Author: Craig MacKenzie

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…

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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…

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SOCCER LANGWARRIN has re-signed Scott Miller as head coach for the 2021 season. It will be the former Fulham and Socceroo assistant’s third year at the helm. “I signed on again because I’ve enjoyed my time there,” Miller said. “I think the club needed a little push in a different direction and that’s what I like to think we’ve provided there. “Obviously this year was out of our control but we’d put together a good squad and were performing well in pre-season and starting to play a game style we wanted to play. “My intention and the coaching staff’s intention…

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SOCCER ANDY Lancaster has made a sudden departure from the Seaford United coaching setup. The club icon emailed president Willie Lyn recently to tell him of his decision to end his coaching partnership with senior player-coach Matt Morris-Thomas. Lancaster had a long and distinguished playing career at North Seaford Reserve. He is a three times senior best and fairest winner and is the club’s second highest scorer behind legendary goal ace David Greening. He also has served on the committee and only stepped down earlier this year from his role as sponsorship coordinator to concentrate on his coaching duties. There…

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SOCCER THE long-awaited announcement of Football Victoria’s refunds policy was made late last week. The policy was prefaced by a reference to a recent Australian Sports Foundation survey on the severe economic impact of the pandemic. It estimated the total financial loss to Australia’s 70,000 community sports clubs to be around $1.6 billion which jeopardises the survival of many. FV hasn’t been immune to the impact of having its competitions disrupted by suspension and eventual cancellation. The federation stood down most of its staff from March and all of its staff from August. It has been formulating a refund policy…

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