Peter Filopoulos: There are opportunities in times of crisis

The Victorian Labor Party has confirmed $500,000 in 2026-27 State Budget funding to upgrade facilities at Mayer Park in Thornbury, with Northcote MP Kat Theophanous joining Darebin United juniors for a training session earlier this month to mark the commitment. The funding follows a public campaign by Football Victoria highlighting the ground’s deteriorating conditions, and lands within an escalating advocacy effort by the sport ahead of the next Victorian election.

The money will go toward upgrading the playing surface and planning a new pavilion at a ground that has received no infrastructure investment in over a decade, according to Football Victoria, despite participation at Darebin United more than quadrupling in that time. The club fielded five teams in 2021. It now fields more than 20, with over 300 players including more than 130 children under 12 and over 70 female players.

That growth has collided directly with the limits of the ground itself. Mayer Park has no drainage and no synthetic surface, and Football Victoria reported that Darebin United lost 23 training sessions in 2024 alone due to unsafe, waterlogged conditions. Club President Michael Slaughter described a pitch that was uneven and at times dangerous, particularly for junior and female players.

“I have been there for six years, and the club is at a stage now that we need something new,” Slaughter said in comments to Football Victoria earlier this year. “There’s only so many training sessions you can cancel, and then there’s the cost of finding alternative grounds indoors or outdoors, which isn’t ideal.”

A campaign that found its target

Football Victoria published a dedicated article in March calling on Darebin City Council to urgently prioritise redevelopment of Mayer Park, explicitly linking the club’s case to its broader Level the Playing Field campaign. Three months later, the funding arrived, not from council, but from the state government, attached to the local member’s name and delivered with a photo opportunity on the training pitch.

A club’s need becomes visible through governing body advocacy, a local member adopts the cause, and the funding is announced as a direct response to community need rather than as a line item in a broader budget process. Theophanous’s own account of the announcement makes the local framing explicit, describing the investment alongside free public transport, school upgrades and registration discounts as part of what she has billed as “easier, safer and more affordable” support for Northcote.

“Community sporting clubs bring Northcote locals together,” Theophanous said in her budget statement. “Through our Get Active Kids voucher program, we’re making sure the cost of fees and equipment doesn’t keep kids from playing the sport they love. And we’re also investing to make local clubs even stronger.”

Earlier this year, Avondale FC secured $500,000 for lighting at Avenger Park and Hume City FC received $250,000 for upgrades at Nasiol Stadium, both delivered through the same budget cycle and both paired with local member announcements. Mayer Park follows the same pipeline, a state government commitment, a local seat, a community club whose growth has outpaced its facilities, and a governing body using the win as evidence in a larger campaign.

The equity dimension

What distinguishes the Mayer Park case is the explicit role gender and accessibility played in Football Victoria’s advocacy. The governing body noted that unsafe pitch conditions were particularly dangerous for junior and female players, and highlighted that Darebin United maintains 40% female representation on its committee with seven female coaches, alongside its status as one of Darebin’s first 2-Star Club Changer accredited clubs, a Football Victoria program recognising clubs that actively remove barriers to female participation.

A club building one of the more credible female participation pathways in the municipality was, until this announcement, doing so on a ground its own administrators described as unsafe. Infrastructure investment of this kind does not simply improve playing conditions. It determines whether programs explicitly designed to grow women’s and girls’ football can function as intended, or whether they remain constrained by the same ageing facilities that have shaped community football for a decade.

What it means for the campaign ahead

Football Victoria has framed the Mayer Park outcome as one data point within its Level the Playing Field campaign, which continues to call for more equitable government investment in football relative to other codes. The organisation has indicated further football-related announcements are expected from the 2026-27 Victorian State Budget, with the upcoming state election positioned as the decisive moment for the sport’s broader infrastructure future.

For Slaughter, the immediate outcome is more concrete. “The funding is extremely important,” he said. “It allows us to deliver our football program and to grow. This will give them a place to come, to have fun and to enjoy their soccer”.

Whether that template, governing body advocacy, local political adoption, budget announcement, repeats consistently enough to address the scale of Victoria’s grassroots facilities gap remains the open question Football Victoria’s campaign is designed to keep in front of both major parties as the election approaches.