Article on Springvale’s move to Casey from the VFL Rewind Radio Program:(very much from a Springvale perspective)

It’s 20 years this week since Springvale moved to Casey. Was it the right move? Move a VFL club 33km down the road. That was the proposal in 2005.

It was decided that Springvale Football Club one of the stronger clubs of the VFA and VFL at the time who had won 4 premierships in the previous 10 years would move to Casey.

It was touted as transforming the club and moving to a purpose built facility from the picturesque venue at Springvale’s Newcomen Reserve.

Many old Springvale people have described it in subtle terms as being a decision they wish could be reversed.

Unfortunately the Springvale Football Club community didn’t embrace Casey like the club expected which is totally understandable.

As time has rolled on we’ve seen the Scorpions name removed and now wearing Melbourne jumpers.

It’s been sad to see the Scorpions slowly fade away but the club does pay its respects by wearing a Springvale jumper once a year.

It poses the question if we knew how it would play out would the Springvale members and committee of 2005 be as supportive as they were back in 2005?

One thing that I think was lost in the move is the club should have continued to play 2-3 home games at Springvale each year. In hindsight I think that would have changed things a bit.

It’s worth of note that Coburg faced a similar situation. With Highgate the new purpose built facility opening in 2010 the club played 3 games a year at the ground but never made the permanent move. Thankfully for the Coburg fans they moved permanently for every home game back to Coburg City Oval.

Moving forward we can’t change what’s happened all we can do is learn and continue to hope Casey continue to grow as a club with a new supporter base.

We can only hope Casey return to play 1-2 games a year back at Newcomen Reserve one day.

Springvale Scorpions a powerhouse of the VFL.

The memories will live on.

I think I have an old woollen Springvale long sleeved jumper knocking around somewhere. Should never have moved from Newcomen Road but who knows where they'd be playing today after the VFA shut up shop. I used to like how supporters of rival VFL clubs used to coalesce around their local community team on a Sunday afternoon.