STEAMIN' AND A'ROLLIN' WITH CASEY

[Demonland 73,140]

STEAMIN' AND A'ROLLIN' WITH CASEY by KC from Casey

The worst kept secret of 2008 was unveiled with the following announcement on the Casey Scorpions Football Club website: -

"The Scorpions have just signed a 10 year agreement with The Melbourne Football Club and are excited about building one of the best alignments in the VFL."

The Casey Scorpions have been based at Casey Fields for only a short time – since 2006 when the 70-hectare site in Cranbourne East that includes 17 sports grounds opened. This development in Melbourne's south east happens to be part of one of Australia's fastest growing population centres. If you take the area extending from Dandenong, through the Casey municipality and across to the Shire of Cardinia which is centred on Pakenham in the east, you have a region that rivals western Sydney and the Gold Coast among the largest growth areas in the country. These regions now have another thing in common – all will soon have an AFL presence.

While the Casey Scorpions is a new name in Australia's most popular sport, the club boasts a rich and successful 100-year history from the days when it began as the Springvale Football Club at a place on the bullock run from Melbourne to Dandenong.

The name "Springvale" is said to be derived from the permanent natural springs in the area that provided water supplies for stock and travellers. There are records of a hotel along that route in the 1850's but development in the town really started to take pace when a primary school was built in 1867. Springvale Shire was proclaimed in 1873 and the first subdivision of land occurred close by a railway stopping point on the way to Gippsland at Springvale Road in 1886. The Wesleyan Church opened near the station in 1887, and the Sandown Park racecourse opened in 1891.

The football club was formed just after the turn of century in the Springvale Hotel and began its existence in the Mulgrave Football Association wearing a red and white-hooped guernsey and playing on a ground behind the Springvale Post Office in the main street of town. There are different versions as to the founding date with some sources saying it was formed in 1903 while another puts it at 1906. Whatever the case, the club moved to the Berwick District Football Association in 1911 and it won its first premiership in its debut season in the competition.

As the town grew, it was necessary to find a new ground and a group of local businessmen purchased land in Newcomen Road through the Springvale Recreation Ground Trust and the club moved there in 1915. Both the town and football club continued to flourish and Springvale established itself as the premier football team in the district with premierships in 1920, 1921, 1930, 1932 and 1933. The last of those premierships was won in the Dandenong District Football Association, an achievement repeated on the eve of the Second World War in 1939. In the interim, the club's relationship with the Springvale RSL gained it access to extra land and with support of local council the current grandstand was built on it in 1934.

When the war was over, the town of Springvale again flourished with many young families settling in large number of War Service homes that were built there. The club was now competing in the Caulfield Oakleigh District Football League and it took out the 1956 premiership after beating Oakleigh Districts in a grand final replay after the first final ended in a draw. Following that success the club moved to the Federal Football League in 1957 and soon became a powerhouse of the competition winning four flags in a row between 1960 and 1963 and another in 1965.

The City of Springvale had been proclaimed on 22 April 1961 and the area was growing in leaps and bounds as Melbourne's urban sprawl stretched onwards and outwards. The football club won more premierships in 1975 and 1976 and the area gained an upsurge in prestige when its football club moved across to the Victorian Football Association at the end of 1981 after dominating the Federal League for 25 years, a period in which it missed out on the finals only twice.

It didn't take long for Springvale, now known as the Scorpions, and wearing red and blue colours with a white SFC monogram, to prove a force in the VFA’s Second Division. In only its second year it defeated one of the traditional long serving clubs of the competition in Brunswick to win the 1983 premiership thereby gaining entry into the First Division.

The club embarked on a youth policy and developed many young players from the local south eastern suburbs around Springvale and it paid off when it recruited Phil Maylin from Footscray as captain/coach in 1987. He took the club to its first ever VFA First Division Premiership with a win over the powerful Port Melbourne. Springvale remained a strength in the VFA competition and was a regular finals contender over the next decade and a half reaching its height in the latter half of the 1990's when the side had developed into an outstanding combination that won four flags in five years.

The Scorpions were the dominant side of 1995 winning all but one game and beating Sandringham comfortably in both the second semi final (by 45 points) and the grand final (by 43 points). They also snared the reserves premiership. Springvale made it back to back flags in 1996 beating Frankston in the grand final but missed out in 1997 losing an elimination final to Sandringham.

The oldest competition in the country was falling on troubled times and, after it was taken over by the AFL, it was rebranded the Victorian Football League from 1997 and Springvale was able to repeat its back to back double in 1998 and 1999 to finish the millennium as the most outstanding football team in that competition.

The new century brought new challenges to the Springvale Football Club with the introduction of AFL seconds teams into the competition in 2000. Some AFL clubs joined VFL clubs while others stood alone and Springvale took the latter option. The Scorpions managed to scrape into the finals but were eliminated in the first week by Geelong.

The following year saw the club enter into a union with St. Kilda and the team finished in third place after a solid season. The Scorpions disappointed in 2002 to miss out on the finals but came back to finals football in 2003 before falling away badly for a wooden spoon in 2004 and another lowly finish in 2005. With the facilities at Springvale well below the standard required to house a team at this level of football, the move was made to the new development at Cranbourne East in the relatively new municipality of Casey which had been formed when Victoria's local government system was overhauled in 1994 with the merger of the City of Berwick with the majority of the City of Cranbourne and a small part of the City of Knox.

For many centuries before European settlement, the Casey district formed part of the territory of the Bunurong people and included the boundary with the Wurundjeri people to the north. Early European settlement occurred in the late 1830's, at much the same time as development began in Melbourne itself. Pastoral activities remained the focus of the district's activity for many years, with the first community societies and associations being established in 1850's. District Road Boards, formed by landholders and householders, were proclaimed in Cranbourne in 1860 and in Berwick two years later. The first Cranbourne and Berwick Shires were created in 1868, two months apart. These areas came into their own in the 1970's and 1980's and they now form part of one of the country's key growth areas with hundreds of new households formed on a monthly basis.

The Casey Scorpions moved into their new home at Casey Fields in 2006 their official guernsey was now navy blue with a white diamond and red Scorpion monogram, Casey lettering in red, navy blue back with white patch and navy blue numbers. The socks, navy blue with red and white tops, the shorts navy blue. By 2007, they were ready to play finals again but lost their elimination final game against Port Melbourne. In 2008, they went one better with a narrow win in the elimination final against Northern Bullants before going down to Werribee in the First Semi Final. By that time, the club’s eight-year alignment with St Kilda had come to an end.

The past few seasons have seen Casey striving to develop a young side that will grow within the established culture of success achieved over the long and proud history of the organisation dating back to its spiritual roots in Springvale at the turn of the last century.

The list of leading players from 2008 starts with a young skipper aged just 23 years:-

52 games Kyle Matthews (2008 - 16)
45 James Taylor (20)
41 Alex Silvagni (18)
39 James Wall (22)
37 Stefan Garrubba (19)
37 Steven O'Bryan (16)
33 Ben Fraser (5)
35 Chris Dunne (21)
28 Adam Parker (17)
18 Evan Panozza (12)

The club has done well in recruiting a number of graduates from the TAC Cup team Gippsland Power Under 18 team in recent years including Dunne, Fraser, Patrick McGrath, O'Bryan and Beau Vernon. The club has also recruited from the Eastern Ranges Under 18’s with Andrew Campbell, Ryan Creed, Panozza, Parker and Daniel Unsworth. Leading players include Matthews, a livewire rover, Wall who was 2008 Gardner-Clark Medallist (best and fairest winner), a ruckman/defender who has been on the lists of St. Kilda and Sydney Swans, Garrubba formerly of Sydney via the Dandenong Stingrays and Silvagni, a 2008 draft hopeful and 192cm defender who is related to Carlton's footballing dynasty Serge and Stephen.

At this year's club best and fairest night, Casey general manager Brian Woodman foreshadowed a new relationship with the Melbourne Football Club when he said. "In the coming years we hope to forge a strong relationship with the Gippsland Power, the Casey Scorpions and the Melbourne Football Club.''

Since then, Chris Connolly, Melbourne's General Manager, Football Operations addressed a meeting of new Scorpion recruits and Casey appointed Peter German as its new coach with a role that also involves development work with the Melbourne Football Club.

"It's great to be able to grab an opportunity like this and I've got no doubt that what's going to be set up between Melbourne and Casey will be a long-term thing.

"It's probably a dual role in that I'll be working for both the Melbourne footy club and the Casey Scorpions, " German said.

There are rumours that former Demon Nathan Brown will be crossing from West Adelaide to join the Scorpions for 2009 and the Casey website has another story about ace WAFL premiership player and former Sandringham star Mark Haynes joining the club from Subiaco as an assistant coach. There is an oustide chance that he may have a playing role as well. In a further twist of fate the Scorpions kick off their 2009 season with an intriguing clash against Sandringham at Trevor Barker Beach Oval in a game that will see a battle among the old alignments.

The Demons have also been working painstakingly with the City of Casey on putting together an agreement that would that would lay the foundation for the club's long term presence within one of the nation's fasted growing regions, a move that was a precursor to revealing officially the new alignment between Melbourne and the Casey Scorpions.

And since navy blue and red predominate the colours of both clubs, it's not hard to envision a successful blending of the two clubs. All that was needed to get it off the ground was the announcement.