Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
PRESIDENT Scott Jones described the mood in the Campbells Creek clubrooms as similar to that of a funeral on Sunday after the committee had taken the gut-wrenching decision to send the club into recess this year.
However, Jones and the Creekers are determined to ensure that the year in hiatus won't be the end of the club with more than 150 years of history and that every endeavour will be taken to have Campbells Creek competing again in the Maryborough-Castlemaine District league in 2022.
Campbells Creek has returned from recess (2007) before and Jones believes the club can do so again, with the resurrection work to start immediately.
"All of us at the club wanted to go ahead this year, there's no argument about that," Jones said on Monday.
"But we only had 31 registered footballers, so to start the season and then if we got into a situation where we had to pull out, say four rounds in, you can't come back from that.
"However, if we go into recess it gives us 12 months to rebuild, get into a far better spot financially than we are now and hit the ground running again.
"We'll work hard over the next 12 months that we're not participating and 2022 will be a much brighter prospect than 2021."
We'll work hard over the next 12 months that we're not participating and 2022 will be a much brighter prospect than 2021
- Scott Jones - Campbells Creek president
The Magpies announced their decision to go into recess via a statement on their Facebook page on Sunday afternoon.
The decision followed a motion put forward at Sunday's meeting "that CCFNC go into recess for season 2021 with the intent to strengthen our financial and human resources position to a point of sustainability to enable the club to compete in 2022 and beyond."
The motion was passed unanimously by the club's 13 committee members, with the club describing the decision as one that was made with "profound disappointment."
"It was a very sombre mood after the meeting... it almost felt a bit like being at a funeral," Jones said.
"The executive put a motion forward, it got voted on and that was the outcome.
"It was a really tough day for the club."
Following last year's cancelled season due to the coronavirus pandemic, the club was concerned at its annual general meeting in late November by a decrease in player numbers, no trainers and minimal sponsorship.
The club twice in January issued calls for the need for more players, but as of Sunday when the call was made to go into recess, it had just 31 registered players, with its football preference to field only a reserves team, plus its under-11.5 junior side in a league that also has seniors, under-17.5 and under-14.5 competitions.
On the netball court, the Creekers would have been able to field teams in five of the seven divisions - under-13, 15, 17, C and B Grade.
As well as the shortage of players, Jones says one of the factors in the club's decision was the financial implication of not being able to fill a full quota of football and netball teams.
"There was no way we were going to be able to field two teams (seniors and reserves) and it was made very clear to us that the league would make us play senior football," Jones said.
"To be fair, we probably only had a handful of senior footballers and most of the guys weren't prepared to play senior football when they are only reserves standard.
"So if we were to have only gone ahead this year with just our under-11.5 team and netball sides, it would have financially ruined the club because we'd get fined for not having senior football or A Grade netball teams, as well as a reserves side.
"It would have been around $6000 in fines for the year, and with only 31 players, if we were to forfeit a game I believe it to be around a $1600 fine every time you forfeit, so financially, it's not viable for the club to go ahead this year with that sort of risk hanging over its head."
Jones will stay on as president for this year and will waste no time in putting in the groundwork to get the club back on field next season - just as it did in 2008 after spending 2007 in recess.
"We'll have a committee meeting in the next week and nut out a solid plan of what we want to achieve while we're not playing," Jones said.
"A lot of that will be based around fundraising and putting money into the account so that when it comes to 2022, we don't want to be left on the bottom again.
"We want to be able to get ourselves up and compete, which financially we haven't been able to do for the past three years.
"We want to come back next year and win games and be competitive... we want to turn Campbells Creek back into a club where people want to be."
We want to come back next year and win games and be competitive... we want to turn Campbells Creek back into a club where people want to be
- Scott Jones - Campbells Creek president
Jones said the players - footballers and netballers - who had committed to the Creekers this year would play, should they choose to, elsewhere on permit before being re-registered with the club next season.
"Everyone we've spoken to is shattered they can't play for Creek this year, but has assured us they will be back for 2022, and that's the same with the netballers," Jones said.
"Our senior coach Brent Bogaski is prepared to do whatever it takes this year to get us up and going for 2022 and as far as we're concerned, unless things change on his behalf, he's the man for us next year and beyond.
"The club has come back from this situation before and we've already spoken to a few of the committee people involved last time the club went into recess about their strategies to come back from it.
"We've done it before - we can do it again. There's 157 years of history at the Creek and we're not just going to let it stop.
"This is not the end."
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark bendigoadvertiser.com.au/
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/BgoAddy
- Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/bendigoadvertiser/
- Follow us on Google News