Clubs bid for new ground

By Kath Gannaway
YARRA Junction junior and senior football clubs presented a united front last week in a bid to get both a second training ground and input into decisions made by Yarra Ranges Shire on use of the ground.
Senior club president, Terry Elliott, and junior club president, Garry Mallick, claim the club was wrongly stopped from using the ground in the final few weeks of home and away matches on the premise of safety issues.
The ground was one of a number of football grounds closed down in Yarra Ranges after a rain dump the shire assessed had either made them, or put them in danger of being unfit to play on.
“Our frustration is that we have not been included in any discussions or decisions to do with the ground and they (the shire) won’t clarify any part of the word ‘safety’.
“We have been told the ground is unsafe to play on but basically we have had below average rainfall and our ground has been as hard as a rock for weeks,” Mr Elliott said.
Mr Elliott said while players had had to travel to Powelltown and had games moved to other venues – some of which he claimed were in worse condition than Yarra Junction – the shire was allowing intermittent games at Yarra Junction.
“How can it be unplayable on Saturday, playable on Sunday and unplayable again on Monday,” Mr Mallick asked.
Dandenong Ranges Junior Football League (DRJFL) secretary, Barry Freeman, told the Mail the shire had been inspecting the grounds weekly and advised senior and junior leagues of the availability of grounds each week.
He said while at the time of the initial ban he could see no reason to stop the home and away games (at Yarra Junction), he agreed with the ban on training in order to maintain the surface for the YVMDFL and DRJFL finals.
“Council believed it was in a state where excessive usage, including training, would be detrimental,” he said.
“They were rewarded with finals matches. If they were going to continue using the ground, with seven teams training and playing, they would not be playing on it in the finals and neither the Yarra Valley, or us would have given them finals games,” Mr Freeman said.
Mr Elliott told the Mail if the real reason behind the ban was to preserve the ground for finals the shire needed to look at putting lights on the Wickham Road oval for training.
He said the club needed to be able to provide accessible training and playing facilities for its players and supporters.
“They obviously need to start spending more money on this ground, or supply additional, playable grounds,” he said.
The shire’s recreation development officer, Simon O’Callaghan told the Mail he had been in contact with the clubs every Tuesday, following the shire’s evaluation of local grounds.
“When we use the term safety we all know there has been some pretty serious litigation against ground managers and the condition of the grounds has a lot to do with that,” he said.
“Those sorts of safety incidents were driven in part after the wet weekend (four weeks ago) where four grounds were either restricted use or temporarily closed.
“We agree Yarra Junction was not in the worse state but we needed to be proactive to preserve it for the rest of season,” Mr O’Callaghan said.
He said the shire had gone to great lengths to arrange alternative training and playing grounds for the clubs.
“Yes, the decision was out of their hands, but basically it is a shire responsibility.
“At end of the day we put some measures in place which weren’t popular but we were very much between a rock and a hard place.
“As the situation stands that proactive measure means the ground is fully open again now where had it had rained further it might have been in a situation where we had to completely restrict use of the ground,” Mr O’Callaghan said.