THE greatest football club in Australia, certainly one of the most successful, Fish Creek Football Netball Club, has had its clubrooms burnt to the ground this morning, Saturday, November 4.
And with it went 37 years of premiership winning history, the cups, the photos, some of the flags, the memorabilia all gone.
Former Alberton Football League Secretary Stuart Storr described the arson attack on the clubrooms as “absolutely despicable”.
“It seems the incident was an act of arson without a doubt,” said Mr Storr this morning.
“Apparently, they’ve gone in there in the early hours of the morning, ransacked the place for whatever they could get out of it and then when they couldn’t remove something down the stairs, they’ve torched the place.
“It’s an absolute disgrace to think of all that history gone. Unimaginable.”
So hot did the fire burn that very little could be saved and the facility is a total write-off, we're told.
It’s not the first time that either the football-netball clubrooms or the Fish Creek bowls club next door have been targetted by thieves, and both clubs have taken precautions to remove goods of value and upgrade security but the criminals seem undeterred, this time it has resulted in total devastation.
The police arson squad is at the location of what is almost certainly a crime scene.
Club members have already come together to survey the destruction.
“It’s just senseless. Ridiculous. It’s hard to get your head around it,” said co-president Ray Stefani.
“We know what’s happened but the police are here now and we’ll have to let them do their work now.”
“The fire alarm went off at about 5am but by the time the fire brigade got here the bricks were glowing red-hot,” said the other co=president of the club Nick Shaw.
“Nothing upstairs could be saved. It’s a total loss up there. All the cups and all the photos.
“We had one shield up there that would have been over 100 years old and there was a great team photo with all of the members of that team named. Probably our best piece of the club’s history. That’ll be gone. It’s an absolute tragedy.
“We did have some of the flags downstairs. They have been saved, and we had some photos away at the framers getting new frames, but all those old team photos in some great frames, they’ve all gone.
“They’re still pouring some water on it now but it looks like one of the walls will cave in. They’ll have to pull that down today sometime.”
Meeniyan IGA and Bowls Club were also broken into overnight and investigations are continuing.
Anyone with information including dash cam or CCTV contact Wonthaggi Crime Investigation Unit on 5671 4100 or Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000.
