Casey-Dandenong soccer clubs ready to unite behind local push for an A-League license

MATT WINDLEY AND DAVID DAVUTOVIC,
Herald SunNovember 17, 2016 9:28pmSubscriber only

THE six biggest soccer clubs in the Casey-Dandenong region say they would unite behind a local push for an A-League license.The Casey and Greater Dandenong councils also endorse a south-east A-League bid and both have already identified appropriate locations - Casey Fields and Dandenong Showgrounds.

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Former Springvale City and Socceroos star Vince Grella headlines an impressive south-east production line that includes current players Scott McDonald, Eugene Galekovic, Curtis Good and Jackson Irvine.With a rapidly growing population that already numbers 1.2 million, the south-east is a perfect home for a professional club according to locals.


Each of Dandenong City, Dandenong Thunder, Springvale White Eagles, South Springvale, Berwick City and Casey Comets ardently support an A-League team being placed on their doorstep.“I’ve spoken to a clot of people in the community and there’s a real hunger for soccer. It’s taking off in the south-east and there’s no AFL here,” Greater Dandenong mayor Jim Memeti said.

“We’ve got the right spot for it - the Showgrounds, which is only 500 metres from Dandenong Station. It’s a big parcel of land, 40 acres, perfect for a boutique stadium.“Dandenong is the most multicultural council in Victoria and they would back an A-League club.”Casey is the eighth-fastest growing municipality in Australia with a population of approximately 290,000 that is projected to grow to 459,000 by 2036.Dandenong has roughly 155,000 residents and will push 200,000 in 15 years.This year there were 2370 registered players in Casey - only Monash and Boroondara had more in Victoria - while Greater Dandenong had 1946.“If a super club was formed representing the entire region, it would be a raging success,” Dandenong City president Tony Dorotic said.South Springvale vice president Omi Emmanouilidis said such a team could match Melbourne City’s crowds straight away.Casey Comets president Dawn Stone said the club would also attract fans from areas like Monash, Frankston, the Mornington Peninsula and Gippsland.

A-League expansion is a hot topic, with at least two new teams to be added soon.South Melbourne has formalised a bid, Geelong is in the mix, but Berwick City president Joe Di Iorio said the south-east is another Western Sydney Wanderers in waiting.Thunder president Ferman Zekirija said a bid from the region “should have happened a long time ago”, while White Eagles vice-president Milos Sekulovski said a club in the south-east would be a valuable addition to the country’s youth development stocks.Casey Mayor Sam Aziz said Casey Fields would be a perfect training base for an A-League club.

In my opinion a team from South East Melbourne works.

Just some numbers in terms of LGA's and their population.

Shire of Mornington Peninsula: 144,685
City of Frankston: 135,243
City of Casey: 292,211
City of Greater Dandenong: 146,000
Shire of Cardinia: 74,176
City of Knox:149,340
City of Monash: 187,286
City of Kingston: 147,214
City of Glen Eira: 131,013
Combined Population = 1,407,168

Map for reference -


Map for growth until 2036 - 

Basketball and Soccer are kings of the South East, it's probably the part of the city were AFL is weakest.

 So many talented players in both sports coming out from there but it is way too far away for either the Vuck or City to adequately tap into. If they can actually get a stadium pledge going, then they jump right to the front of the queue for me.

Wow. This is EXACTLY what I didn't even dare to hope for. The councils behind it and ready to back a venue, the local NPL clubs uniting for the cause, this can be huge.

I have nothing to add from the article, so many compelling points.

South Melbourne President might pay out on this bid too.

Could work..unfortunately no stadium out that way so they would have to work that out, details are a bit vague but seems like they are in the very early stages of planning.provided this is legitimate..this is where the heart license should have gone 8 years ago. In fact if these guys were ready now they would be guaranteed a spot immediately.

Who doesn't want to be in the A-League, lost count now. With the amount of people putting there hand up we could get to 18 or 20 without a 2nd Nz side. 

In the expansion thread I've posted kits for 7 clubs now excluding the 2 Adelaide bids, NQ, Canberra, this one, Perth 2.

Should just include them all in a second division.

I really hope the FFA don't end up binning all these secondary bids that don't make the but instead sets up a timetable for expansion for these clubs with a possible 2nd tier... I guess I can wake up now.

Not being from the area what would the new team be called?
Surely they can't go with South East Something? 
Would it be Mornington, Casey, Dandenong, or is their some other locality name that unites the South East? 

Apex fc, every member gets a free carjacking on the way there.

Apex FC

we should start planning for the second division

Club to be sponsored by Uber and will be operating a radical park-and-ride system on match-day...  Simply drop your car off outside the stadium and APEX will take it away for you, then call Uber for your ride home after the match.

This is promising, the South East of Melbourne is the closest region Victoria has to creating it's on WSW.
The whole region has basically been neglected since the AFL ditched Waverley stadium 16 years ago.
Even though AFL is big out this area, the round ball has made huge inroads here since '06. A lot of local aussie rules sides are really struggling around the Dandenong region and junior sides are dwindling compared to 10 years ago.
Since then, the growth out that way has been phenomenal with improved links to the Mornington peninsula also.

I do have some queries though.
I've briefly been to the Dandenong showgrounds and it certainly seems smaller than 40 acres, google maps suggests similar.
It's about a 1.5km walk from Dandy station not 400m.
There isn't much parking out there, certainly not enough to withstand an influx of thousands of fans on matchday.

Is any other Melbournians from the area that could have some input on this?

Bit of journalistic licence there - showgrounds is actually 1.6km from the station.

Station is in the bottom right corner.

You've also got the White Star Dandenong Soccer Club at the bottom part of the showground complex.

But if the council is behind it, great piece of land close to public transport and the major roads.

On face value it makes a lot of sense. 

In that case I suppose if we leave our cars at South Melbourne they'll be used as getaway vehicles for robberies on Chinese restaurants? 

Too topical.... Obscure even.... Id have to google search to get the punchline... And i suspect even then it still wouldnt be lol funny.

It's not meant to be funny. Hellas supporters would get it.

Yarraman station is about 600m northwest.

What's APEX? 

Article comments on Dandenong, hence my correction of distance.
Gang of youths operating in Melbourne at the moment that are involved in carjackings, forced home entries, robbery and brawls.

Yup thats the biggest problem. Theres so many options and theyve got to find a way to keep those who dont get in happy and keep the energy.  Theyve turned away alot of good people before who've given up their own push. 

Maybe theyd have to have a clear set of criteria to meet and maybe name the next 4 teams saying soemthing like "these two you get in now, the next two you have a few years from then to get yourself sorted but keep the other teams on notice you arent part of those 4. I really dont know what the best way is to keep them all happy. A second div isnt the right idea. 

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Sweet,  RBB could use some decent competition

Especially now the NT has gone gay.

Well, for one, that's not gentrification.

Definition of gentrification is an influx of higher income people moving in to a lower socioeconomic region and renovating property, building new infrastructure and driving property values up therefore making it harder for the traditional residents out of the area as they can no longer afford to live there.

So if you're claiming people are leaving the area due to the rise in violence and crime, that ain't gentrification.

Urban blight would be a more apt description.

Meanwhile, South Melbourne has the history to the club that goes against it. This would be a new club with no history and the ability to build it. That's the FFA's view and they've stuck to it in their short history.

It's also interesting to note that an issue behind recently settled migrants is a disconnect from community. They feel unwanted and shunned by the community they're trying to integrate in to and this can lead to anger and frustration, and in cases around North Melbourne and Dandenong, increases in crime. Funny that a proactive response from the police in the North Melbourne area, in connection with local community groups and some soccer clubs, saw a creation of a new competition aimed at the recently migrated which saw great participation, an increase in relationship between the police and the migrant community and even one of the teams travelling the world for competition.

Not too dissimilar to migrants during the war era when they came here and were similarly shunned and created their own community through football clubs.

But a South-Eastern Melbourne team doesn't exclude anyone, Much like WSW it's open for ANYONE in the regions discussed above. 
South Melbourne won't attract 'everyone' and their catchment isn't that.
SEM will have great support 

as long as their active fans are called apex let them in.

In all honesty this isn't a bad idea, I absolutely despise that part of Melbourne, but it's something that could be looked at for the future, they wouldn't be ready for a long while, so let's see if dandy city, white eagles, thunder can actually co exist in their own leagues without killing eachother first before anything happens here.

I'm sure next week the article promoting a potential Melbourne bid from the outer northern suburbs to be based out of a redeveloped Epping stadium is coming.

A south east team will basically exclude anyone north or west of the cbd, nobody but the people that live out that way is goimg to such a dump to watch football, so the local numbers will need to stack up, unlike west Sydney which was the hotbed of many NSL clubs, the south east has never had any form of top flight football. So it's no Wanderers of Melbourne that's for sure....BUT could work.

This would be great. I think it's the best option for vic. There are too many teams too many codes the are in the city and inner burbs