By Lance Jenkinson
Pakenham United is left to ponder what might have been after Covid-19 wiped out the whole Football Victoria State League season.
United was scheduled to play its final round game against Aspendale last Saturday, but it marked the 22nd abandoned match to put a harsh exclamation point on a miserable winter.
Pakenham United president Chris Gomez was understandably flat when reflecting on the season that never was.
“It’s rather upsetting that we’re not playing at the minute,” he said.
“It’s a shame that we haven’t had a season.”
There was an air of expectation for Pakenham United heading into 2020.
Gomez ushered in a new era with a host of changes on the committee.
There was a belief that men’s coach Peter Natsis and women’s coach Kat Carmody could lead United to on-field success.
“We do look back on what we missed out on,” Gomez said.
“We’ve gone through a lot of changes over the past 12 to 14 months, had a new president come in, had a new coach come in, and a lot of changes behind the scenes.
“We were building towards what I think would’ve been a very good season.
“Now it’s a case of trying to keep those people in the place and move on to next season.”
Moving on is not going to be as simple as hitting the reset button for Pakenham United.
Momentum stemming from the club’s positive lead up to the 2020 season has all but evaporated and the impending off-season is filled with uncertainties brought about by the pandemic.
Timelines on a season start date are blurry and a key issue from last season is yet to be resolved.
Gomez is waiting on Football Victoria to make a call on how much of its league fees are returned from this lost year.
Only then can Pakenham United, a not-for-profit club, return some of its fees back to its members.
“The problem we’ve got at the moment with Football Victoria is we don’t know what refund we’re getting,” Gomez said.
“Everybody has paid full fees for this season, the senior players have paid $540 to play, and at the minute we can’t give anything back to them because we don’t know what Football Victoria is going to give back to us.”
Gomez explained some of the costs that a local FV club can incur, which will be taken into account when issuing refunds to members.
“The fees that the players have paid, a lot of that has been paid out by the club on equipment, ground rental, electricity – things like that,” Gomez said.
“We rent all our kitchen equipment, which we’re still paying for now because we can’t get into the kitchen to send it back.
“A match ball costs us about $130 for one ball and we have to have six of them per team.
“Then you’ve got training tops and goal nets – it’s all expense.
“When I work out the fees at the beginning of the season, we break everything down and we spread it between all the players, from the junior players to the senior players.
“Without knowing what Football Victoria is going to give back, we don’t know what we can start charging for next season, so we’re stuck in a hard place.”
Despite all the challenges, Pakenham United plans to forge ahead and build for a bright future.
Gomez excitedly talks about bolstering the club’s female ranks, starting with a planned under-13 girls team next season.
Though Gomez concedes the next 12 months are going to be “very hard for us”.
“I think people will be struggling with money and some people might say ‘I’ve paid all my fees and seen nothing for it’, so are they going to be as committed next season to start paying?” he said.
“That’s the worry I’ve got about the season.
“Whether we’ve got one team or 20 teams, we’ll still be there next season.”
