, president Sandor Rind said.
“I don’t want to chase any kids away and tell them to go to another club.”
Keysborough Soccer Club president Cristian Abarca says the club hopes to grow from 220 to about 300 next year. It’s fielding up to five new member enquiries a week, he said.
“We’re trying to ride the wave of the Women’s World Cup. We feel there’s a demand for girls soccer so we’re going to take advantage of it.”
However the club is already cramming 19 junior and senior teams on two full-sized and a three-quarter sized pitch at Coomoora Reserve, Springvale South.
“We’ve asked the council for more grounds but we understand there’s a shortage of them and we have to manage the best we can.”
In 2018, Football Victoria’s facilities strategy called for up to 15 extra soccer pitches in each of Greater Dandenong and Casey by 2026 – based on 5 per cent registration growth.
To that end, Football Victoria has publicly backed a proposed 70-hectare South East Sports Hub, touted to include 11 new football pitches.
“It is critical that infrastructure like the SESH is planned and built to ensure access to the sport of choice is available,” FV wrote in a letter to the Government in October.
The project at Pillars Road, Bangholme is controversially linked to the relocation of Keysborough Golf Club.
As part of the plan, the golf club’s current site on Green Wedge A land would be rezoned and turned into a housing estate – a notion that’s been firmly rejected by the State Government.
Mr Hassett said despite the council’s “creative” temporary solutions, more infrastructure was needed quickly.
Football could fill double the number of fields in the next decade, he said.
“The appetite for football in Melbourne’s south-east is more than a trend, it’s a social movement.
“Australia is transforming before our eyes and the frontier of that change is in and around Dandenong.”
Local soccer clubs told Star Journal that the hub would be well situated to cater for players from the Keysborough South growth area.
Defenders of the South East Green Wedge – which opposes the rezoning of the golf club – says a sports hub at Pillars Road “makes no sense”.
Spokesperson Matthew Kirwan said there was a “genuine” shortage of soccer fields, but the proposed SESH was in the “heart of the original Carrum Carrum Swamp and flood prone land” and had no public transport links.
“Having a new sporting complex in the middle of nowhere tops even Casey Fields for its level of isolation.
“Any new development in the Greater Dandenong Green Wedge, recreational or otherwise, will need new drainage and upgraded road infrastructure, the cost of maintaining particular in a flood prone environment will be borne by the Greater Dandenong rate payer.”
Mr Kirwan said the council needed to re-allocate existing grounds “monopolised” by smaller AFL and cricket clubs to soccer.
“Greaves Reserve is near Noble Park and Yarraman stations and bus services. It would be ideal for community soccer activity.”
