Welcome to Eynesbury Eagles Football Netball Club – where membership is growing, but training conditions are “neglected”.
Club president Heath Pritchard says players train on open parkland with no lighting or goalposts, which limits training times to once a day between 4.30pm and 5.30pm.
Home ground matches are played 12 kilometres away, at Rockbank, and equipment is stored at people’s homes because there aren’t any storage facilities on site.
“It’s just frustrating,” Mr Pritchard says.
“We see new facilities getting built at other places … but we seem to be neglected out here.
“We’re doing our bit as a community to encourage sports, but this makes it very hard.”
There are currently 80 AusKick players, with numbers steadily growing. And, at this rate, there won’t be enough nights in the week to keep using the park, Mr Pritchard says.
“It also means the park, which should be for residents to sit around and enjoy, is being used as a footy training ground.”
Mr Pritchard says the youngsters want their own training and home grounds. And, while the quality of coaching or playing isn’t diminished because of the lack of facilities, residents are also becoming frustrated.
“With all of the promises so far, nothing has come to fruition,” he said.
Melton council recreation and youth manager Adrian Burns said there were two ovals and a pavilion, with tennis courts planned for the township as part of the Eynesbury masterplan, which will be delivered by the developer.
“Development of recreation facilities at Eynesbury is the responsibility of the developer of the estate – as per the development agreement, facilities will be provided when set numbers of lots have been sold,” Mr Burns said.
“The development has yet to reach these trigger points for the provision of facilities,” he added.
Mr Burns said only “passive” park and street lighting was available at the park, with recreational activities allocated space in a public play area. The park, he said, was a playground, not an oval.
