Taking care of business at Fish Creek footy club

THERE’S absolutely no doubting the benefits of country football and netball clubs to their local communities.

Whether it’s developing good citizenship or taking care of mental health, there’s more to it than just providing a sporting outlet.

And at Fish Creek Football Netball Club they are well aware of the vital role that local business sponsors play in putting teams on the ground and the court each year, and helping to develop facilities.

Recently the club honoured one of its long-term gold sponsors, Gendore Tractors and Farm Machinery, with a unique piece of Kangaroos’ memorabilia; a Fish Creek FNC jumper signed by many of the members of the three-peat premiership team of 2017, 2018, and 2019.

“We promised Derek Genoni (Managing Director of Gendore Tractors), that if he continued on with his sponsorship of the club we would organise a framed jumper for him,” said FCFNC President Ray Stefani recently.

“It’s been a few years coming, with COVID intervening, but he’s now got it hanging up in their office in Leongatha.”

Ray said the acknowledgement of sponsorship underscored what it takes to run a successful football netball club these days, in a climate of rising costs, including one cost that really stands out for clubs these days, the cost of insurance.

“We run a social rooms on our own land at Fishy and being a licensed club we’ve seen the cost of insurance rise from $2400-a-year a few years ago to $4000 and then $8500 and it looks like being over $10,000 just for the public liability and general insurance.

“A big contributing factor to that has been the rise and rise in the number of break-ins and thefts at local sporting clubs. To give you an indication, the Fish Creek Bowling Club, which we share the reserve with, has been robbed three times since Christmas and I’m aware of Mirboo North and other clubs that have been hit.

“It’s not so much what they take, in some cases it’s only a few slabs of beer, but it’s the damage they cause along the way. We’ve got our CCTV surveillance, but it doesn’t always seem to deter them.”

Local footy clubs are also coming under the scrutiny of the taxation department as their turnover tops $250,000, another issue for clubs as they prepare for the season ahead.