United to remain at new pitch

Unanimous support for temporary changerooms

Soccer games can play on the new synthetic pitch at Warragul this year after $80,000 was granted for temporary changerooms.

With its clubrooms now closed for refurbishment, Gippsland United Soccer Club faced sharing facilities at Trafalgar, just as player numbers exploded in its first year of amalgamation.

The club - previously known as Warragul United - reported its player numbers had grown 84 per cent, from 260 last season to more than 460 this season. Of this, 30 per cent are female.

More than 70 new girls and women signed up to play soccer for the first time, perhaps inspired by the FIFA Women’s World Cup being held in Australia and New Zealand later this year.

As a result, the club was forced to appeal to Baw Baw Shire Council for a solution, and councillors granted its wish to remain at “home” for season 2023.

Ahead of the season kick-off next month, council will divert $80,000 from deferred capital works projects to provide portable changerooms at the site.

The motion, put forward by Cr Joe Gauci, also sought a policy on how to deal with user groups forced out by pavilion upgrade projects in the future.

The clubrooms refurbishment, expected to cost almost $2 million, is part of an overall upgrade of Baxter Park in Burke St and follows installation of a new $2 million synthetic playing pitch in 2021. The stage two works, featuring urgently needed female-friendly player and official changerooms, are expected to be completed in March 2024.

Cr Gauci said council had rebuilt the playing surface over the past two years to be “easily the best playing surface, not in just West Gippsland, but the whole region”.

He said the pavilion upgrade would put facilities “in line with the quality of the pitch.”

However, despite temporary changerooms already in place and the club willing to share facilities at Trafalgar, the substantial player growth forced a re-think.

“No matter how you do the maths, we cannot fit the teams that will be playing this year for Gippsland United Soccer Club into Trafalgar, and have an achievable outcome where they can all train and play,” Cr Gauci said. “It just doesn’t work.”

He urged councillors to make sure “we’re not putting all of these players out for the year.”

Cr Gauci said the creation of a policy would give council a clear view on how to treat clubs during facility upgrades.

“I hope we’ve learnt lessons from what happened at Western Park netball facility, we’ve now had this happen at Baxter Park,” he said.

“There’s so much going on in the next few years that we need to make sure we’re in line.”

Cr Darren Wallace said $80,000 was “a small price to pay” to minimise disruption to two local soccer clubs.

“In the words of Gippsland United president Peter O’Dea, ‘the synthetic pitch at Baxter Park is world-class and superior to many high grade pitches in Melbourne’,” Cr Wallace said.

“Warragul is fast becoming the centre of football in Gippsland thanks to council’s investment in this valuable infrastructure.

“The thought of decanting Gippsland United Football Club in its inaugural year doesn’t sit well with me.

“We should be doing everything we can to support the new club in its inaugural year. Not disrupt and potentially take away their opportunity to financially support themselves through local participation and sponsorships,” he said.

Cr Peter Kostos said the new synthetic pitch had drawn players to the club, particularly from areas further west.

“If they had to travel another 15 or 20 minutes to Trafalgar, they may well drop out of the club or go elsewhere,” Cr Kostos said.

Cr Keith Cook said he had to consider the costs involved in letting the multi-million synthetic pitch sit unused.

Cr Cook said the pitch cost just over $2 million, had a 15-year lifespan and would start to deteriorate in about eight years.

“The football pitch is as good as they get, it supports sport in Baw Baw and into the future,” he added.

Cr Jazmin Tauru raised concerns the Trafalgar pitch may not sustain the usage of two clubs and the 40-minute round trip to Trafalgar could deter people from playing the sport they love.

Cr Tauru commended the soccer club “for getting so much female participation in a male-dominated sport. For me, it’s $80,000 well spent.”

Cr Gauci called a division. The motion was unanimously supported by all nine councillors.