It’s a Friday afternoon, in mid-February, and the Demons are going through their final preparations for the NAB Cup with an Intra Club scratch match, an event where only the most ardent of supporters are normally trickled around the sidelines.
In the lead-up to the game the club switchboard, inbox and Facebook page are all getting the same questions. Some wonder “what are we doing playing in Cranbourne?”, some want to know “where is Casey Fields?” and others even ask “why aren’t we playing in Melbourne where we belong?”.
All are valid questions, for loyal members deserve to understand why their team is playing at Casey Fields in Cranbourne, 51 kilometres south east of the MCG and AAMI Park.
On a muggy afternoon more than 1,500 people walked through the gates for the scratch match, a game where the scoreboard was not even keeping score.
The crowd tells a narrative as to why the Melbourne Football Club signed a 30-year agreement with the City of Casey to train at Casey Fields and run community programs within its boundaries (these include suburbs such as Cranbourne, Narre Warren and Berwick).
A batch of loyal fans are packed into the small grandstand 30 minutes before the start of the game, many of whom have journeyed from Melbourne.
Colin Sylvia joins in the festivities at the Casey Demons Christmas Party
On the opposite wing is a jumping castle packed with kids - some wearing hand-me-down jumpers, some wearing shiny new Auskick guernseys. Many kids are still wearing their school uniforms and are watching AFL players in action for the first time, having been exposed to the Club’s community programs, including Read Like a Demon and Digital Demons.
In the function room upstairs is a group of local coaches who are taking part in the Club’s coach mentor program, and receiving coaching tips from assistant coaches and players.
The Casey Demons supporter group started off as a small committee three years ago, and has grown into a small army - who on this day are working tirelessly behind the barbie.
Next to the Club’s membership marquee is a tent for the South East Juniors Football League, promoting a junior football competition that last year had 4,453 participants playing in 196 junior teams across 24 clubs.
Four years ago, our club wasn’t talking to any of these people.
When Jim Stynes and his board took power in 2008, they not only inherited a team that sat afoot the premiership ladder, they inherited a club that had the lowest supporter base in the AFL.
The City of Casey is home to 260,000 - a number that grows by an average of 120 heads per week. Some of those people are being born into the area, some have moved into the area from both nearby and abroad.
As a rapidly growing region, the City of Casey wanted an elite sporting club to connect with its grass roots community. The Melbourne Football Club needed to cultivate a new generation of supporters, and secure additional training facilities.
It was a perfect match, but both parties knew an agreement needed some substance. The sheer length of the 30-year partnership is a symbol of that, but more meaningful is the breadth of relationships being developed across grass roots sport, schools, local business and government.
“Over three decades the Melbourne Football Club will become a permanently entrenched part of our community; a good neighbour and a great friend for everyone who lives in Casey, as well as those people who will live here in the future,” explained City of Casey Mayor Cr Sam Aziz.
“That’s a great thing to have.”
The partnership is beginning to reap benefits that extend well beyond the City of Casey boundaries.
Read Like a Demon - a literacy program that has received national recognition - spawned out of a partnership with the Casey-Cardinia Library Corporation. This year it becomes a truly national program, with players using Skype to conduct reading activities with children throughout Victoria and Australia. Primary students in remote areas of the Northern Territory are able to take part in the program, and a school in China has even shown interest in becoming involved.
“You only need to look at the photos of the smiling primary school children who’ve gotten the chance to read books with their footy heroes in the Read Like a Demon program, to immediately feel the impact of this in Casey,” says Cr Aziz of the literacy program.
Partnerships with junior football clubs and Auskick centres that have developed in the City of Casey will become the Melbourne Football Club’s template for building similar relationships with local football leagues and Auskick centres across Victoria.
The seeds being planted and the relationships being built in the City of Casey today will give a whole new generation a team to call its own.
As part of the celebrations for City of Casey Round when Melbourne takes on Brisbane in Round One, the Club has given away 500 family passes to City of Casey residents, while 100 junior footballers will take part in a pre-match clinic on the MCG and 50 kids from the City of Casey will take to the field in a Guard of Honour before the game.
For more information on the Club’s partnership with the City of Casey visit: www.melbournefc.com.au/casey