Member For Oatley Visits Former Club

State Member for Oatley Mark Coure has used a visit to his boyhood football club to call on all levels of government to work with clubs and associations to improve facilities for the future needs of football in his electoral district.

Renown Park, Oatley RSL Football Club’s home ground, is a typical example of a suburban field with a long history of flagging under the high traffic of users; “It’s been an ongoing issue with the park here. I was on Kogarah Council for eight years and we were able to get it re-surfaced a number of times and we had a dredging issue that was rectified through Sydney Water.” Mr Coure said.

Celebrating its 40th year, Oatley RSL Football Club has 650 players using an amenities block nearly as old as the club itself, in urgent need of an upgrade; “Effectively our change room becomes our store room and this tiny little canteen so what we’d like to do is make it longer.” Club President Peter Jones said.

“Councils and levels of Government and various sporting groups need to work together to ensure that amenities blocks like this are fixed and rectified and we’re doing that”, Mr Coure said.

With demand for playing fields outstripping supply right across the St George Association district, Mr Coure believes he has a way of easing the pressure, “I think it’s a great idea to maximise the parks that some of the schools have got and I’m in the process of trying to liaise with some of our local schools to see what we can do to make that happen.”

As Mr Coure watched the under 6 grading session at Renown Park, the State Liberal MP could see first-hand the rapid growth of football in his electorate.

Record registrations at Oatley RSL Football Club reflect a state-wide trend and Football NSW is also working with all levels of government, football clubs and associations to help meet the Future Needs of Football.

-By Mark Chester