SOCCER FRANKSTON Pines is the Metropolitan Club of the Year. The local outfit won Football Victoria’s prestigious award at a gala function at Crown Palladium last week in front of 1000 players, coaches, referees, administrators and volunteers. It was official recognition of the efforts of an all-female executive who have guided the club from the brink of insolvency to financial stability. “There’s an immense feeling of pride knowing how many clubs that would have been in the running and to find out you were selected makes everything worth it,” Pines president Liz Diaz said. FV noted that the club’s leaders…
Author: Craig MacKenzie
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…
SOCCER A COMMITTEE meeting this week could decide whether president Adrian Scialpi and head coach Ross Walliss remain at Peninsula Strikers. Scialpi will tell his committee that he needs help if he is to continue. First though the dust must settle from last week’s 2-0 loss to Mooroolbark and relegation from State 2 South-East. In a bitter blow to the local club that has flirted with promotion in most post-pandemic seasons it found itself fighting for and failing to save its league status this year. Last Tuesday night Berwick City provided the neutral venue for the all-important catch-up game and…
SOCCER PENINSULA Strikers and Football Victoria are at loggerheads over the decision to play a catch-up game against Mooroolbark at Jack Thomas Reserve in Berwick on Tuesday night. Strikers’ recent match with the Barkers at Centenary Park had to be abandoned after Max Civil of Strikers suffered a badly broken leg late in the first half with the visitors leading 1-0. The loser of Tuesday’s clash will be relegated from State 2 South-East. A draw will be enough to keep Strikers from the drop but it goes into this season-defining battle without Matt Harrington and without both goalkeepers so as…
SOCCER BAXTER and Rosebud go head to head on Saturday in a local derby that seems certain to relegate the loser. With the bottom two sides in State 4 being relegated Rosebud and Baxter are just a point ahead of second-bottom Monash University. Monash has been resurgent in recent weeks having only lost twice in their last five matches with both losses coming against the league’s top two teams. And while Baxter and Rosebud go toe-to-toe on Saturday Monash is away to already relegated Greater Dandenong and goes into that clash an odds-on favourite. Ashburton is also in the relegation…