Moving on and ready to play: By Rebecca Fraser
A JUNIOR football club has been forced to go it alone after bitterly breaking away from a Narre Warren South sports club.
The Narre South Lions Junior Football Club (NSLJFC) has severed all ties with the Maranatha Methodist Cricket Club (MMCC) and the Narre Warren South Sports Club, despite sharing the same home ground, Strathaird Reserve in Narre Warren South.
The move follows a year of club infighting, accusations and tense relations at the reserve.
NSLJFC president John Rich said the club had been forced to break away from the MMCC and was given no choice but to become an incorporated organisation, a move Mr Rich claims the MMCC refused to support.
Mr Rich said the club wanted to become an incorporated body so its committee members were covered by insurance, would hold more voting rights and could have more say at the reserve and about the club’s future.
He said he had received written confirmation this week from the Dandenong and District Junior Football League’s insurance company that the committee was not in fact covered by club management liability insurance prior to becoming incorporated.
Mr Rich said this was despite being told the committee was covered.
“We had been operating under the Maranatha Methodist Cricket Club banner and because we were not officially incorporated the committee was left vulnerable and not covered by the club’s insurance,” he said. “If we went on a trip or somewhere and the kids hurt themselves, their parents could have sued us (committee members) all personally, one by one, because we were not an incorporated sports club.”
The NSLJFC registered with Consumer Affairs in July after the club’s parents voted unanimously to incorporate the club.
Information obtained by the NSLJFC under Freedom of Information and sighted by the News shows the NSLJFC and the Narre Warren Sports Club were never registered under the MMCC’s constitution, which has not been changed since 1997.
“This information showed that the MMCC was acting out of its powers,” Mr Rich said.
MMCC has now formed a new junior football club, the Casey Central Junior Football Club, since the NSLJFC defected, but this club has also not been incorporated.
The two junior clubs will now be vying for the same ovals.
In a unique move they will both give presentations to Casey Council at 14 February meeting to determine the 2006 ground allocations and try to resolve other problems and issues associated with the clubs which have contributed to the tense relations.
This weekend, the competing clubs will hold their registration days.
Mr Rich said because the NSLJFC had not been incorporated, the club’s parents and committee members had next to no say on the goingson at the reserve.
“Members and parents wanted a say on the future and progression of the club,” he said. “We were investing our time and money into the club but were not able to have a say on what was happening there.”
Mr Rich said club members were keen to put last year behind them and get on with the game. “We just want the kids to play footy at a wellorganised club and make this fun for the kids during football season,” he said.
Last month the NSLJFC lodged a complaint with Casey Council over claims that deputy mayor and MMCC secretary Rob Wilson had a conflict of interest when he voted on a matter concerning the club.
The issue arose after a council meeting on Tuesday, 6 December, at which Cr Wilson successfully moved the application for government grants at the reserve be discussed in camera. Included in this application was an item for training lights to be erected at Strathaird Reserve for the NSLJFC. This was knocked back by the council.
The complaint came as another blow to Cr Wilson, who has come under pressure to pay Ron Bell, the owner of a small business, $30,000 for the Strathaird Reserve floodlights, which he ordered last February. However, the council did not approve the order and has said it was not responsible for the debt and would not pay the account.
Mr Bell is still waiting for his money and Mr Rich said if the funding application had been approved he would have had his outstanding money.
Cr Wilson did not respond to calls from the News before deadline.
