SOCCER
Members past and present will flock to the Latrobe Valley from all across the country this weekend to reflect on and celebrate 60 years of the Monash Soccer Club.
Kicking off a festival of weekend-long celebrations on Friday night will be a function at the club rooms and few are more excited than president Peter Dixon.
“We haven’t seen some people for a very long time,” Dixon said.
“One past member is coming from Queensland and two from Perth.
“So we’ll have a bit of a get together, have a few beers, watch the footy and reminisce as you do. It should be great.”
On Saturday night a dinner will be held at the Yallourn Bowling Club with about 100 expected to attend.
The celebrations will wrap on Sunday morning with a return to the club rooms for a barbecue breakfast and friendly game against a team from Bayswater.
Dixon, who has served as president at Monash for 16 of the last 18 years, said the family culture at the club had contributed to its longevity.
“We’ve been around for 60 years and we like to think we’re pretty welcoming,” he said.
“On the park we’re pretty hard and not mucking around but we believe we’re a fairly family-oriented club.”
Monash have won just one senior title in their 60 years – the Battle of Britain Cup in 1983 – which Dixon said was “a bit of a disappointment”.
“In the last 10 years we’ve made the Battle of Britain Cup [final] twice and failed,” he said.
“I believe we should have won the league that year too but things transpired and we didn’t.”
However the Monash women’s side, which formed in 2009, has enjoyed its fair share of success with three cups and three league titles.
Dixon said the men’s side “started off like a house on fire” in season 2018 but have since been “knocked on the head by injuries”.
The club has called Torres Street in Newborough home since moving from a neighbouring field in 2010.
“We’ve moved here and put our own stamp on the thing and cleaned the place up a bit and that has been a positive,” Dixon said.
“We can hold functions now. We’ve got a proper bar, a proper canteen and women’s change rooms.”
Next on the agenda for Monash is the installation of lighting for the pitch which Dixon said would be a huge boost for the club’s junior sides.
“I played when I was a kid here with Newborough and to play at night in this bowl is just fantastic,” he said.
“We’d like to get back to that, we haven’t had night games here for 20 years.
“Being a World Cup year generally we have a bit of a spike in numbers and at the moment we’re pretty happy with where we’re at.”
