Tara Murray
Parkside and VU Western Spurs football clubs will now play under the one banner going forward.
The two clubs which share the Mervyn Hughes Oval, announced last week that the clubs had officially become one club, catering for both male and female footballers.
Parkside previously had just senior and reserves men’s teams, along with Auskick, while the Spurs have women’s and women’s masters sides.
The men’s sides will remain the Magpies, while the women’s sides will be known as the Parkside Spurs.
Spurs president Ash Block said for the club they felt this was the best decision for the long term future of the club.
“It’s really good and it’s really exciting,” she said.
“We have been sharing a facility with Parkside since 2015-16. It will make life a lot simpler being one club and providing a pathway for everyone.”
Block said with the rise of female football and a lot of club’s having both male and female programs, it made sense to join forces now.
She said that Parkside had been nothing but supportive of the club.
One thing the Spurs were keen on was to continue to keep the Spurs name.
The club, which was formed in 1993 by Debbie Lee, was originally the St Albans Spurs, before becoming the VU Western Spurs.
Block said there was a lot of history with the Spurs name including several players from the club being drafted.
She said the club, which has moved to the WRFL this season, was looking forward to the new challenge. The club is still after players for both their women’s and masters teams.
Parkside’s Robbie Pappal said they were just as excited to have the two clubs join forces.
“It is really good,” he said. “ You see in the AFL and the VFL landscape now, they’ve got both men’s and women’s.
“We thought this was the best way forward to grow the club and get the community together.
“They’re a co-tenant and a strong football club and we decided to join forces.”
Pappal said with the location of the club it was hard to attract new players. He said while they had wanted to build their own program back up, after having one years ago, he said this was the best option.
Pappal said building that bond with the Spurs would help them provide for female footballers.
The club also has a relationship with the Ascot Vale junior club, meaning that those juniors, both boys and girls, have a pathway now.
Several of the Spurs players helped out for the Magpies first practice match of the year.
