Council is letting Murchison-Toolamba Football Netball Club down: President

Due to this attitude, the Murchison Recreation Reserve has been left in a position that is dangerous, not fit for purpose and is frankly an embarrassment for everyone involved in our 142-year-old club.

I find it incredibly disappointing that significant state funding is made impossible to obtain due to the LGA’s stance on such projects.

We continually see further improvements commissioned at our competing clubs that are owned by council, and are left continually disappointed.

The recent upgrade of the courts at a competing club on council land are testament to this council policy; as a community, we are left wishing we had the netball courts that council identified as so drastically needing improvement, as was the case at Tallygaroopna.

This objection extends further than this current round of funding.

Our facilities are situated in a position that is above the flood level recently experienced. As a president of the club, I wished it was our facilities that the river washed away and not the homes of our members.

Had our facilities been damaged in the flood they would have been quickly repaired, yet our damages are due to decay and council policy, and not nearly as attractive a project for politics.

The council is currently working to restore the facilities following the flooding at Princess Park in Shepparton; a part of me wonders when the next flooding event will wash away this council asset once more.

As a result, our work to engage a community at last census that was home to 2527 people in 646 families (3610 and 3614 postcodes alone) continues to be seriously hindered.

Somehow, we continue to buck the trend of clubs struggling to field teams and in 2022 we were able to assemble a full quota of Kyabram and District League teams — and all qualified for finals.

In 2023 we seek to add additional junior teams in the Goulburn Murray Junior League and AFL Auskick and are working towards fielding a women’s AFL team in 2024.

All of this growth is being done with facilities that fall further and further behind our neighbouring towns.

We are worth investing in, and the current stance by the council to not commit to capital budget outside of its direct land ownership disgusts me.

We are seeing many community clubs fail in their work in community engagement and eventually fold.

We get so excited when we see funding opportunities such as these come around and then soon after become shattered that the gatekeepers of such funding will not allow it to come through to organisations that need it the most.

In 2014, La Trobe University’s Centre for Sport and Social Impact partnered with AFL Victoria to run a report on the social value of football clubs.

The report found the social return on investment for an average community football club indicates that for every $1 spent to run a club, there is at least $4.40 return in social value in terms of increased social connectedness, wellbeing and mental health status; employment outcomes; personal development; physical health; civic pride; and support of other community groups.

This report was done on a ‘typical’ football club, not on one such as Murchison-Toolamba FNC, which is not typical — we are revolutionary in nature and have been able to lead the Kyabram and District League to finally become a place where the entire family can spend the day together with members from their own and their neighbouring communities.

Prior to this leadership, residents involved in KDL clubs needed to commute their children to sport across Friday, Saturday and Sunday in various locations if they chose to participate in such sports.

A vast majority of councillors have visited and been disgusted by the conditions at the recreation reserve.

This reserve hosts ratepayers who reside across the entire municipality and beyond.

These ratepayers are exposed to unhygienic toilet conditions with no disabled access, and over 350 participants and at least that many spectators again are required to share three toilet cubicles.

Despite the club presenting to council, and with visits to the reserve — by councillors Sali, Abdullah, James, Summer and Ladson, and key council staff members chief executive Peter Harriott, director infrastructure Gary Randhawa and manager parks, sport and recreation Tim Zak — we are yet to have our project planned for in its entirety in the council budget. All this effort and still it is an issue between council and the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (formerly DELWP). What will it take to become a priority?

To be brutally honest, I wonder why anyone would want to play at Murchison-Toolamba Football Netball Club when they are subjected to such sub-standard conditions.

The historical stance by council of not investing in clubs on DELWP land seriously makes me wonder why I volunteer to such a cause and don’t just return to my junior club at Katandra, which is situated on council land and has facilities that set the standard.

Alas, I am entering my 12th year at the community club closest to where I live and work and eighth year of presidency, and as a volunteer I have jumped through the hurdles that every bureaucrat puts in front of me and my community.

Funding master plans, getting on the council community plans, engaging across two townships, consulting with community and user groups, engaging architects to draw floor plans, further engaging in architects for detailed designs, applying for smaller grants, being blocked from significant grants, meeting with aspirant councillors and obtaining pledges from politicians.

Sadly, the pledge by the National and Liberal parties to fund the complete $4.2 million project at the recent state election is hard to honour when in opposition. All of these steps and yet we push on with seeking funding.

The older members of the club have every right to be pessimistic about our chances of improving the facility.

We have many incarnations of plans in our filing cabinets that tell a sad story of dying dreams and enthusiasm of administrators that have pushed to remedy the situation over the years and failed.

I wonder if my work will become yet another failed attempt to provide a basic safe space for residents to meet and connect.

Surely someone can see what we are trying to achieve and can look to assist our club to cater for our community, the region and our sports in the face of so many clubs shutting their doors.

Craig Thompson

Murchison-Toolamba Football Netball Club president