Waverley City Soccer Club boosted by significant funding from the Victorian Government  

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Waverley City Soccer Club have received a $125,000 funding boost in the form of new and improved competition grade lighting, through the Victorian Government’s World Game Facilities Fund.

The installation of the state-of-the-art LED lighting at the club’s home ground at Milpera Reserve in Wantirna coincides with recent upgrades currently in progress at the facility, which includes the implementation of a new playing surface, irrigation system, fencing and goals.

Club president Kevin Tan explained to Soccerscene that the range of upgrades are extremely beneficial for the club.

“For us specifically, it’s fantastic that we now have the ability to train and play night games sporadically in the same location,” he said.

“Before this, we had to move our training sessions to a different ground and play games here.

“Being able to train at the ground you play may seem like a small thing but for us it saves us so much money. There are also other benefits such as having the juniors and seniors training together, so the juniors and seniors now see each other and interact – which is great for building a culture in the club.”

The club was formed in 2007 on the back of a group of mates who were looking to play games of football together on the weekends.

Since then, the club has expanded significantly with 172 members, fielding four senior men’s teams, two senior women’s teams and six junior teams.

The local community have played a huge role in the progress of the club and according to Tan, the new upgrades are for all to enjoy.

“In regards to our affiliation with the area, we want be more visible in the community; we can hold events and things like that to get to know our neighbours a bit more,” he said.

“The wider community can obviously use it, importantly it’s for them as well.

“Some of the early feedback we’ve received from members around the community is that they love the ability to walk around Milpera at night now.

“Previously there was no lights at all, so if they want to go for a walk at night in the area while we train, they can, and have, which is really good.”

Lisa Cooper, Mayor and Councillor of Knox City Council, spoke about the funding for the lighting upgrades: “There are so many new teams, and every team needs a suitable space to train and play. The Victorian Government’s World Game Facilities Fund is helping us keep up with growth in the sport locally.

“Training and match standard lighting enables more teams to train and play in the evening but it can be expensive, and the grants are helping us complete the upgrades more quickly than Council could find the budget for on our own.

“The LED lighting is energy-efficient and focuses the light on the pitch so it doesn’t spill into surrounding backyards,” Cooper concluded.

The funding boost has also been complemented by goodwill agreements with the local council, who have cancelled ground hire costs for Waverley City Soccer Club this season.

“Our council has been good with us; they’ve waived fees this season for ground fees,” Tan said.

“We’ve obviously had some financial struggles in the last year with Covid like a lot of clubs, so being able to save money while you can, is amazing for us.

“It is something that has allowed us to stabilise the club.”

In the near future, further upgrades are set for Milpera Reserve, including the introduction of portable change-rooms which will give the club the scope to eventually expand the number of boys’ and girls’ teams.

“It’s part of a 3-year plan which had been previously confirmed, but COVID has messed up the timeline a bit,” Tan said.

“Previously we had a really good chat with our former councillor Jackson Taylor and he was really big on improving our area’s sporting clubs (he eventually became a member of parliament for Bayswater) and really helped a lot with getting our grants sorted for us.

“The lights were meant to be done in the last year, but nothing really got done in 2020 because of the pandemic. I’m now not actually sure of what the rest of the timeline is, but I do believe they (portable change-rooms) are guaranteed for some time in the future, which is definitely exciting for us.”

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Bentleigh Greens and Metricon Bring Local Business Community Together Through Networking Initiative

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Image Credit: One-Nil Media

Bentleigh Greens FC has reinforced its commitment to supporting its community beyond football, partnering with Metricon Homes to host a business networking evening designed to strengthen relationships between local businesses, sponsors and club stakeholders.

 

A unique setting for meaningful connections

Held inside one of Metricon’s display homes, the Bentleigh Greens Business Networking Night welcomed around 60 local business owners, club partners and community leaders for an evening focused on connection, collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Rather than a traditional function space, Metricon opened the doors of one of its display homes, creating a unique networking environment that highlighted how the space could be transformed into a premium venue while providing guests with a relaxed setting to build professional relationships.

The event reflects a growing trend across community football, where clubs are increasingly positioning themselves as platforms for business engagement and local economic development, alongside their role in delivering participation opportunities on the pitch.

Guests also heard from strategic futurist Marcus Barber, who delivered a presentation examining the growing influence of artificial intelligence on modern business. His insights encouraged attendees to consider how emerging technologies are reshaping industries and the importance of preparing for future change.

 

Creating value beyond sponsorship

While commercial outcomes were never the primary objective, the evening was designed to create long-term value by fostering meaningful relationships between businesses connected to the Bentleigh Greens community.

Early feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with several attendees already establishing new contacts and beginning discussions around potential collaborations.

The initiative also highlights Metricon’s broader commitment to supporting local communities beyond residential construction. By partnering with Bentleigh Greens and providing the venue, the company helped facilitate an event that encouraged learning, networking and stronger community connections.

 

Football clubs as community business hubs

For community football clubs, initiatives such as these demonstrate how partnerships can extend beyond traditional sponsorship models. By creating opportunities for local businesses to engage with one another, clubs can strengthen their commercial networks while delivering tangible value to sponsors and the wider community.

As football clubs continue to explore new ways of engaging stakeholders off the field, events like the Bentleigh Greens Business Networking Night illustrate how sport can serve as a catalyst for meaningful business relationships and long-term community growth.

Regional carnival puts Football West’s Country Pathway in Focus

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Image Credit: Football West. Photo by Football West/Oli Hustwick

Football West’s first State Regional Carnival has done what many federation pathway initiatives promise but do not always deliver: it brought regional players into a central high-performance environment and made them visible on equal terms, at least for a weekend.

Almost 160 players from six Football West Regional Academy zones: South West, Goldfields, Great Southern, Mid West/Gascoyne, Pilbara and Kimberley, were brought to the Sam Kerr Football Centre in Queens Park for the three-day event last week. For the governing body, the carnival is now being positioned as a formal part of its talent identification and development pathway.

Football West general manager of football David Lewis said the carnival had highlighted the standard of regional football and the role country programs continue to play in the state game’s future. He described the event as an “important part” of the development pathway and thanked players, staff, volunteers and families who travelled from around WA to attend.

From event success to system performance

Western Australia’s structural constraint is distance. Regional players face layered costs that metropolitan players usually do not: long-haul travel into Perth, additional accommodation, time away from school and work, and repeated trips if selected into subsequent camps. Those costs are not incidental. They influence who can stay in the system.

That is why the next stage of this initiative matters more than the launch optics. If identified players cannot progress because the second and third steps of the pathway carry prohibitive financial or logistical burdens, then early identification becomes a limited intervention.

In governance terms, the carnival has shifted Football West’s accountability point. The federation has now demonstrated it can convene regional talent at scale. The policy obligation is to show what proportion of those players can be retained and advanced across the following 12 to 24 months, and on what support settings.

Infrastructure is in Place; Distribution as the Issue

The use of the Sam Kerr Football Centre means WA now has a purpose-built football base capable of hosting large-format pathway activity in one location. That removes one of the traditional constraints often cited in state development systems. Once infrastructure is available, attention moves to distribution: who accesses the environment, how often, and under what conditions.

If Football West wants this carnival to function as a durable pathway mechanism rather than a showcase event, several design questions become central. What are the progression criteria after carnival selection? What travel and accommodation support is available for players invited back into metro-based programs? How is regional representation balanced across age groups and cohorts? What protections exist to prevent early dropout linked to cost rather than capability?

A broader shift in Australian pathway policy

The Football West carnival also reflects a wider trend in Australian football administration. Federations are increasingly moving from ad hoc regional scouting to more formal, event-based talent aggregation tied to defined development structures. The logic is straightforward: centralised assessment improves comparability, increases selector confidence, and reduces the chance that players are missed because of location alone.

Yet national and state systems alike continue to confront the same bottleneck. Identification has improved faster than inclusion in later stages. The policy challenge is less about finding players than funding continuity for players whose families absorb higher participation burdens.

Football West does not need to prove that regional football has quality; that case has already been made repeatedly by player outcomes and now by event scale. It needs to publish evidence that regional players can convert recognition into progression at rates that are not materially depressed by geography or household income.

That means performance should be measured against more than attendance and event satisfaction. Over time, the federation will likely be judged on transition rates from regional carnival cohorts into advanced programs, retention across seasons, gender balance in progression outcomes, and the level of practical support delivered to remote participants.

For now, the inaugural carnival can be read as a constructive step with genuine strategic value. It created a focal point for regional talent and signalled administrative intent. Whether it becomes consequential policy will depend on what Football West builds around it next: transparent progression settings, repeatable support, and a funding model that does not turn distance into exclusion.

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