Club’s call to pitch in

By Ed Merrison
CRANBOURNE Soccer Club is hoping to attract more funds and upgrade poor facilities which are blamed for stunting the club’s growth and denying it an opportunity to cash in on the Socceroos’s World Cup success.
The club’s senior women are in contention for a third straight Vodafone Women’s Premier League title while the senior men’s side is staring promotion to South East Division 1 in the face.
But the club, which boasts three men’s, two women’s and up to 12 junior sides, says it is in desperate need of improved facilities to adequately serve its current membership and give it room to grow.
The club was this year awarded $250,000 from Casey City Council’s capital works budget to upgrade its changing room facilities after its women’s teams spent four years changing in a portable classroom.
“The changing rooms are definitely going to help. Obviously new facilities are always going to be good,” committee member Emma Bracken said.
Cranbourne Soccer Club president Charlie Branca said Casey mayor Kevin Bradford had been helpful to date and that the council had finally begun to realise the value of soccer in the region.
“We’d like as much support as possible from the council and surrounding businesses to promote the game.
“We hope we can get a good relationship going and work together to push (for new members) while the going is good,” he said.
Mr Branca said substandard club facilities had been holding the club back.
He said the club would like to have a junior development program to train younger players who could later rise into the senior ranks.
“We should be probably three to four times the size of the club we are. We have the space to be probably the largest soccer club in the district.”
Former Mathilda and women’s first team coach Deborah Nichols said she had been with the club for 11 years and had seen little in the way of improvement.
“We’re playing in the top league and our facilities don’t do it justice, and the men face the same problems as us,” she said.
Ms Nichols and Ms Bracken said land at the back of the O’Toole’s Road ground needed to be properly resurfaced which would yield a new full-size pitch and two smaller pitches.
“At the moment, we can’t go on sourcing juniors because there aren’t enough pitches to house them at weekends,” Ms Nichols said.
The women said they would also like to have new lights to allow the possibility of the women playing competitive games after the men on Saturday evenings.
At present the council provides for lights for training, but not for competition. Club media liaison officer Frank Clark said the club was hoping for a good response to a president’s luncheon on Saturday, 2 September.
Australian Workers Union national secretary Bill Shorten, Narre Warren North MP Luke Donnellan and Cr Bradford are due to attend the day, which will also feature the men’s last home game of the season at which they could secure promotion.
“We still want as many people as possible to come and support the seniors and to show the council and local MP how much support the game has,” he said.