Tara Murray
Five soccer clubs from Melbourne’s north-west are among clubs interested in being part of a national second division [NSD] competition.
The Association of Australian Football Clubs held a meeting last week with representatives from 60 clubs, including Hume City, Green Gully, Melbourne Knights, Altona Magic and Caroline Springs George Cross, about forming the new competition.
Clubs expressed strong interest in progressing to the next steps of implementation, including forming a partner group which would finalise a design, modelling and criteria to form the basis of consultation with football’s stakeholder groups and to submit to the FFA Board.
It’s hoped the new competition will kick off in 2022, with promotion and relegation between the A-League, the new competition and the National Premier League among the goals.
Hume City manager Nick Hegarty said his club wanted to reach the highest level that they could.
“Obviously there is a long way to go in everything,” he said. “As soon as something opens up and suits the club and has the potential to allow the club to develop and grow, I’m sure we want to be part of it.”
Hegarty said there weren’t the boundaries and restrictions to travelling like there once was.
“We know we will have a lot of work to do in different areas, but we are in a good position already with our ground and facilities and the culture.
“We want to not only push into the second division, but push into the higher division [A-League] as soon as possible.”
“We want to be at the forefront of everything good at football, not in just Victoria, in Australia too.”
Altona Magic executive board member Marjan Tasevski said his club wanted to give local talented kids the best opportunities.
The club board will meet later this week to finalise their position.
“We have been part of these meetings,” he said.
“We’re very interested at this stage of being part of the next stage. Our club has been ambitious and has been for a while.
“We want to represent Hobsons Bay at the highest level in Australia.”
Mr Tasevski said they had been putting in the hard work on and off the field and were in the process of finishing a facility upgrade plan.
Mr Tasevski said there was no reason why the club couldn’t dream of rising to the A-League competition.
“There’s some good people at the club,” he said.
“Why can’t we have that dream for the Hobsons Bay area? We’re a work in progress, but we’re prepared to go to that next level.”
