Front from left: Mossgiel Park Junior Football Club players Stacey and Jayden, and back, Alex, Jay, Cade, Brendan, Wadan, Jake, Josh, Mitchell and Kunar, with Nick Constance and Dave Allen.By Marc McGowan
MOSSGIEL Park Junior Football Club is appealing to the local community for help with a major player shortage threatening the club’s future.
New president Phillip Arnold, vice-president Nick Constance and committee member Ann Constance have declared their passion for the club, which they dubbed a “second home”.
Mossgiel Park is expecting to field just five teams this season after having as many as 10 in past years, and the trio is getting on the front foot before the situation becomes more dire.
“Financially, we are stable. We have a long list of sponsors. The only problem we have is a lack of children,” Mr Constance said.
“We don’t want to happen what happened to Silverton. Silverton is gone.
“They were there last year, the year before, the last five to 10 years, (but) they’re gone. They’re out of business.”
Mr Constance believes the player exodus could be linked to an infamous incident in August 2004 at an under-nine fun day at the club.
Two of the club’s former coaches were involved in a major scuffle on the day which resulted in both receiving jail time.
“We suffered badly. For the next year or so people said, ‘Gee, we’re not going to take our kids down there’,” Mr Constance said.
“What they don’t understand is that it was just two people who aren’t down there any more.”
Mr Arnold was eager to highlight Mossgiel Park’s football philosophy, which he hopes will attract local children to the club.
“We’re all about giving kids a go. We have a club policy that kids on the bench get at least three quarters and we rotate them,” he said.
“That’s a policy that all of the coaches will strictly adhere to because we just want all the kids to get a game.”
The Mossgiel Park stalwarts are doing all they can to keep the club afloat and hope the community will come along for the ride.
“We’re going to sell Mossgiel Park and we’re going to sell it everywhere we can, so that anywhere those people around here are going, bang, there’s Mossgiel Park,” Mr Constance said.
“We’re not looking at if this doesn’t work.
“We’re looking at what we’re doing now then we’ll look at the next scenario in three weeks’ time and then we’ll get to the next one.
“We’re not going to stop at just one. We’re going to keep going and we’ll get together and get more ideas.”
Mrs Constance said despite the club not having a win-at-all-costs attitude, it had proven its ability to nurture future stars of the game.
She said the success of Daniel Nicholls, a former Mossgiel Park junior who is on the rookie list at Collingwood, proved it didn’t matter what team a player was in.
“Some of the teams Daniel played in weren’t the best. If you’re good enough, you’ll get there,” she said.
