The future of Murchison-Toolamba Football Netball Club will be thrust in front of members to discuss on Thursday night.
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A host of variables will be tabled, such as whether the club pursues the opportunity of joining a prospective second Murray Football Netball League competition, shifts in committee roles, the continual push to upgrade facilities and more.
The sit-down was called by outgoing president Craig Thompson, who announced he would step down to a committee position with a move overseas culminating in a few weeks’ time.
“We’re trying to let people know about our intentions to find a league that will allow us to have a full complement of juniors playing with the club each Saturday,” Thompson said.
“We’ve built our junior numbers up; this year we’ve got two under-14 sides, under-10s and under-9s and we’re just trying to make sure that we explore every avenue that’s out there for 2024 and beyond.”
Thompson said the first whispers of a league switch materialised in 2018, with the club voting in the positive to join a competition ran by the Murray league.
The noise grew in volume to a point where all things seemed set to go, but fell over due to a dearth of numbers from other clubs, with Thompson stating the Hoppers then worked with Kyabram District League (KDL) to facilitate an under-14 competition, albeit with seven clubs.
This time around, it doesn’t want to miss the boat.
“When we found out there was discussions happened again I wanted to let our members know that we’re interested in speaking to those clubs to find out about 2024,” he said.
“Getting from members and players their feedback about it, letting people know why we’re considering such a move.
“The end result will be permission from members to consider discussions.”
There’s also set to be a major shake up internally at the Hoppers.
Thompson’s departure comes amid a raft of other members moving on, with surety front of mind when bringing the committee together for talks.
“We’re trying to get some main roles filled, there’s a bit of a changing of the guard with myself moving on and a couple of other key members moving on to other things,” he said.
“We’re a great committee with great community support, so just opening that conversation with people and trying to form a new committee ahead of the AGM in November.”
If Murchison-Toolamba was to enter a fresh Murray league-ran competition, the club is well positioned to field under-14s and under-17s according to Thompson.
There is apprehension to push under-14s up into under-18s in the KDL, whereas a new league opportunity would provide grounds to send top age under-18s to play at Tatura.
And the Murchison-Toolamba and Tatura partnership is a growing one.
Thompson said the club was currently in talks with Tatura to explore the possibility of the Bulldogs hosting this year’s KDL elimination final which was slated to be held at Murchison, due to the venue’s facilities currently not being up to standard.
“We’re currently talking to Tatura about holding our elimination final at Tatura,” he said.
“It’s got to a point where our senior side are considering training in Shepparton throughout the week and just playing home games at Murch because the facilities aren’t up to it.
“It’s another thing we’ll be talking about when we have our meeting, just trying to lay it all out.”
At tomorrow night’s meeting, the formation of a sub-committee solely focused on lobbying for upgrades at Murchison Recreation Reserve will be discussed.
Earlier this year, Thompson relayed the club’s intent to explore leaving Murchison after Greater Shepparton City Council refused to upgrade the run-down facilities.
It’s been a prickly thorn in the Hoppers’ side for some time now, but as Thompson indicated, it’s “not all doom and gloom”.
Murchison-Toolamba’s senior and reserve football sides are mixing it at the top of the ladder, while the club’s netball sides have been competitive all season, leaving the outgoing president to swell with pride at what has been achieved in the past decade.
“Things are looking really good on and off the field, it’s just a couple of things as far as administration that we need to make sure we don’t slip back into old habits,” Thompson said.
“I’m immensely proud of what the people around me and I have been able to do over the last 10-year journey now.
“Really building on that local connection; we’ve really tried to get Murch-Toolamba to be the first choice of people who live in our area and, by doing that, success comes afterwards.
“That Toolamba people now call Murch their club and obviously Murch people have continued to do so, that’s been the great part of it all.
“We’re aiming to have people playing for our club from when they start in Auskick right through until they retire. Hopefully, through what we do we can get kids on to a higher level.”
As far as Thompson’s involvement is concerned, he will carry on as a proud Hopper.
He is set to relocate with his family to the United Arab Emirates shortly, still continuing as a committee member who will contribute remotely from the other side of the globe.
He first entered Murchison-Toolamba as a player in 2012, joined the committee in 2014 and became president two years later and, in that time, has relished being one of the driving forces behind helping the Hoppers come on in leaps and bounds.
“Outside of the new building, I couldn’t have wished for anything more to have been done thus far,” he said.
“It was glaringly obvious to me that there were lots of things I could lead to make the place better and I’d like to think I’ve done a lot of those.
“Handing it over in a nice spot here, it’s been a nice slow build, financially in a really good spot and there’s no reason why after last year’s attempt at a premiership and this year’s attempt, that we can’t attempt to have on-field success year in, year out.”
Senior Sports Journalist