By Jonty Ralphsmith
Pakenham United Football Club is set to take a refreshed approach in 2025 as it eyes steady improvement on and off the pitch.
The State League 5 side finished 11th in the 12-team competition in 2024 with a 5-0-17 record, but showed promise in the last month of the season under new coach Dean Alburey.
The well-respected mentor has brought 27 new faces to IYU Recreation Reserve in the off-season and has laid out some clear focuses to engage the southeastern footballing fraternity.
“I don’t want to change players, I just want to fine tune them,” Alburey said.
“Everyone brings something different, and I want them to have the room to express the creativity.
“Being effective in possession, looking after the ball, making the opposition work hard to win the ball back and when we do lose it, being quick to put pressure on as close to opponent goal as possible is what we want to do.
“Ideally, we’ll score loads of goals and be nice and entertaining to watch and see how we go from there.
“I want to try and help these boys understand when the time is to turn it on and when to use their teammates.
“We need to balance efficiency and flair.”
There is an added incentive for the club to improve its results in 2025, with a change of competition structure from next season resulting in a greater number of teams being relegated.
Teams will need to finish in the top two in 2025 to stay in the State League 5 competition, with third through seventh relegated to a newly formed State League 6, and seventh to 12th to compete in the State League 7 competition in 2026.
A whopping 186 players have been involved in preseason training in some capacity at different stages, which has the club confident it will be brimming with depth.
Despite the high turnover in players, a focus on culture has improved the atmosphere around the club, with finding consistency the next step after some promising, but up-and-down practice matches against superior opposition.
“We want to build a program that these players want to be part of and show them that we genuinely care about them and their development, which can sometimes be lost in senior football which is focused on results,” Alburey said.
“We want to give these lads an opportunity – a lot of them have been overlooked elsewhere so we hope they can show what they’ve got and give them the freedom to express themselves.
“They’ve come together well; you wouldn’t know they haven’t previously played together.
“They support and work hard for each other.
“It’s a matter of finding that consistency.”
