Pitch for super soccer

By Gavin Staindl
CASEY could soon see the emergence of its first Victorian Premier League soccer team.
Berwick City Soccer Club president Dave Mackie proposed an idea to merge five local teams into one “superclub” that would push into the state’s top senior competition.
If the radical move is successful it will bring Berwick City together with the likes of local rivals Casey Comets, Doveton and Endeavour United under the one banner.
“It’s an idea that we should bring teams together to try to promote one team up into State Division One and into the Victorian Premier League,” Mackie said.
“We have one of the biggest junior competitions … (and) not having a VPL side running out of this area is a bit of an issue,” Mackie said.
Juniors raised and developed in Casey are heading elsewhere for higher quality competition, leaving local teams starved of talent while the remaining crop of players are constantly traded among local teams.
“Everyone is eating out of same pie,” Mackie said.
“We’re all pinching players from each other. We develop juniors from our own clubs and these VPL clubs come along and get those players going to play for them.”
Mackie’s long-standing idea was given new life when he heard of the City of Casey’s proposal to build a Soccer Centre of Excellence at Casey Fields – a home ground that would be ideal to host a Premier League club.
“This centre is the perfect logical step to get something together,” Mackie said.
The $20 million project was initially designed with the intention of hosting the new A-League franchise, Melbourne Heart, but according to Mackie it could also be used as a base for the mooted superclub.
Mackie understands that combining the teams would mean sacrificing club identities, but he believes the merger would benefit everyone.
“History is a great thing but you have got to move on,” he said.
“If we could, I would move tomorrow. For soccer to move forward in the area of the Southern Zone then something dramatic has to happen.”
Endeavour United coach Norm Maitland has expressed a similar concern, believing the culture of each club would be a major concern for merging teams.
“You have got to get over the culture of the club,” Maitland said.
“Find out what the secret of success was behind the A-League and the formula would work, because they took an ethnic-based national competition and had Croatians, Serbians, Portuguese and Greeks all supporting the same team.
“(The new entity) would be very easy to be a part of. We were founded as a Timorese club, but we only have three playing who are Timorese.”