Rutherglen Football Club seeks council support for grant to upgrade women’s change rooms

With all eyes on women’s soccer as the AFLW draft will take place today, one club in Rutherglen, in Victoria’s north-east, says it has to offer with “outdated” change rooms where players “shower in their clothes”.  

The Murray Felines Football Club, which is created up of about 100 players from throughout the location, plays its home video games at the local Barkly Park where there are no closed doors on showers in equally change rooms.

There are also no limitations or doorways separating each and every shower, and folks who enter the rooms can see straight into the shower spaces.

Felines player Mietta Habets explained the rooms have been extremely aged and not acceptable for the club’s player foundation.

“You will find a person lavatory. The door will not lock so you have to have a friend to hold the door, basically,” she explained.

“The showers are facing the doorway to the clubrooms, so there is no privacy.”

Club committee member Cooper Gabriel claimed the situation was a “joke”.

“They [the players] have to travel a lengthy length to get to a toilet facility that accommodates the requirements that they have during a match,” she reported.

“Everybody is mindful that it is a dilemma — men and gals, boys and ladies.”

Club pushing for council help

The Murray Felines want Indigo Shire Council to submit a funding software for a point out governing administration grant that would aid upgrade the transform rooms, with only local government areas (LGAs) and alpine vacation resort boards (ARBs) in a position to utilize.

The grant software, which closes on July 12, provides money of up to $1 million for each LGA or ARB to development woman-pleasant sporting facilities.

Murray Felines committee member Paul Somerville said the rooms were outdated, and the club had been speaking about the funding subject with council for about 6 months.

“They fundamentally have tried out to force us down this 2nd grasp-program system, but really that’s just a way to kick the can down the road for yet another two or 3 decades. 

“We do have a grasp approach. We do have a idea system. We do have a practical format for what the modify rooms could look like.

“The Indigo Shire [Council] could get on board promptly and make issues come about if they really required to.”

Ms Habets said the deficiency of progress on the issue was aggravating.

“There’s lots of guidance for women in sport and precisely girls’ soccer, in particular in this region,” she mentioned.

“It is aggravating for the girls who participate in, for the mother and father, for the coaches.

Council responds

Indigo Shire Council stated it acknowledged the require to upgrade the alter home amenities at Barkly Park and it was dedicated to doing the job with the park’s committee of management and its user teams.

A spokesperson reported council had received suggestions from the Local Sports activities Infrastructure Fund informing that a new funding application for Barkly Park updates would be unsuccessful owing to funding from the past spherical already being awarded to produce a web page master system. 

“Council worked closely with the Barkly Park committee of management to protected the master-program funding by way of the 2021/22 funding round,” they reported.

“Structure operate could be carried ahead to aid long term programs at the time the acceptable challenge scoping and preparing [master plan] has been accomplished.”

The spokesperson mentioned the grasp-planning method was expected to be finalised by December 2022.