Football Australia’s (FA) Club Changer Star’s and yearly awards aren’t just handed to clubs with trophy cabinets swollen with silverware. They are reserved for clubs dedicated to making this great sport better.
At the end of every year, FA selects one club from across Australia to be the Club Changer Club of the Year and our very own Sunbury United FC was the 2024 recipient because of their heavy investment in the development of their women and girls' programs.
Sunbury is a thriving club with over 450 participants, but club president Sherridan Long explained to Football Victoria that due to a lack of changeroom facilities, they have begun turning away participants.
“Our current participants were sent expression of interest forms in November last year... we filled any vacant spots after that and are now turning people away,” Sherridan explained.
"We have participants of all genders and abilities playing here, from four years old to 100,” Long told us. “But we just don't have the space to welcome anymore into the club.”
“Our current participants were sent expression of interest forms in November last year... we filled any vacant spots after that and are now turning people away.
"While we have the ability to use three pitches here, the lack of changerooms means we have juniors coming and going from matches and training in their kits or changing in the playground public toilet block.”
Sherridan and her team are committed to creating a space where everyone in the community can come and feel welcome, but their current facilities at Langama Park are not making that easy.
Langama Park is located in Sunbury, an hour drive northwest of Melbourne, and is the home of the Sunbury Cricket Club, Sunbury Tigers Rugby League Club, the Sunbury United Sport Club and Bistro and Sunbury United FC.
Langama Park faces a unique challenge, as one of the few sporting facilities in Victoria shared by two winter sport clubs. This forces the football club to operate entirely out of a single changeroom, built in the 1970s and designed for men, while accommodating both home and away teams.
"There is very little interaction between the senior men and senior women sides as we need to have them training and playing on separate days so they can us the changerooms,” she said.
“We do everything we can to build a proud community spirit. But it is incredibly difficult when we don't have a space to truly make our own and invite our people to come and learn more about the club.”
The club has no space to display trophies or memorabilia, no space for families to shelter from the elements, and no room for club events like awards nights and community gatherings.
“We just don’t have space to function how we would like to, our historical jerseys are in boxes under our physio table, and our juniors are getting changed in the rain.”
The multiple tenants and lack of secure clubroom facilities have raised another issue for the club – carpark safety. Both Sunbury United FC and the rugby club have over 450 participants. Throw in a bar and bistro that operates seven days a week and a carpark that lacks suitable lighting, and things can start to get dangerous.
The club’s top priorities for funding are new clubroom facilities that can accommodate changerooms for all ages and genders while also hosting club events, along with upgraded lighting to ensure the safety of everyone coming to and leaving the club.
"The dream is to have a facility that is only one sport through the winter. Somewhere with enough space and enough pitches for us to welcome whoever wants to play to the club.
“We want a single location where we can continue to grow our identity and our DNA at Sunbury United, not at pop-up location. A place we can have a social room that overlooks the facility and where people can gather,” she added.
“And somewhere that we can welcome our community and hold events and dinners where people feel comfortable and feel safe.
“That’s what we want for our club.”