SOCCER WHEN it comes to long-range forecasts Baxter captain Izaak Barr doesn’t hold back. The 22-year-old and his teammates have set their sights on winning the State 4 South championship next year. “I was absolutely devastated when we couldn’t play football this year because (with) the team that we had I reckon we could have won the league,” Barr said. “We put some absolute quality into the team with guys coming back from 2019 and a couple of Mornington senior players coming down in Charlie O’Connell and Charlie Parker as well as Robbie O’Toole in centre mid. “And Ben Meiklem…
Author: Craig MacKenzie
SOCCER FOOTBALL Victoria started a trend that looks likely to spread throughout the competitions structure of each state and territory federation. “We were the first state to link the tiers of competition – NPL and non-NPL – which allowed aspirational clubs to rise through the ranks and participate at the highest level,” FV director Sezar Jakupi said. The chair of FV’s football committee is well placed to comment given that he has overseen the review and implementation of a restructure of Victoria’s men’s, women’s, boys’ and girls’ competitions in the past few years. “NSW eventually followed suit and Queensland has…
SOCCER A TV show, a new home ground for 2021, community projects and hospital beds for Fiji … Frankston Pines has been a hive of activity recently. Last week the spotlight fell on the club’s four young Fijian internationals, Pines vice-president Victor Kumar and senior coach Kevin “Squizzy” Taylor who were interviewed by former Socceroos inhouse videographer Ben Coonan. Coonan’s company Side Netting had been contracted by Beyond Productions to work on a show commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation focussing on the lives of Pacific Islanders in Australia. There’s no working title yet for the program which is likely…
SOCCER FOOTBALL Victoria held online meetings two weeks ago with senior and junior licence holders to discuss restructuring the state’s NPL setup. The game’s governing body held a zoom meeting with NPL1 clubs on Monday 28 September, with NPL2 and NPL3 clubs the following evening then met online with junior NPL clubs on Wednesday 30 September. The opening address at the meeting with NPL2 and NPL3 clubs was made by FV director Sezar Jakupi with the federation’s Football Strategy Manager Emilio Amanatidis and NPL Competitions Manager Hakan Dogan participating. At all three meetings clubs were told not to discuss the…
SOCCER ASPENDALE Stingrays are on track to christen their multi-million dollar Aspendale Gardens Sports Ground facility in 2021. The $12.5 million multipurpose complex will allow the State 5 club to reboot its expansion plans and immediately grow its junior program. The Kerr Crescent project is jointly funded by Kingston council ($8.5m) and state government ($4m). For some time now Football Victoria’s 2018 Club of the Year has been forced to curtail training to one session a week for most of its junior teams but the AGSG facility should address that problem. “Our biggest restriction over the past five years has…