A move of independence
By Nick Creely (Pakenham Gazette)
The newly rebranded South East Melbourne Netball Club took a brave risk at independence, and it’s paying off.
Branching away from their former home, Narre South, where they were aligned with the junior football club, Vice President (Admin) Narelle Jenkins and the rest of the club’s committee decided to make a change ahead of this season, moving the entire club to Carlisle Park in Cranbourne North.
The club was initially founded in 2012 as the Narre South Lions, but will now be known as South East Melbourne, a decision Jenkins said comes down to what’s right for the increase in netball’s profile in the region.
“We never had courts of our own; down there at Narre South, they have the oval, but no courts, so from 2012, we have always acquired different courts around the area for our members,” she said.
“We have 36 registered playing teams, which is substantial, and we would be the largest social junior netball club in the region; and we’re now independent.
“It means we’ve broken away from the football club; in the football realm, netball is a lower priority; we could use the club rooms but it wasn’t really ours, but now we’re set up at Carlisle Park and the council has given that to us.
“We have 220 families that young kids can call home; we do all our training and can accommodate everyone.”
Jenkins said the move was first put on the table during a meeting mid-last year between the netball and football clubs, with the angst between the two forcing them to make a decision.
“The football club came to us, and they put it on the table that we don’t have a lot to do with each other, and that there was no benefits for us, which is true; we took that to our members and spoke about it, and our members wanted to break away,” she said.
She believes it is the right call and should set a precedence for similar junior netball clubs to follow suit.
“We want other clubs to perhaps look at us as being independent, and follow certain things about what we’ve done,” she said.
“Netball has grown substantially in the last few years, so many girls are just loving it, so it made sense.”