Clifton Park receives resounding support

Clifton Park

Members of the Victorian football community have shown incredible support for the much-loved synthetic pitch of Clifton Park in Brunswick, Melbourne.

Ahead of the event on Wednesday night, clubs wanted to make a stand to say that the synthetic surface of Clifton Park deserves to stay, and that plans to replace it with natural grass should be abandoned.

Teams got together on the same pitch for open training sessions, showcasing not only the value it has for coaching, but also for the general community who come along to use it daily.

The evening featured key stakeholders from both club and council level who all shared the same view that synthetic is here to stay, in passionate speeches that really captivated what the get together was all about.

One of the key speakers was Moreland City Councillor Oscar Yildiz, who explained why all synthetic pitches are important for sustaining participation numbers.

“There are schools that use this facility every day – families use it during the day and clubs do so in the evening, you can play here 24/7,” he said.

“If the weather conditions continue like it did this year, and inconsistent weather keeps happening, how are clubs going to survive?

“What does the next 20 years look like for sporting clubs? We’re not against the environment or climate change, but it’s valuing mental health for our kids.

“It’s about supporting all the kids that have come out in support, and then the families as well – this is the community.

“Synthetic pitches need to continue and we need to keep building these facilities, not replacing them with grass.

“In New South Wales, they are actually creating more synthetic-based facilities than Victoria.

“Anyone including councillors or politicians that say we need to look for alternatives haven’t considered the value these facilities provide.”

Oscar Yildiz speaking to attendees

After the event, Sebastian Hassett, Football Victoria’s Head of Government Relations & Facilities, spoke to Soccerscene reiterating the importance of synthetic pitches.

“It was a fantastic turnout, so many clubs and participants have supported a facility we desperately want to save,” he said.

“We know that participation in Moreland is soaring – demand for the game has never been higher and only going to be greater particularly with two World Cups coming up.

“It will be unlike any period in Australian football history, so we need all the facilities we can get.”

 

Hassett explained why synthetic pitches play such a pivotal role in the availability of facilities.

“Our job as a sport is to find these spaces for kids to play,” he said.

“Towards the end of winter, so many facilities around Melbourne are struggling to keep up with the demands of our game.

“There are many teams across heaps of clubs playing on our facilities – that’s where synthetics have a valuable role.”

Part of the proposal for removing synthetic pitches is the harm to health and the environment, but that supposed claim is countered by Hassett, outlining the benefits of synthetics like Clifton Park.

“Synthetics have three times the utilisation of natural grass – that is a fact we want to promote to people,” he said.

“We believe in the new technology that exists, it’s significantly better for the environment than what has previously been available under the old synthetic technology – it’s enhanced dramatically.

“As a result, when we see renewals come in for places like this, it’s going to be better for the environment because there’s no extra maintenance, fertiliser, and wastage of council costs.

“We think synthetic is a win-win for everyone.”

Previous ArticleNext Article

The Spreadsheet Is Dead: Majestri’s Fix for How Clubs Actually Assess Players

If you’ve ever sat through a club’s end-of-season review, you’ll know the drill. A coach pulls out a folder of notes, someone half-remembers what a player was like back in Round 3 and a parent quietly wonders what they actually got for their rego fees beyond a team photo. Football club platform Majestri says it has a fix for that, and it’s built directly into its Player Assessment module.

Why clubs bother assessing players in the first place

According to Majestri, clubs run player assessments for one of three reasons – usually more than one at once. Some are chasing genuine development, using the data to lift the level across their high-performance squads. Others are after a fairer way to pick teams, putting every player on the same measurable scale so selection is based on evidence rather than a coach’s gut feel about who “looks the part.” And for clubs operating under a Football Australia or state federation licence, assessments at set intervals often aren’t optional – they’re a compliance requirement, with the paperwork to prove it when asked.

Whatever the motivation, Majestri’s pitch is the same: don’t let that assessment data die in a spreadsheet on someone’s laptop.

Build your own assessment, your way

There’s no one-size-fits-all template here. The Assessment Designer lets technical directors set their own criteria, sort them into whatever categories their coaching staff already use – think core skills, possession, defending, attacking – and decide what each point on the rating scale actually means. Crucially, every criterion also gets a comment field, because a bare number rarely tells the full story of a player’s development.

The Assessment Module Builder for an NPL Juniors assessment
The Assessment Module Builder, showing an NPL Juniors assessment with a 1-10 rating scale banded from under performing through to excelling and role-specific criteria grouped into core skills, possession, defending and attacking. Source: Majestri.

Build it once and it’s reusable every time that assessment cycle comes around, so every player and every coach – is working off the same yardstick.

Something for the parents to actually take home

One of the more relatable pain points Majestri is targeting: most families never see much tangible return from a season of fees beyond a team photo. Player Assessment addresses that with report cards – colour-coded against the same scale coaches used, grouped by category with averages calculated automatically, and delivered as a PDF or an interactive web page a parent can read without needing a coaching badge themselves.

A player report card for an under-15 player
A report card for an under-15 player, colour-coded from under performing to excelling, with a score for every criterion and a group average across core skills, possession, defending and attacking. Source: Majestri.

 

Turning the numbers into something useful

The real value, though, sits in what Majestri calls the Player Analysis Lab. This is where clubs can plot a player against their team-mates or an entire age group across two categories at once, spotting clusters and outliers at a glance. Every score gets read against the group average – so a “7” actually means something in context – and clubs can report at the broad category level or drill into individual fields underneath. The results can be filtered down and exported for selection meetings or grading purposes.

The Player Analysis Lab comparing players in an under-15 and under-16 squad
The Player Analysis Lab comparing seven players across under-15 and under-16 squads, with a scatter plot, a sortable table of scores against the player average, and controls for choosing which categories and fields to report on. Source: Majestri.

The admin side nobody enjoys, made easier

Beyond the flashy analytics, there’s a practical layer built for the volunteers actually running the process:

  • Sweep monitoring – a quick view of which assessments are done and which are still outstanding, organised into defined assessment periods so progress can be tracked against peers.
  • Individual development plans – every player gets a personalised plan, and clubs can group common improvement areas to run cross-team training sessions that lift the whole club rather than just one squad.
  • Access control – coaches and technical staff can only see assessments for the teams they’re responsible for, and completed assessments are only visible to people linked to that player’s registration.
“Hard numbers to draw on when you review coaching staff and curriculum – and something tangible for the players and parents who pay the fees.” – Majestri

 

The bigger picture

Majestri frames all of this as sitting on top of the club’s own data – assessment results live on each player’s profile inside the platform rather than in a spreadsheet that walks out the door when a technical director moves on. For committees, it also means hard numbers to lean on when reviewing coaching staff or curriculum, rather than relying on anecdote.

It’s a fairly clear read on where club administration software is heading: less about digitising paperwork for its own sake, and more about making the data clubs already collect actually work for player development, team selection and compliance  without adding to the workload of the volunteers who run the show.

For more information on Majestri’s Player Assessment module, visit majestri.com.au/player-assessment.

Football Has the Audience. Does It Have the Commercial Strategy?

Soccerscene has launched Survey 4: Commercial Confidence in Football, calling on clubs, sponsors, governing bodies, commercial leaders and football industry professionals to assess whether the game is making the most of its enormous commercial potential.

Football has the audience, participation base and community reach to be one of Australia’s most powerful commercial platforms. But does the industry have the commercial strategy, professionalism and infrastructure required to turn that potential into sustainable growth?

That is the question at the centre of Soccerscene’s latest industry research.

The survey examines how attractive grassroots football is to potential commercial partners, what industry professionals believe is limiting football’s commercial potential, and whether clubs are presenting themselves professionally enough to sponsors.

It also explores what sponsors value most when engaging with football – from community reach and participation scale to brand alignment, values and purpose – as well as whether improved facilities could directly contribute to stronger sponsorship outcomes.

Is football fully capitalising on its commercial opportunity?

Football continues to provide brands with access to highly engaged communities across grassroots, community and elite environments. Yet the commercial landscape remains fragmented, with clubs operating with vastly different levels of resources, capability, governance, media infrastructure and commercial expertise.

Soccerscene’s survey is designed to capture the industry’s perspective on where the opportunities exist – and where football may be leaving commercial value on the table.

The research will look specifically at four key areas:

  • Commercial attractiveness – How attractive is grassroots football as a commercial partnership?
  • Commercial barriers – What is holding football back from reaching its full commercial potential?
  • Club professionalism – Are clubs presenting themselves effectively and professionally to sponsors?
  • Sponsor value – What are sponsors really looking for when they invest in football?

The survey also asks whether better facilities would have a direct impact on sponsorship outcomes, highlighting the potential relationship between infrastructure, commercial presentation and investment.

Have your say

Soccerscene is encouraging football clubs, sponsors, commercial professionals, governing bodies, administrators, media professionals and industry stakeholders to participate.

The findings will contribute to Soccerscene’s ongoing program of industry research, designed to provide a clearer picture of the challenges and opportunities facing football and the organisations operating within it.

Take the Survey: Commercial Confidence in Football

Complete the Commercial Confidence in Football Survey here

The survey will close on 30 August 2026 at midnight, with responses received before the deadline included in the final analysis.

Football has the audience. The question is whether it has the commercial strategy to match.

Most Popular Topics

Editor Picks

Send this to a friend