1997 - MOTHER CLUB DIES

Old foes from Chelsea and Carrum reminisce over past encounters.
L to R: Mal Lord, Ron Stubbs, Noel Hopgood, Roy Dore, Ray Stuart and Tommy Williams.

MOTHER CLUB DIES!

It was very difficult to accept that the club that had given Chelsea Football Club a start back in 1911 was gone, finished, departed, deceased or whatever you’d like to call it. Sure the office bearers were putting on a brave face, but everyone knew it was over. Carrum Football Club was finished.

Most Peninsula followers were caught in a state of disbelief by the news, even though it had been in the wind for some time. At Chelsea the mood was less forgiving. Chelsea and Carrum had shared a strong rivalry over so many years. There were vivid memories of clashes past which had served to create a strong bond between the clubs. It was unthinkable that this association had ended.
At Chelsea the knives were out. Who was responsible? How could they let it happen? There was a manageable debt of about $15,000. Why didn’t they address the problem? No players, they say—if you haven’t got them, you do something about it, etc., etc., They were, of course addressing their anger towards the existing administrators who were, in fact, the very ones who had tried to tough it out and revive the club.
The problems didn’t so much lie with these people, as those who had refused to play a role to ensure the club’s survival. The club had been allowed it to gradually enter decline over several years.
The irony of all of this is the very fact that those in the know were aware that the Seagulls were, at this very moment in time, facing a financial crisis far worse than the one that had sunk the Carrum Football Club. ‘Cast ye not the first stone!’
The loss of the Lions was a wake up call for the administrators of clubs throughout the area. The message was clear—pay due diligence to your operations or suffer the consequences.
Disintegration is available to anyone—all you have to do is become inefficient, careless or lazy!

THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXTRACT FROM LOCAL PAPER by ADAM COOPER

Carrum footy club set to pull out of MPNFL Officials look at forming sports club. 
 
CARRUM Football Club again appears  set to withdraw from this year’s MPNFL season, throwing the future of  the 85-year-old club into uncertainty. But the club will start negotiations with sub-groups of the Carrum-Patterson Lakes RSL Club which was sold in November in an attempt to start a local sports club.

Carrum failed to field a senior, reserves or under-18 side last year for the first time in the club’s long history. Carrum president Ian Ellis last week confirmed the club was unlikely to field any senior sides this year, simply due to lack of players.
“We’ve just had no interest from players or even any of the former players and there’s just been no response, so at the moment it’s looking a lot like it was last year.” he said. “We advertised during the finals series last year in the Football Record, but there’s just been no response.” Mr Ellis said there had been “no real point” in advertising for coaching positions because of the player shortage.

However the club has not yet given up all hope of fielding sides in the future, preferring to call its absence from this year’s  competition a “recess.” “Carrum would start working to field an under-18 side and support its four junior teams in the hope on nurturing future players,” Mr Ellis said. “We are still inquiring into the availability of players, so we have not given up hope of that,” he said. “If we are able to get a (under-18) side, we might be able to attract some senior players back. That’s the last straw, because you’ve got to have kids coming through the junior age groups.” In the meantime, Carrum will continue negotiations with the RSL Club’s golf, dart and angling sub-groups to possibly create a local sports club. An RSL spokesman could not be contacted.

Carrum’s absence from this year’s competition will again create a nine-team  MPNFL northern division. Mr Ellis attributed Carrum’s decline to its relegation to northern division and said players did not want to continue in that division.
“However the league had been supportive of Carrum’s plight,” he said.

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