SOCCER
WHEN Bray Hodgkinson steps down as president at Baxter’s upcoming AGM it will end a tumultuous seven-year reign that threatened to end months after it began.
Hodgkinson became president in November 2019 with his club in disarray and if not for the single-mindedness of the then 25-year-old there would be no Baxter today.
“I didn’t want to take on the role but it kind of fell into my lap,” he said.
Burdened with a near $90,000 debt when COVID struck less than six months into his presidency and a mass walkout by his committee he was faced with two stark choices – close the clubroom doors for good or find a way to navigate through the financial morass confronting the local outfit.
“We owed money to Football Victoria and the local council and we owed over $5000 to Coca Cola for stock that we hadn’t paid for.
“We only had three or four meetings before COVID struck then we had an online meeting where the 12 members of the committee all felt that we were flogging a dead horse so there was no point trying to fix things.
“I met with council and Football Victoria and they offered to help me in the transition to closing down the club should I choose that route.
“But I felt I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t take the chance to try and fix it so for the next 18 or so months I virtually ran the club on my own.”
During COVID the club received some grants but that did little to ease such a heavy debt burden.
Hodgkinson negotiated repayment schemes and battled through periods of self-doubt and his perseverance paid off when Mandy Curd became treasurer in 2021.
Curd implemented strategies to pay off debt while remaining financial and the results were staggering.
“We pretty much paid off our debt just over a year later and to be honest I still don’t quite know how we did it,” Hodgkinson said.
“Our debt to FV was cleared and we had to pay a couple of tenancies to council but we found out that when they installed carpark lighting they wired it into our mainframe so were getting charged to have the carpark lighting throughout the year.
“That was a substantial sum of money in terms of council’s share of the electricity bill so that made things easier.”
But tackling the club’s debt was just one of the problems Hodgkinson confronted.
“In the end the financial situation wasn’t even the biggest challenge – it was the culture that had fallen away under the previous president.
“We’d lost all our juniors in just over 12 months.
“In 2018 we had eight junior teams and the year before that we had 15.
“It just kept dwindling away.
“I think they all saw the writing on the wall and bailed.”
When Hodgkinson joined Baxter in 2014 it didn’t take him long “to fall in love with the place” because it was a welcoming family club with strong bonds between members.
“The year I joined Baxter the clubrooms resembled a kindergarten at times, a daycare centre, so rebooting that and rebooting our junior program were priorities.”
These aims went hand-in-hand and fast forward to 2026 the results are there for all to see.
“George Hughes was immense in helping to get the juniors up and running and it was just a matter of building from there.
“We now have 29 junior teams and eight senior teams across men’s, women’s, girls and boys programs and 700 players.
“I haven’t talked about it much and a lot of people don’t know how bad things got.
“I look back on it all now and realise I’ve spent a third of my life and all my adult life devoted to this place.
“I’ve had a lot of people helping me especially after COVID when I was able to get a lot of people back on board but I can honestly tell you I don’t think I could do it again certainly not nowadays.”
Hodgkinson’s continued advocacy has assisted with the formulation of a Baxter Park Master Plan to guide council over the next 20 years in managing the large multisport complex.
Next year Baxter’s main pitch will be floodlit as part of a $450,000 project jointly funded by Frankston council and the state government.
This should have been Hodgkinson’s lap of honour, a year when his remarkable contribution could form a centrepiece of the club’s 50th anniversary celebrations and a year when the senior men celebrated a much sought after promotion.
It wasn’t to be and in the final match of the season Baxter’s 1-1 home draw with local rival Rosebud condemned the side to relegation from State 4 South-East.
“I think the only thing you can put our season down to is player unavailability,” Hodgkinson said.
“Charlie O’Connell is a good example.
“He’s an integral part of how we want to play and last year he played 21 of 22 games during which we went on an 11-game unbeaten run.
“This year he played every game in the first half of the year and we were doing well then we beat Rosebud 1-0 but he was injured (in the 36th minute) and had to come off.
“I don’t think we got a point in all the games he missed after that and it was pretty much a horror run.”
It’s expected that current vice-president Brendan Norris will take over from Hodgkinson and the two have discussed the club’s future.
Hodgkinson will stay on the committee.
“I’ve been working closely with Brendan and I’ll do everything I can to help him in the transition.
“I’ll probably move into a head of football role for 12 months but I’ll definitely be stepping back because it’s time for me to focus on myself.”
And Hodgkinson has a positive message for Baxter members and supporters still smarting from the way their season ended.
“It’s important to understand that relegation does not define us.
“We have been building so many aspects of this club and that will continue.
“We are on the rise and there’s no mistaking that.
“The onfield success we have been searching for is definitely coming so my main message is to stick by us.
“I also want to thank all the members who have supported me.
“Being president of Baxter is one of my biggest achievements and one I can look back on with pride.”
In other news Peninsula Strikers are close to deciding their senior coaching set-up for next season.
Current head coach Ross Walliss has already said he wants to continue but it’s understood that other candidates have contacted the Centenary Park club by email and thrown their hats in the ring.
President Adrian Scialpi is believed to have met with Walliss and assistant Ben Sharman on the weekend while also talking to Wayne “Buzzer” Gordon and Stevie Elliott.
Elliott has been cleared to train after recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon in the final match of the 2025 season.
“I can return to pre-season training if I decide to keep playing but if I don’t play I can see myself possibly moving into a coaching role,” Elliott said.
Meanwhile State 5 South-East club Somerville Eagles announced last week that head coach Mark Larner had resigned.
“I only intended doing the job for three years anyway and the time was right to move on both for me and the club,” Larner said.
The former Mount Martha coach took on the senior role with Somerville in October 2023.
Under Larner the Eagles have finished seventh, seventh and fifth.
This year the Eagles missed a promotion play-off spot by two points.
And finally Skye United held its players’ player night last weekend while Baxter held its annual presentation night.
Skye’s senior players’ player winner was Marcus Spivey with Jason Nowakowski runner-up.
The reserves players’ player was Jacob Stephens with Solomon Scarlett runner-up.
Baxter’s senior best and fairest was Aiden McKenna with Jack Bradbury and Morteza Hashemi runners-up.
The senior players’ player was Colby Jones and Michael Miller won the coaches’ award.
Baxter’s reserves best and fairest was Alan Lipsett Jr with Dan Jones runner up.
Senior women’s best and fairest was Caitlin Shaddock with Demi Johnson runner-up.
